The History of the Nobel Library

 

The will of Alfred Nobel was made public on 2 January, 1897. In it, he stipulated that the majority of his fortune would be used to fund to prizes in five different fields – physiology or medicine, physics, chemistry, literature and peace. Regarding the literature prize, he wrote that it should be awarded ‘to the person who, within the field of literature, has produced the most outstanding work in an ideal direction’. He appointed the ‘Academy in Stockholm’, generally interpreted as the Swedish Academy, as the prize-giving body. After some hesitation, the Academy decided to accept the task. As a result, a Nobel Institute was founded with the task of providing all the literature required for the work on awarding the Nobel Prize in Literature. The Institute was therefore to include a large library comprising the most important contemporary publications of works in world literature. The then Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy, Carl David af Wirsén, expressed the hope of thus creating ‘a literary laboratory’.

The task of planning the library was assigned to the professor of literature Karl Warburg. In November 1900, Warburg informed the Academy that he had found a ten-room apartment suitable for the purposes of a library in the building on Norra Bantorget known as Vasaborgen, designed by Ferdinand Boberg. It had a ‘free and pleasant location: spacious premises; abundant natural light for both reading rooms and book halls; a thoroughly solid building, capable of bearing any weight’. The premises were considered capable of accommodating around 85,000 volumes, along with an ‘excellent reading room’ facing a garden terrace, a couple of workrooms and a caretaker’s residence. The next step was to acquire the books themselves. Ironically, the Swedish Academy had, some ten years earlier, disposed of almost its entire book collection, donating it to universities and colleges throughout the country. As such, there was an urgent need not only to acquire newly published literature but also to replenish the collection of older works.

Karl Warburg therefore decided to embark on a book hunt across the European continent. He contacted and visited numerous publishers and booksellers, which meant that the library was nevertheless well-stocked upon its inauguration on 14 November, 1901. The fundamental idea behind the library was then, as it is now, to assist the Swedish Academy by building up a representative collection of contemporary fiction, along with books on literary and linguistic theory. Around thirty different language areas were represented. Also recognised from the very beginning was the importance of maintaining a large collection of periodicals, in order to keep abreast of developments in the literary world. It was therefore recommended that the library maintain ‘as rich a collection as possible of significant critical, literary, and linguistic journals’.

While the library was primarily targeted towards Academy members and Nobel Institute officials, intellectual exchange was naturally considered valuable among wider circles. It was decided that, to the extent resources allowed, the library would also ‘provide other scholars and writers with the opportunity to study foreign literature’. Access was also later granted to an ‘educated general public’.

A mere five years after its inception, the collection of fiction works had grown to nearly 15,000 volumes, and after two decades the library had outgrown its premises on Norra Bantorget. In October 1921, the Nobel Library moved to its current location in the Stock Exchange Building in Stockholm’s Old Town, where the collections have continued to grow over the years. Although, since 1901, the primary focus has always been the Nobel Prize, numerous other literary prizes have also been established. The collection is not therefore strictly limited to the requirements of the work carried out in connection with the Nobel Prize.

The collections, which in recent years have increased by around 2,000 titles annually, are currently estimated to include over 200,000 volumes. Among the special collections are those of Professor Henrik Schück and the critic Klara Johanson.

Photos: Rickard L Eriksson