Since the first award in 1901 year, conferment of the Nobel Prizes, including the Nobel Prize in Literature, has engendered criticism and controversies.Nobel population 1901–50: anatomy of a scientific elite. 5 November 2001. physicsworld.com. Retrieved 20 March 2011."A Nobel calling: 100 years of controversy ", The Independent, 14 October 2005. After his death in 1896, the will of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel established that an annual prize be awarded for service to humanity in the fields of physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, and peace. Similarly, the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, first awarded in 1969 year, is awarded along with the Nobel Prizes. Nobel sought to reward "those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind".

From 1901 to 1912, the committee's work reflected an interpretation of the "ideal direction" stated in Nobel's will as "a lofty and sound idealism", which caused Leo Tolstoy, Henrik Ibsen, Mark Twain and Émile Zola to be rejected. Sweden's historic antipathy towards Russia was cited as the reason neither Tolstoy nor Anton Chekhov took the prize. During World War I and its immediate aftermath, the committee adopted a policy of neutrality, favouring writers from non-combatant countries. The interpretation of Nobel's original words concerning the Literature prize has also undergone repeated revisions.

Later, the prize has often been controversial due to the Swedish Academy's Eurocentric choices of laureates, or for political reasons, as seen in the years 1970, 2005, and 2019, and for the academy awarding its own members, as happened in 1974.Helmer Lång, 100 nobelpris i litteratur 1901–2001, Bokförlaget Symposium 2001 (in Swedish)

The Swedish Academy has also been criticised for historically favouring male writers. The heavy male dominance of laureates during the first century of the prize's history can partly be explained that much fewer female authors were nominated in the early history of the prize. Of the 1256 nominations between 1901 and 1950 only 44 were for female authors, of which five were awarded the prize. Between 1946 and 1990 only one woman, Nelly Sachs, was awarded the prize (shared with Shmuel Yosef Agnon in 1966). Eliza Orzeszkowa and Cecile Tormay were seriously considered for the prizes in 1905 and 1936, respectively, but were ultimately passed over. As were the multiple nominations for the Portuguese writer Maria Madalena de Martel Patrício, Spanish Concha Espina, American Edith Wharton and Danish author Karen Blixen.

The only laureate to ever refuse the Nobel Prize in Literature without reverting his decision was Jean-Paul Sartre in 1964 as he did not want to be “institutionalised.”

Controversies by year 1901: Prudhomme

The Swedish Academy's choice of the French poet Sully Prudhomme as the first Nobel prize laureate in literature was heavily criticized. Many believed that Leo Tolstoy should have been awarded the first Nobel Prize in literature. The choice of Prudhomme was interpreted as a politeness towards the Académie Française, model to the Swedish Academy. A number of the leading representatives of the contemporary Swedish cultural elite including August Strindberg, Selma Lagerlöf and Verner von Heidenstam protested against the Academy and sent a letter to Tolstoy saying he was the most worthy recipient of the prize and that the Swedish Academy did not represent the majority of Swedish cultural persons.Helmer Lång Hundra nobelpris i litteratur 1901-2001 Bokförlag Symposion 2001, p. 23-24 (in Swedish)Gustav Källstrand Andens olympiska spel. Nobelprisets historia Fri Tanke 2021, p. 185

1902: Mommsen

In 1902, Leo Tolstoy was considered for the prize along with the Norwegian authors Henrik Ibsen and Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson. Tolstoy was praised for his prominent literary work, but dismissed for his anarchistic ideology. Ibsen was dismissed for similar reasons, his radical style was considered completely against the ideal direction required by Alfred Nobel's will, while Bjørnson was pushed for the next year.Gustav Källstrand Andens Olympiska Spel: Nobelprisets historia, Fri Tanke 2021, p. 186-187 As a consequence, German historian Theodor Mommsen was launched as a compromise candidate that could be agreed upon. While Mommsen was respected for his work, The Swedish Academy's decision to award a non-fiction writer instead of the most prominent writers of the time such as Tolstoy and Ibsen was criticized.

1903: Bjørnson

On rumours of a shared prize to Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson and Henrik Ibsen, Bjørnson told Norwegian reporters that he would refuse a shared prize. While the Nobel committee had rejected the proposal of a shared prize to them, thinking it would likely be misunderstood as two distinguished authors being worthy of only half a prize, the committee took notice of Bjørnson's statement and, on the event that Bjørnson should decline the award, recommended that the prize alternatively should be awarded to Frédéric Mistral (who was awarded the following year).

1908: Eucken

While some of their prize decisions were well received at the time, the Swedish Academy's handling of the Nobel prize in its early history has been heavily criticized. Nobel committee chairman Carl David af Wirsén was known to fiercely oppose that authors he disliked, such as Henrik Ibsen and Selma Lagerlöf, be awarded the prize. The choice of the insignificant German philosopher Rudolf Christoph Eucken as a compromise winner of the prize in 1908 was heavily criticized at the time, and has been described as one of the worst mistakes in the history of the Nobel Prize in Literature.Helmer Lång, 100 nobelpris i litteratur 1901–2001, Symposion 2001Gustav Källstrand Andens Olympiska Spel: Nobelprisets historia, Fri Tanke 2021

1920: Hamsun

Knut Hamsun sent his Nobel medal to German propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels as a gift, after a meeting they had in 1943.

1926: Shaw

In 1926, George Bernard Shaw first declined the 1925 Nobel Prize (which was awarded a year later) stating "I can forgive Nobel for inventing dynamite, but only a fiend in human form could have invented the Nobel prize". He later changed his mind and accepted the honour, but refused to receive the prize money. Shaw recommended that the prize money instead be used to fund the translation of works by Swedish playwright August Strindberg to English.

1931: Karlfeldt

The 1931 prize awarded to "The poetry of Erik Axel Karlfeldt" was the first and only time the Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded posthumously, which caused controversy in the Swedish press. In several newspapers the Swedish Academy's decision to posthumously award an author, particularly one who had refused to accept it before, was questioned and said to be against the purpose of the award. Internationally, it was heavily criticized as few had heard of Karlfeldt.Helmer Lång, 100 nobelpris i litteratur 1901–2001, Symposion 2001, page 131

1938: Buck

The 1938 Nobel Prize awarded to Pearl Buck is one of the most criticized in the prize's history because Buck's later works generally were not considered to be of the literary standard of a Nobel laureate.Helmer Lång, 100 nobelpris i litteratur 1901–2001, Symposion 2001, p. 153. According to novelist Irving Wallace, he was told by Swedish Academy member Sven Hedin that Buck "scarcely bowled over the academy". Ten of the eighteen members voted against her, but Hedin and Selma Lagerlöf later changed their minds thus awarding her the prize.Irving Wallace, Writing of a Novel, p. 17.

1953: Churchill

The prize awarded to Winston Churchill in 1953 has widely been seen as politically motivated, rather than an award for Churchill's literary merits. "Winston Churchill is historical but he belongs only to a little extent to the history of literature," wrote Helmer Lång in his 2001 book about the Nobel Prizes in literature, "It was the defender of democracy, the winner against fascism, that was awarded a Nobel Prize (...) for once it was also a master of eloquence that was awarded", that it was Churchill's speeches during World War II and his recently completed non-fiction work The Second World War that won him the prize.Helmer Lång Hundra nobelpris i litteratur 1901-2001, Symposion 2001, p.190 Churchill's private secretary Anthony Montague Browne later revealed that Churchill was disappointed that he had not been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize: “Churchill deeply wished to be remembered as a peacemaker.... I remember vividly his early and touching joy, which turned to indifference when he learned that it was for Literature and not for Peace.”

1958: Pasternak

Following the international success of the novel Doctor Zhivago, Boris Pasternak was awarded the 1958 Nobel Prize in Literature, which angered the Soviet Union authorities. Pasternak first accepted the prize, but was forced by the authorities to decline it. After Doctor Zhivago was finally published in Russian in 1988, Pasternak's son accepted the prize on his father's behalf.

1959: Quasimodo

The Nobel committee proposed that the Danish author Karen Blixen should be awarded the 1959 Nobel Prize in Literature. Committee chairman Anders Österling advocated a prize for Blixen, citing her "undubitable masterpiece" Out of Africa, and her short stories in which "she has created her own genre," that "at the high points are shining with ingenious fantasy and spiritual human knowledge". Two other members of the Nobel committee also supported a prize to Blixen, but one committee member, Eyvind Johnson (who himself fifteen years later would accept the 1974 Nobel Prize in Literature), opposed a prize to Blixen arguing that Scandinavians were overrepresentated among the Nobel laureates in literature and instead proposed a prize to a representative of the "rich, modern Italian literature", that Johnson thought had been neglected by the Nobel committee.

Unconventionally, the members of the Swedish Academy voted against the committee's recommendation of Blixen and instead awarded the Italian poet Salvatore Quasimodo. The choice of Quasimodo was widely criticized as a mediocre choice and in awarding an Italian poet Giuseppe Ungaretti and Eugenio Montale (awarded in 1975) was cited as more worthy recipients of the award.

1962: Steinbeck

The selection of John Steinbeck was heavily criticized, and described as "one of the Academy's biggest mistakes" in one Swedish newspaper. The New York Times asked why the Nobel committee gave the award to an author whose "limited talent is, in his best books, watered down by tenth-rate philosophising", adding, "we think it interesting that the laurel was not awarded to a writer ... whose significance, influence and sheer body of work had already made a more profound impression on the literature of our age". Steinbeck himself, when asked if he deserved the Nobel on the day of the announcement, replied: "Frankly, no."

1964: Sartre

Jean-Paul Sartre declined the Nobel Prize in Literature, claiming that he refused official distinctions and did not want to be institutionalised and for fear that it would limit the impact of his writing. While Sartre's statement to the Swedish press was polite, he revealed in the 1976 documentary film (Sartre by Himself) quite opposite reasons for rejecting the Nobel Prize, stating: "Because I was politically involved, the bourgeois establishment wanted to cover up my past errors. Now there's an admission! And so they gave me the Nobel Prize. They pardoned me and said I deserved it. It was monstrous!"

1965: Sholokhov

The 1965 prize awarded to the Soviet Union writer Mikhail Sholokhov was a controversial choice that was widely criticized for being politically motivated.

1969: Beckett