We Just Got Served

An A.P. report today tells of the mischievous Horace Engdahl, the Swedish Academy’s Permanent Secretary for the Nobel Prize (the most prestigious award in literature!). Selections follow:

Speaking generally about American literature, [Engdahl] said U.S. writers are ''too sensitive to trends in their own mass culture,'' dragging down the quality of their work.

''The U.S. is too isolated, too insular. They don't translate enough and don't really participate in the big dialogue of literature,'' Engdahl said. ''That ignorance is restraining.''

The most recent American to win the award was Toni Morrison in 1993.

Each Nobel Prize includes a $1.3 million purse, a gold medal and a diploma.