The Nobel Prize in Literature 1903 Award Ceremony Speech
Presentation Speech by C.D. af Wirsén, Permanent Secretary of
the Swedish Academy, on December 10, 1903 Again this year the
names of several candidates for the Nobel Prize in Literature
have been submitted to the Swedish Academy for its approval;
some of them are authors of European reputation. The Academy
thinks that this year it should give priority to the poet
Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson. Although we have the pleasure of seeing
the illustrious laureate at this ceremony, custom requires that
I speak of him in the third person as I give an account of the
Academy's decision. But I reserve the right to address a few
personal remarks to him at Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson is so generally
known and his works are so familiar to educated Swedes that it
is unnecessary to give a comprehensive appreciation of his
universally and gladly acknowledged merits. Therefore I shall
limit myself on this solemn occasion to the following remarks.
The poet to whom with true satisfactio