Behind this dustcover is a book of poems by Tomas Tranströmer, which was used by Peter Englund while working on the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2011. The half-removed cover tells us that the process of choosing a Nobel Prize laureate is highly confidential. Englund used the dustcover to hide what he was reading. He was the permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy at the time, and it was his job to announce the name of the laureate to the media. Soon after the announcement, Englund could tear of the dustcover of the book he was carrying. The book also contains a scrap of paper with Tranströmer’s home telephone number, Englund’s comments from when he was preparing his announcement, and a note with the exact wording of the announcement.
The book was donated to the Nobel Prize Museum by Peter Englund in 2014.
