Szymborska put a great deal of energy into demonstrating for everyone that the Nobel Prize had not gone to her head. She sent handwritten thank you cards to all of her old friends and acquaintances who congratulated her on the prize. But when she was overwhelmed by congratulations from unknown people, she decided to print official thank you cards, both in Polish and English, which she simply signed.
The thank you card was donated to the Nobel Prize Museum by the Wisława Szymborska Foundation in 2021.
Wisława Szymborska was only slightly myopic and didn’t always need glasses. After being awarded the Nobel Prize in literature in 1996, however, she often wore glasses when she went out, because fewer people recognised her in them, shielding her from fans.
The eyeglasses were donated to the Nobel Prize Museum by the Wisława Szymborska Foundation in 2021.
This ballpoint pen was an important tool in Wisława Szymborska’s literary output. She would write the first draft of a poem on a typewriter based on notes she had jotted down. Szymborska then made handwritten corrections on the typed manuscript with an ordinary plastic BIC ballpoint pen, always in black ink. These corrections could include added words and arrows. Sometimes, she cut up the sheets of paper with scissors and pasted the pieces back together in a new order. Only then was her secretary allowed to type out a fair copy of the poem on the computer to be presented to the world.
The pen was donated to the Nobel Prize Museum by the Wisława Szymborska Foundation in 2021.
