Nobel Prize in Literature

Alas the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature was named today, and it was not an American but a French writer by the name of Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio. Horace Engdahl, permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy, described Le Clezio's work as having "cosmopolitan character. Frenchman, yes, but more so a traveller, a citizen of the world, a nomad." Mr. Engdahl recently sparked controversy by saying that United States "is too isolated, too insular" and doesn't really "participate in the big dialogue of literature." This drew angry responses from American writers and critics. An American author has not won the prize since Toni Morrison won in 1993.