In 1961, the Nobel Prize committee rejected J. R. R. Tolkien for the Literature Prize, deeming his work as unworthy.
The prize jury said his works had "not in any way measured up to storytelling of the highest quality".
Tolkien had been nominated for the prize by C. S. Lewis. The nomination had come after The Lord of the Rings trilogy had been published - The Return of the King, the last volume, came out in 1955. The committee said LOTR was “not comparable to works of the highest literary quality.”
He was nominated again in 1967 and 1969 after LOTR had developed a wider following - but he was rejected again.
Apparently, they did not like fantasy.
Ironically, by the end of the 20th Century and early in the 21st Century The Lord of the Rings topped many polls as the most significant or greatest book of the 20th Century.
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