People Who Refused Nobel Prizes

Only two people in the whole history of the Nobel Prize have freely said no to it. That is the official count from NobelPrize.org, and it surprises almost everyone who hears it. The prize is the most famous honour on Earth, yet two winners looked at it and turned it away. Four more winners were forced to turn it away by governments that would not let them accept. This post gives the full list, in simple words, and explains why each case was different. Saying no to a Nobel Prize is not one story. It is several stories, and mixing them up is the most common mistake people make about this subject.

The Short Answer First

NobelPrize.org divides the cases into two groups. Two laureates declined the prize by their own choice: Jean-Paul Sartre, awarded the 1964 Literature Prize, and Le Duc Tho, awarded the 1973 Peace Prize jointly with Henry Kissinger. Four laureates were forced by authorities to decline: Richard Kuhn, Adolf Butenandt and Gerhard Domagk, who were forbidden by Adolf Hitler from accepting their prizes, and Boris Pasternak, who was coerced by the Soviet Union into declining the 1958 Literature Prize.

That is six names in total. Two chose to refuse. Four were made to refuse. Keeping those two groups apart is the key to the whole subject, because a free refusal and a forced refusal mean opposite things. One is a person exercising freedom. The other is a person losing it.

Jean-Paul Sartre Said No By Principle

Jean-Paul Sartre was a French writer and philosopher. He was awarded the 1964 Nobel Prize in Literature, and he declined it because, as NobelPrize.org puts it, he had consistently declined all official honours. Sartre believed a writer should not allow himself to be turned into an institution, even in the most honourable form. Accepting the prize, in his view, would have tied him to an institution and changed what his name meant when he signed it.

Sartre had refused other honours before, so his refusal was not a sudden gesture. It was a rule he had lived by. He did not go to Stockholm, he did not receive the medal, and he did not take the money. The Swedish Academy replied that his refusal did not change the validity of the award, so official records still list him as the 1964 laureate in Literature, noted as having declined. He became a Nobel winner by refusing to become one, in the eyes of the record books.

Years later, a story appeared that Sartre, or someone close to him, had asked in 1975 whether the prize money could still be paid. That story comes from a memoir by a member of the Swedish Academy, and it was refused. This post reports it only as a claim from that memoir, not as a proven fact, because that is how it stands in the record.

Le Duc Tho Said No Because There Was No Peace

Le Duc Tho was a Vietnamese negotiator. He was awarded the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize jointly with the United States Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, for negotiating the Vietnam peace accord. Le Duc Tho said he was not in a position to accept the Nobel Peace Prize, citing the situation in Vietnam as his reason. In his view, there was no actual peace in Vietnam, so accepting a peace prize would have been wrong.

His case is the only voluntary refusal of a Peace Prize in Nobel history. It is also different from Sartre’s in an important way. Sartre refused on a general principle about honours. Le Duc Tho refused on the specific facts of his own case: the war was not over, so the prize did not match reality. Kissinger accepted his share of the prize. Le Duc Tho did not accept his. The prize was awarded to two people, but only one of them took it.

Boris Pasternak Was Forced To Decline

Boris Pasternak was a Russian writer, best known for his novel Doctor Zhivago. He was awarded the 1958 Nobel Prize in Literature. At first he accepted the prize. Then the authorities of the Soviet Union, his own country, coerced him into declining it. The Soviet government viewed his novel as hostile, and Pasternak faced threats and pressure that left him little real choice.

The Swedish Academy refused his refusal, saying that it did not alter the validity of the award, and announced with regret that the presentation of the prize could not take place that year. Pasternak never received the prize in his lifetime. His son accepted it on his behalf in 1989, long after Pasternak’s death and after the political situation had changed. Pasternak’s case is often listed beside Sartre’s, but it belongs in the other group. Sartre chose. Pasternak was made to choose by others.

Three Germans Forbidden By Hitler

The three German cases form one group with one cause. Adolf Hitler forbade three German Nobel laureates — Richard Kuhn, Adolf Butenandt and Gerhard Domagk — from accepting their Nobel Prizes. All three could later receive the Nobel diploma and medal, but not the prize amount. The money was lost to them because of the ban.

These were not refusals in any normal sense of the word. The winners did not decline because they disagreed with the prize. They were forbidden by their own government from accepting an international honour. NobelPrize.org lists them under the heading “Forced to decline”, together with Pasternak, and that heading is the honest one. A government order is not a personal decision, and these three men should never be described as people who “turned down” the prize as if it were their own free choice.

What Refusal Does And Does Not Change

A refusal does not erase the award. In Sartre’s case and in Pasternak’s case, the awarding bodies treated the refusal as having no effect on the validity of the award. The winner’s name stays on the official list, with a note that the prize was declined. What the refusal stops is the ceremony: there is no presentation, no medal handed over, and no money paid, unless the prize is accepted later by the winner or, as with Pasternak, by a family member decades afterwards.

That is why the phrase “refused a Nobel Prize” needs care. It can mean three different things: the winner freely declined, the winner was forced to decline, or the winner never received the medal and money even though the award stands in the record. Most lists on the internet blur these together. The official Nobel list keeps them apart, and this post follows the official list.

People Who Did Not Refuse At All

Two famous cases are often wrongly added to refusal lists, and they should be left out. Aung San Suu Kyi was awarded the 1991 Peace Prize, but she was under house arrest in Burma, so her children accepted the prize on her behalf, and she delivered her speech two decades later, in 2012. Liu Xiaobo was awarded the 2010 Peace Prize while he and his wife were under house arrest in China, and he was unable to accept the prize in his lifetime. His medal and diploma were placed on an empty chair at the ceremony in Oslo.

Neither of them refused the prize. Both were prevented by imprisonment from attending the ceremony. NobelPrize.org lists them under a different heading: laureates under arrest at the time of the award. Putting them on a refusal list would misread their stories completely. They wanted the prize. Their governments would not let them collect it.

Why So Few People Have Said No

The short list is itself the most interesting fact. In more than 120 years and 639 prizes, only two people freely declined. The prize is so large, so respected, and so useful to a winner’s cause that almost everyone accepts it. Sartre and Le Duc Tho are remembered precisely because they are exceptions. The four forced cases are remembered for the opposite reason: they show what happens when a government fears an honour more than it values it.

The full list, then, is small and clear. Two free refusals: Sartre in 1964 and Le Duc Tho in 1973. Four forced refusals: Kuhn, Butenandt and Domagk under Hitler, and Pasternak under Soviet pressure in 1958. Anyone who adds more names to that list is either counting a different kind of case, such as arrest or absence, or is repeating a story that the official record does not support.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who refused a Nobel Prize?

Only two laureates freely declined a Nobel Prize, according to NobelPrize.org: Jean-Paul Sartre, awarded the 1964 Literature Prize, who declined because he had consistently refused all official honours, and Le Duc Tho, awarded the 1973 Peace Prize jointly with Henry Kissinger, who said he was not in a position to accept because of the situation in Vietnam. Four more laureates were forced by authorities to decline: Richard Kuhn, Adolf Butenandt and Gerhard Domagk, forbidden by Hitler, and Boris Pasternak, coerced by the Soviet Union. That makes six names in total, in two very different groups.

Why did Jean-Paul Sartre refuse the Nobel Prize?

Sartre declined the 1964 Nobel Prize in Literature because he had a lifelong rule of refusing all official honours. He believed a writer must refuse to allow himself to be turned into an institution, even in the most honourable form, and that accepting the prize would bind him to an institution and change what his name meant. He did not attend the ceremony, receive the medal, or take the money, but the Swedish Academy said his refusal did not change the validity of the award, so he is still listed as the 1964 laureate, noted as having declined.

Did Boris Pasternak refuse the Nobel Prize by choice?

No. Pasternak initially accepted the 1958 Literature Prize for Doctor Zhivago, but was then coerced by the Soviet authorities into declining it, because his government viewed the novel as hostile and pressured him with threats. The Swedish Academy refused his refusal, saying it did not alter the validity of the award, and the presentation could not take place that year. Pasternak never received the prize in his lifetime. His son accepted it on his behalf in 1989, after the political situation had changed.

Who else was forced to decline a Nobel Prize?

Besides Pasternak, three German laureates were forbidden by Adolf Hitler from accepting their prizes: Richard Kuhn, Adolf Butenandt and Gerhard Domagk. All three could later receive the Nobel diploma and medal, but not the prize amount. These were government orders, not personal decisions, so NobelPrize.org lists them under forced declines rather than voluntary refusals. They did not turn the prize down because they disagreed with it. They were forbidden from accepting an international honour by their own government.

Does refusing a Nobel Prize remove the winner from the list?

No. A refusal does not erase the award from the official record. In both Sartre’s and Pasternak’s cases, the awarding bodies treated the refusal as having no effect on the validity of the award, so the winner’s name stays on the official list with a note that the prize was declined. What the refusal stops is the ceremony itself: there is no presentation, no medal handed over, and no money paid, unless the prize is accepted later. The award stands, even when the winner does not collect it.