Certainly, great writers deserve wide recognition, but does the Nobel Prize for Literature really come close to delivering such immortality? “Even the most erudite among us will have a hard time naming a single book by a great chunk of past laureates. How about that Sigrid Undset (1928)? Who could ever forget her, right? Or how about Par Lagerkvist (1951)? Or Jaroslav Seifert (1984)? Got those names tattooed on the brain, don’t you?” Even if you see the Nobel’s mission as bringing attention to unjustly neglected authors, the prize could be considered a failure in that regard as well.