During the years from 1901, when the first prizes were given, to 1925, twelve nationalities have been represented in literature. Germany and France have had the largest percentages in awards: Spain, Italy, Poland, Norway, Sweden have had two winners each. Great Britain (including the awards to Rabindranath Tagore and to Yeats as well as Kipling) has been thrice honored. Denmark divided the prize one year; Switzerland came into the lists with her poet, Carl Spitteler. In science and “promotion of peace,” America has such names on the roster of honor as A. A. Michelson in physics, T. W. Richards in chemistry, Dr. Alexis Carrel in medicine, and Theodore Roosevelt, Elihu Root and Woodrow Wilson in the “peace prize.” What have been the influences of the will of Alfred Nobel and the awards upon international literature? An unquestioned result has been to arouse both curiosity and aspiration among writers and readers. No other prizes, among any peoples, have caused such widespread interest. The announcement of the Nobel prizes each year has become an event of outstanding significance. Journals enter into competition, in recent years, to get the first word over the wires and to publish the most informing articles upon the winners. Tense interest precedes and follows the awards. Whatever may be one’s individual opinion about the justice in every instance, the fact remains that the chosen writer becomes the center of study and discussion for the current season and later years. To some critics this method of appreciation is offensive; sometimes it may seem to be a sensational “thrust into the limelight” of an insignificant or mediocre writer. In the majority of cases, the result is like that of a strong telescope which can distinguish the “fixed stars from the meteors” in the literary horizon.