People Who Declined Nobel Prize

Nobel Prize is thoroughly regarded as the most prestigious award in the fields of Medicine, Physics, Chemistry, Literature, Economics and Peace.

 It is awarded in recognition of extraordinary contribution by individuals in above fields. Nobel Prize was started from 1901 and from that period it has brought fame, money and recognition to the receivers. Only six people in history of Nobel Prize have declined to take it, four of them were forced to do so and two willingly refused:

Boris Pasternak (1890-1960): was a Russian novelist, poet and translator, in 1958 in recognition of his literary contribution he was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature, his novel Doctor Zhivago was considered as a master piece of literature but he was forced by the Communist Party of Soviet Union for not taking the prize and he declined it. However, in 1988 his family accept the prize in his name.

Jean Paul Sartre (1905-1980): was a French philosopher and novelist, while he is also considered as father of existentialism, he wrote great novels like Nausea, Roads to Freedom (trilogy), No Exit (play) and other works. Sartre was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1964, but refused to take it claiming that a writer should not turn himself into an institution.

However, there are four other people including  Lê Đức Thọ revolutionary and politician from Vietnam who declined in 1973, he was awarded for peace. Gerhard Domagk (bacteriologist) was forced by Nazi Germany to decline the 1939 Nobel in medicine. Richard Kuhn was forced to turn down the 1938 Nobel in Chemistry for his work with vitamins by Nazi Germany and Adolf Butenandt was made to decline the 1939 Nobel in Chemistry by Nazi Germany.