COLOMBIAN NOVELIST AWARDED NOBEL PRIZE
Author: Associated Press
Date: Friday, October 22, 1982
Page: ?????
Section: RUN OF PAPER
Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the Colombian author of the novel "One Hundred Years
of Solitude" and the world's best-selling writer in the Spanish language, was
awarded the 1982 Nobel Prize in literature yesterday.
The 18-member Swedish Academy of Letters said it honored the 54-year-old
writer of novels, short stories and journalism "for his novels and short
stories in which the fantastic and the realistic are combined in a richly
composed world of imagination, reflecting a continent's life and conflicts."
Garcia Marquez told reporters at his Mexico City home that he was
"surprised and astonished" at the award, this year worth $157,000. Pointing
out that he had been nominated for it for the past three years as well, he
said, "I imagined I was going to be one of those eternal candidates."
In an interview given before the award and published today by Corriere
della Sera, Italy's leading newspaper, Garcia Marquez said he had no chance
for a Nobel because the judges "are seeking unknown authors, writers who do
not have the outlet that they deserve.
"All writers want to get the Nobel," he said, "but for me it would be a
misfortune because what I want most is to carve out more space for my private
life."
Born in the north Colombian banana town of Aracataca, Garcia Marquez was
one of 16 children of the town telegrapher. He put himself through high school
on a scholarship, quit law school after a year because it bored him, became a
newspaper reporter and published his first short story in 1947.
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