In his will, Alfred Nobel specified that the prize for literature should go to those who "shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind" and "who shall have produced in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction".
The whole of my remaining realizable estate shall be dealt with in the following way: The capital shall be invested by my executors in safe securities and shall constitute a fund, the interest on which shall be annually distributed in the form of prizes to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind.
The Nobel authorities had a perfect opportunity to give an award that followed the letter of their founder's will ("shall be annually distributed in the form of prizes to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind"), and they chose not to.
The whole of my remaining realizable estate shall be dealt with in the following way: the capital, invested in safe securities by my executors, shall constitute a fund, the interest on which shall be annually distributed in the form of prizes to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind.
Nobel said in his will that he wanted to reward those "who during the preceding year shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind" in five categories.
It is reported from Rome that the care of the Roman Catholic missions in the Near East shall be conferred upon Italians.
The passage in Alfred Nobel's will which sets up the prizes refers to "those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit to mankind".
The committees that give out the Nobel science prizes have pondered "who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind" and come to their conclusions.
The Nobel Prize for Chemistry is awarded, according to the will of Swedish inventor and industrialist Alfred Bernhard Nobel, "to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind" in the field of chemistry.
First prizes, 1901 Shortly before his death in 1896, Swedish scientist Alfred Nobel – the inventor of dynamite – bequeathed 94 per cent of his wealth towards the creation of five prizes to "those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind".
