No letters mailed to Nobel Committee
August 21, 2003 at 6:08 PM ET
grae
Wizard News (via BBC)
Last month, we reported that James Downey had organized a campaign
to convince the Nobel Prize Committee to recognize JK Rowling with the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2004 for her latest book The Order of the Phoenix. And only yesterday, we reported some of the responses writers and academicians had for the campaign.
As it turns out, the campaign isn't doing as well as some fans might have hoped.
Not a single person sent a letter to the Nobel Committee suggesting her for the 2004 literature award despite an internet crusade asking them to do so.
Although more than 100 people e-mailed, the Nobel Prize For Jo site asked fans to send letters by post to Sweden.
The campaign was started by US author and artist James Downey to demonstrate the power of the internet.
His site said: "I bet if we sent them a few hundred thousand letters, they'd pay attention.
"E-mails probably wouldn't hurt, but letters will make the real difference," it added, giving the address in Sweden on its front page.
Mr Downey was also behind a project to get people around the world to point lasers at the moon in an attempt to make it change colour in 2001.
Even if the public had responded to his Harry Potter campaign, official rules mean fans cannot nominate an author for the prize.
They have to be nominated by literary professors, past winners and members of literature academies.