Archimboldi had come up again as a possible Nobel candidate this year. His name had been in the prize pool the year before, too. False hopes. According to Dieter Hellfeld, a member of the Swedish Academy or the secretary of a member of the academy had been in touch with Archimboldi’s publisher to get an idea how the writer would respond if he were awarded the prize. What could a man past eighty have to say? What could the Nobel mean to such a man, with no family, no heirs, no public face?
