Christian Oftedal's nomination letter of 20 January 1948

Christian Oftedal's nomination letter of 20 January 1948

John Bjarne Grover

Here is the nomination letter from editor Christian Oftedal in the Norwegian newspaper Stavanger Aftenblad of 20 January 1948, nominating Mahatma Gandhi for the Nobel peace prize (expiry date for nomination was the end of January). Gandhi was shot on 30 January by newspaper editor Nathuram Godse from Poona (Oftedal - cp. 'h-Ofte-dal' = 'hip-valley' - forwarded greetings from 'kona' = 'the wife'). The hypothesis is that the nomination letter from Oftedal could have served to index the name of Ingeborg Bachmann at the time when Paul Celan started a relation with her in Vienna. I don't know if this was before or after 20 January, but it was in January. It could have been the origin of me. ('In[g]e-borg' = 'inside the castle', 'inside the org' [+achman], cp. also the case of 'Ingeborg Lygren' = 'Ingeborg the Liar' of 1965). Already in February 1948, Graham Greene went to Vienna for finding material and write the manuscript to the film 'The third man' which was made in a hurry and released in 1949. My exodus from the state church of Norway was on 17 September 1973. Bachmann died under tragic circumstances one month later.

Click here for the nomination letter from Oftedal

(Thanks to the Nobel institute in Oslo for permission to reproduce the letter).