On this day in 1901, the first Nobel Prizes are awarded in Stockholm, Sweden, in the fields of physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, and peace. The ceremony came on the fifth anniversary of the death of Alfred Nobel, the Swedish inventor of dynamite and other high explosives. In his will, Nobel directed that the bulk of his vast fortune be placed in a fund in which the interest would be “annually distributed in the form of prizes to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind.” Although Nobel offered no public reason for his creation of the prizes, it is widely believed that he did so out of moral regret over the increasingly lethal uses of his inventions in war.

Alfred Bernhard Nobel was born in Stockholm in 1833, and four years later his family moved to Russia. His father ran a successful St. Petersburg factory that built explosive mines and other military equipment. Educated in Russia, Paris, and the United States, Alfred Nobel proved a brilliant chemist. When his father’s business faltered after the end of the Crimean War, Nobel returned to Sweden and set up a laboratory to experiment with explosives.

In 1875, Nobel created a more powerful form of dynamite, blasting gelatin, and in 1887 introduced ballistite, a smokeless nitroglycerin powder. Around that time, one of Nobel’s brothers died in France, and French newspapers printed obituaries in which they mistook him for Alfred. One headline read, “The merchant of death is dead.” Alfred Nobel in fact had pacifist tendencies and in his later years apparently developed strong misgivings about the impact of his inventions on the world. After he died in San Remo, Italy, on December 10, 1896, the majority of his estate went toward the creation of prizes to be given annually in the fields of physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, and peace. The portion of his will establishing the Nobel Peace Prize read, “[one award shall be given] to the person who has done the most or best work for fraternity among nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies, and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.” Exactly five years after his death, the first Nobel awards were presented.

Today, the Nobel Prizes are regarded as the most prestigious awards in the world in their various fields. Notable winners have included Marie Curie, Theodore Roosevelt, Albert Einstein, George Bernard Shaw, Winston Churchill, Ernest Hemingway, Martin Luther King, Jr., the Dalai Lama, Mikhail Gorbachev, and Nelson Mandela.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences decides the prizes in physics, chemistry, and economic science; the Swedish Royal Caroline Medico-Surgical Institute determines the physiology or medicine award; the Swedish Academy chooses literature; and a committee elected by the Norwegian parliament awards the peace prize. The Nobel Prizes are still presented annually on December 10, the anniversary of Nobel’s death. In 2006, each Nobel Prize carried a cash prize of nearly $1,400,000 and recipients also received a gold medal, as is the tradition.

Row 1: (L-R) Adeline Yen Mah, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Leander Kahney, Albert Camus Row 2: (L-R) Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Mark Twain, Winston Churchill, David Nicholls Row 3: (L-R) Roger Lancelyn Green, Jonathan Swift, L. M. Montgomery, Luke Rhinehart Row 4: (L-R) George Eliot, Robert Louis Stevenson, Bram Stoker, Richelle Mead

Albert Camus

(November 7, 1913 – January 4, 1960)

Camus was a French Nobel Prize winning author, journalist, and philosopher. He was awarded the 1957 Nobel Prize for Literature “for his important literary production, which with clear-sighted earnestness illuminates the problems of the human conscience in our times.”

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Mark Twain

(November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910)

Samuel Langhorne Clemens, known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist. He wrote The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876), The Prince and the Pauper (1881) and Tom Sawyer’s sequel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885).

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Bram Stoker 

(November 8, 1847 – April 20, 1912)

Stoker was an Irish author known today for his 1897 Gothic novel, Dracula.

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Fyodor Dostoyevsky

(November 11, 1821 – February 9, 1881)

Dostoyevsky was a Russian novelist, short story writer, essayist, journalist and philosopher. Dostoyevsky’s literary works explore human psychology in the context of the troubled political, social, and spiritual atmosphere of 19th-century Russia. The Double was made into a film in 2013.

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Luke Rhinehart

(November 15, 1932 – )

George Cockcroft, known by his pen name Luke Rhinehart, is an American writer, most notable as the author of The Dice Man series.

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Richelle Mead

(November 12, 1976 – )

Mead is a bestselling American fantasy author. She is known for the Georgina Kincaid series, Vampire Academy. It was made into a film in 2014.

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Leander Kahney

(November 25, 1965 – )

Kahney is a technology writer and author. He is a former managing editor, and previously a senior reporter, at ‘Wired News’, the online sister publication of ‘Wired’.

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Winston Churchill

(November 30, 1874 – January 24, 1965)

Churchill was a British politician and Nobel laureate who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955. Widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the 20th century, Churchill was also an officer in the British Army, a historian, a writer and an artist. Churchill is the only British Prime Minister to have won the Nobel Prize in Literature since its creation in 1901, and was the first person to be made an honorary citizen of the United States.

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Roger Lancelyn Green

(November 2, 1918 – October 8, 1987)

Green was a British biographer who became known primarily for his writings for children, particularly his retellings of the stories of King Arthur, King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table, and Robin Hood, The Adventures of Robin Hood.

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Adeline Yen Mah

(November 30, 1937 – )

Mah is a Chinese-American author and physician. Chinese Cinderella: The Secret Story of an Unwanted Daughter describes her experiences growing up in China during the Second World War.

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Jonathan Swift

(November 30, 1667 – October 19, 1745)

Swift was an Anglo-Irish satirist, essayist, poet and cleric who is remembered for such work as Gulliver’s Travels.

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George Eliot

(November 22, 1819 – December 22, 1880)

Mary Ann Evans, known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, journalist, translator and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era. She is the author of several novels, including The Mill on the Floss (1860), Silas Marner (1861)  and Middlemarch (1871–72), most of them set in provincial England and known for their realism and psychological insight.

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Robert Louis Stevenson

(November 13, 1850 – December 3, 1894)

Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist, and travel writer. His most famous works are Treasure Island, Kidnapped and Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

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David Nicholls

(November 30, 1966 – )

Nicholls is an English novelist and screenwriter. His book, One Day, was turned into a film in 2011.

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Frances Hodgson Burnett

(November 24, 1849 – October 29, 1924)

Burnett was an English playwright and author. She is best known for her children’s stories, in particular Little Lord Fauntleroy (1885-86) and The Secret Garden (1911). Both were made into films.

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L. M. Montgomery

(November 30, 1874 – April 24, 1942)

Montgomery was a Canadian author best known for a series of novels beginning with Anne of Green Gables, published in 1908. Anne of Green Gables was an immediate success.

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Wars are not won by evacuations

We will all go down fighting to the end

We can take it!

Westward look, the land is bright”

This collection of speeches from one of the great modern orators includes Churchill’s famous words on the declaration of war with Germany, as well as his rousing call to the British in June 1940 after Dunkirk, and his immortal tribute to the young men fighting in the Battle of Britain.

Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves – and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives – and destroyed them. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization and helped make us who we are.

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