October 31, 1958
PASTERNAK’S NOBEL: Two American film companies have shown an interest in adapting Boris Pasternak’s «Doctor Zhivago» for the screen. Pasternak sent the Swedish Academy a telegram yesterday informing them of his decision to turn down the Nobel Prize in literature. According to sources, he had been informed by the Soviet authorities that if he left the USSR to receive the prize in Stockholm he would not be allowed to return. Three Soviet scientists have been awarded the Nobel Prize in physics. According to an article today in Pravda, a group of Soviet scientists say that the physics award was completely justified but Pasternak’s award had been underhand as it had been prompted by «reactionary political goals» and that Pasternak’s novel «distorted the dreams and ambitions of Soviet intellectuals» and maligned Soviet reality. NIKOLAOS YIANNIOS: The veteran Socialist leader Nikolaos Yiannios died yesterday. Born on the island of Andros in 1885, he studied languages and literature in Constantinople and Paris before going on to teach at public and private high schools. He was one of the first socialists in Greece and founder of the Socialist Party of Greece (1911), which was recognized by the worldwide organization Socialist International in 1923.
