US author John Steinbeck won the 1962 Nobel Literature Prize by default, a Swedish daily reported Thursday, as the award committee felt there was no front-runner in a problematic pool of candidates.
Also short-listed for the award were French playwright Jean Anouilh, Danish author Karen Blixen, British author Lawrence Durrell and English poet Robert Graves, the Svenska Dagbladet daily said.
Previously classified documents from the Swedish Academy's four-member Nobel Committee, which drafted the preliminary list of candidates, showed that the committee had settled for Steinbeck - whose works included Of Mice and Men (1937) and The Grapes of Wrath (1939) - but members had reservations.
The other contenders were however considered to be weaker. Blixen, who wrote among other novels Out of Africa (1937), was dropped after she died in September. The 1960 award to French poet Saint-John Perse weakened Anouilh's chances.
Graves was regarded mainly as a poet even though he also wrote historic novels. His poetry did not match that of US modernist poet Ezra Pound. However, Pound's support for fascism ruled him out as a candidate, committee member Henry Olsson said in his comments.
The academy's permanent secretary Anders Osterling wrote that he favoured Steinbeck over Graves since the American author "appears to have a greater chance of gaining support without objections."
Literary critics at the time - both in Sweden and the United States - questioned the decision, arguing that Steinbeck's recent works had not reached his early achievements, and the author himself was taken by surprise.
The Swedish Academy that selects the literature laureate applies a 50-year seal on documents relating to its Nobel prize decisions.