Transcript
Introduction
"Alfred Nobel honestly felt that his life was so commonplace as to not deserve profound reflection, much less publication. Trying to sum up his life in one terse sentence, he offered the following, 'I am a misanthrope and yet utterly benevolent, have more than one screw loose, yet am a super idealist who digests philosophy more efficiently than food.' Given Nobel's strong distaste for blowing his own horn, when he was confronted with spontaneous expressions of admiration, he actually experienced a sense of shame as if a feeling of unworthiness had taken possession of him."
"His reflections might then take on a tone of sarcasm. He wrote, 'How pitiful to strive to be someone or something in the motley crew of 1.4 billion two-legged, tailless apes, running around on our revolving earth projectile.' But Nobel did strive to be someone. His workdays were absurdly long. He would frequently work for 15, even 20 hours without rest. It was as if he wanted to exhaust himself in order to ward off melancholy. Since he detested meetings, he often put his orders in writing. He could write 20 to 30 letters a day, and he seldom went to bed before midnight."
"He had an aversion of publicity. When the publisher of an illustrated book listing famous and outstanding Swedes wrote him, Nobel replied courteously but firmly, 'I will with pleasure subscribe to this interesting and worthwhile project, but I request that my portrait be omitted from this collection. So far as I know, I have not earned any renown.' Nobel found it impossible to maintain a self-esteem if he had to seek the esteem of others. His letters are particularly invaluable to our understanding and appreciation of him. The private correspondence allows readers to locate the undercurrents in his life, his self-absorption, his loneliness and his belief in the absurdity of existence."
"Many of the private letters seem to have been written during those moments when the demons of melancholy were on the offensive. When they attacked, work was his only escape. Its soothing effect was immediate. Chest pains, difficulty breathing and the headaches that haunted him his whole life would disappear as if by magic. Actions are the yardstick by which values can be measured, and Alfred Nobel left a legacy of lasting importance. Through his prizes, this restless eternal wanderer, whom the writer Victor Hugo termed Europe's richest vagabond, has forever etched his name in human memory."
That was an excerpt from the book that I'm going to talk to you about today, which is Alfred Nobel: A Biography, written by Kenne Fant. Okay. So before I jump into the rest of the book, I'm going to tell you why I'm reading this book. So ever since -- there's a series of last names that are just so famous that I want to investigate who the people were behind the names.