Tolkien denied the Nobel Prize for bad storytelling

"Tolkien, a professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford who drew inspiration for his works from medieval literature, was nominated in 1961 by his close friend CS Lewis, another medieval expert who dabbled in fantasy literature. But according to Nobel Prize documents released after 50 years, one of the jury members, Anders Osterling, said that the work "has not in any way measured up to storytelling of the highest quality"." The full article may be read at the Daily Telegraph.