From The Hindu, October 24, 1975: Italian poet gets Nobel Prize for Literature

Stockholm, Oct. 25: Mr. Eugenio Montale, a shy and modest Italian poet, to-day won the 1975 Nobel Prize for Literature for his “distinctive” works which have interpreted human values under an outlook on life with no illusions. The 15-man Nobel Prize Selection Committee of the Swedish Academy of Letters said the 79-year-old native of Genoa was “one of the most important poets of the contemporary West.”

Mr. Montale, who will receive a cash award of 630,000 kronors (Rs. 11.44 lakhs) belongs to the Hermetic school of poetry, begun in the 1930s in Italy. It advocates a modernistic structure and freedom of word choice and rhyme.

The Nobel Committee said by joining this school, Mr. Montale rejected “the melting tones and the rhetorical fanfares that most poets had an ear for.” Mr. Montale’s name is not widely known outside Italy, but the committee said the fact that his modest production of poems continued to interest young people “is sufficient proof of its sterling qualities and lasting efforts.”