Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the Nobel Prizes in his 1895 will, specifying that the literature prize should go to the person who produced 'the most outstanding work in an ideal direction.' The Swedish Academy has interpreted this 'ideal direction' in various ways over the last 120 years. Interestingly, many of history’s most celebrated writers never won the prize, including Leo Tolstoy, James Joyce, and Virginia Woolf. This is often because the Academy initially focused on authors with a more traditional or 'idealistic' style, rather than the radical Modernists. Today, the prize is awarded for a writer's entire body of work rather than a single book. It remains the most prestigious literary honor in the world, accompanied by a gold medal and a significant monetary award funded by the interest from Nobel's fortune.