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Laureates in the Nobel Prize for Literature

1907 - Rudyard Kipling - "In consideration of the power of observation, originality of imagination, virility of ideas and remarkable talent for narration"

1920 - Knut Hamsun - "For his monumental work"

1930 - Sinclair Lewis - "For his vigorous and graphic art of description and his ability to create, with wit and humour, new types of characters"

1946 - Hermann Hesse - "For his inspired writings, which while growing in boldness and penetration, exemplify the classical humanitarian ideals"

1949 - William Faulkner - "For his powerful and artistically unique contribution to the modern American novel"

1954 - Ernest Hemingway - "For his mastery of the art of narrative, most recently demonstrated in The Old Man and the Sea"

1957 - Albert Camus - "For his important literary production, which with clear-sighted earnestness illuminates the problems of the human conscience"

1962 - John Steinbeck - "For his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humour and keen social perception"

1970 - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - "For the ethical force with which he has pursued the indispensable traditions of Russian literature"

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Anne Boleyn in the Tower of London by Edouard Cibot (1835)

"O Death! rock me asleep; Bring me to quiet rest; let pass my weary, guiltless ghost out of my careful breast."

From the poem 'O Death, Rock me Asleep' by Anne Boleyn; written days before her execution in 1536, it shows a reconciliation with death as a means of escaping her Earthly torments and suffering.

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Elle Fanning as Mary Shelley in director Haifaa al-Mansour's 2017 film of the same name.

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Exotic dancer Margaretha MacLeod (better known by her stage name, Mata Hari) pictured in 1911; she would later be executed in 1917 for allegedly committing espionage during WWI.

"Must I wear that?" - Mata Hari as she refused a blindfold when facing her firing squad, to whom she blew one final kiss.

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German political activist Sophie Scholl pictured in 1937. Convicted of distributing leaflets opposing WWII, she was executed by the Nazi regime in 1943.

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Stu Ungar (1953-1998), widely considered one of the best poker players in history, posing at the 1981 World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, Nevada.

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Bonnie and Clyde's V-8 Ford, riddled with bullet holes following their fatal shooting in 1934.

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Raine Spencer, step-mother to Princess Diana, outside of her funeral in Westminster, London on September 6th, 1997.

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Maria Ewing performing as Salome at the San Francisco Opera in 1993.

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Publicity stills of Elizabeth Peña (1959-2014) for 1990's psychological-horror film, Jacob's Ladder.

"Personally, I never go for church names."

"Where do you think Jezebel comes from?"