The Stonehenge Letters. Harry Karlinsky
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Trilithons B and C from the south-west, Stonehenge, c. 1867.
For Minnie and Will
They look upon me as pretty much of a monomaniac, while I have the distinct feeling that I have touched upon one of the great secrets of nature.
Sigmund Freud, Letter to Wilhelm Fliess, 21 May 1894
CONTENTS
Introduction: The Knäppskalle File
Part One: Alfred Nobel’s Last Will and Testament
Chapter 2. Lilljeqvist and Sohlman
Chapter 3. Nobel’s Last Will and Testament
Chapter 4. ‘Frau Sofie’ and Countess Bertha Kinsky
Chapter 5. Stonehenge for Sale
Chapter 8. The Royal Swedish Academy of History, Letters, and Antiquities
Chapter 9. A Sentimental and Practical Guide to Stonehenge
Part Three: The Mystery of Stonehenge
Chapter 10. Great Stones Undermined by Worms
Chapter 11. When Stonehenge was New
Chapter 13. The Curve of Knowns
Chapter 16. Trivial and Flawed
Chapter 18. Dear Lady Antrobus
Appendix II: Acute Radiation Poisoning – Psychosomatic Variant
Author’s Notes and Acknowledgments
As a (now retired) psychiatrist and amateur historian, I had long been vexed that the clearly deserving Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) had never received the Nobel Prize. In my younger years I had attempted to uncover the reason for this remarkable omission by contacting the Nobel Foundation in Stockholm, the overarching body responsible for the administration of the Nobel Prizes. I was politely but firmly informed that, according to the foundation’s statutory rules, ‘Proposals received for the award of a prize, and investigations and opinions concerning the award of a prize, may not be divulged’. This stipulation meant that neither the names of those nominated for a Nobel Prize nor the subsequent prize deliberations were made known to the public. As it was more patiently explained to me, the Nobel Foundation could not and would not confirm whether Freud had ever been under consideration for the prize, let alone release the adjudicative details of his evaluation had