Sartre declined the Nobel Prize on October 22, 1964. The Swedish Academy had chosen him for the literature prize, and he turned it down, saying that a writer should not allow himself to be turned into an institution. The refusal made more noise than the prize would have.
He had known the honor was coming. Word had leaked before the announcement, and Sartre wrote to the Academy asking not to be considered, but the prize was awarded anyway. He then made his refusal public, explaining that he had always declined official distinctions, including the Legion of Honor years before.
The reasons were political. They were also personal. Sartre said that an award from the west might be read as taking sides in the Cold War, and that his acceptance could be used against writers of the eastern bloc. He also held that a writer's freedom lay in staying outside all institutions, even the ones that honored him.
He never took the money. The prize, with its cash value, went unclaimed, and Sartre continued his life and work as before, no richer and no more decorated. His stance was entirely consistent with the philosophy he had spent his life writing.
The refusal became part of his legend. It fit him. A man who argued that existence precedes essence, and that people make themselves through their choices, chose to refuse the highest honor in letters. It was an act that proved the point he had been making all along.