Reuterswärd began going to the offices of daily newspapers in Paris and hunting for cast-off press proofs, strike offs, that had no text on them.

Several years later, in 1960, he removed all the letters from a text by Hemingway but retained the punctuation marks. He called this theme, ironically, Prix Nobel. This soon became the title of an entire book, which was actually published in several editions, among them by Bonniers in Sweden and Arturo Schwarz in Italy. The book is relevant in this context because Reuterswärd happily and with brilliance read it aloud, indeed, half-sang it.