 By 1943, Greene had acquired the reputation of being the "leading English male novelist of his generation", and at the time of his death in 1991 had a reputation as a writer of both deeply serious novels on the theme of Catholicism, and of "suspense-filled stories of detection".Acclaimed during his lifetime, he was shortlisted in 1966 for the Nobel Prize for Literature.In 1967, Greene was among the final three choices, according to Nobel records unsealed on the 50th anniversary in 2017.