The American Academy of Arts and Letters Ceremonial Awards

The NYPR Archive Collections | Jan 1, 2000

George F. Kennan hosts the ceremony where the American Academy of Arts and Letters bestows honorary membership to Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn, Yasunari Kawabata, Stephen Spender, and full membership to Louise Bogan.

Academy president William Keepers Maxwell presents awards to:

Leonard Anderson (b. 1928), painter
William Christopher (b. 1932), author, _A Private Apocalypse_
Frank Gallo (b. 1933), sculptor
Leonel Gongora, painter (b. 1932)
Red Grooms, (b. 1937), satirist
Sidney Horwitz, (b. 1932), engraver
Ben Kamihira (b. 1924), interiors and human figures
Alice Neel (b. Marion Square, PA), painter
John Ashbery (b. 1927), poet, author of _Rivers and Mountains_
George P. Elliott (b. 1918(, writer
Allen Ginsberg (b. 1926), poet
Hugh Kenner (b. 1923), author of _The Counterfeiters_
L. E. Sissman (b. 1928), poet
Michael Brozen (b. 1934), composer
Jacob Druckman (b. 1928), composer
Nicolas Roussakis (b. 1934), composer
Claudio Spies (b. 1925), composer

Robert Stone (b. 1937), writer of Hall of Mirrors receives the Rome Fellowship in Literature for traveling.

Herbert Elwell (b. 1898), composer, The Happy Hypocrite, receives the Marjorie Peabody Waite Award.

Frederick Exley (b. 1944), writer, A Fan's Notes, receives the Rosenthal Family Foundation Award for Fiction.

Nicholas Sperakis, the painter, receives the Rosenthal Family Foundation Award for Painting.

Pietro Belluschi presents the Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize in Architecture to
Noel Michael McKinnell, architect

Virgil Thomson emotively presents the Award for Distinguished Service to the Arts to
Leopold Stokowski

William Maxwell presents the Award of Merit to
Vladimir Nabokov
and reads a note by the author, who is unable to attend

Julien Levy presents the Gold Medal in Graphic Art to
Leonard Baskin

Lillian Hellman presents the Gold Medal in Literature for drama to Tennesee Williams

Edited recording.

Audio courtesy of the NYC Municipal Archives WNYC Collection

WNYC archives id: 151720
Municipal archives id: T4361

WNYC is funded by sponsors and member donations

WNYC Homepage - Top Stories

Exclusive renderings of Penn Station overhaul show Trump's name with presidential seal

The images show gold-accented railings, columns and escalators, and a new structure around Madison Square Garden.

Gothamist |

Mamdani's First "Neighborhood-Level" Housing Plan

David Brand discusses Mayor Zohran Mamdani's “South of Prospect Plan."

The Brian Lehrer Show |

The U.F.C. President, Dana White, on Donald Trump: “He’s Not a Racist”

White discusses his relationship with the President, the upcoming match on the White House South Lawn, and why he thinks he’s above politics.

The New Yorker Radio Hour |

Episode 4 of American Emergency; The Movement to Kill FEMA

FEMA’s uncertain future. Plus, what happens when the next disaster strikes?

On the Media |