This is a machine-generated transcript. Text is unformatted and may contain errors.

Members and guests of the American Academy and the National Institute of Arts and Letters. Once again we find ourselves assembled here for the annual ceremonial of these two sister institutions. Once again the time in which we meet. Is I am afraid a troubled and in many ways disturbing one and this state of affairs cannot fail to reflect itself on anything as sensitive as the fine arts the life of the arts to the further in supports these institutions are dedicated. Has gone forward during this past year in its own unpredictable and thank God ungovernable way. But it has had no choice in the circumstances I think but to go forward at times under the inspiration of moral feeling and conscience as well as under the inspiration of the love of beauty now both of these fortunately can be a legitimate sources of artistic Korea creativity what is important what is essential in every case is simply the will to self-expression. To self-expression with grace and subtlety and power. It is this that has been and is being carried forward and it is this that we are here today to celebrate and to honor I hope that the occasion brings to the rest of you the same sort of comfort and encouragement and the same reassuring sense of the fellowship of all the arts that it brings to me. Before we go on to the regular items of the agenda we might open the doors and let any late comers take their places if there are any others who would like to be seated. Are there any others on the other side there who are waiting to come in if there are you might. The first item on the agenda is the induction of the newly elected. Honorary Members of the Institute and academy these of course are people who are not Americans their distinguished. Foreign personages in the arts whom we accept into honorary membership there are three of these this year. One is the Japanese novelist yes or not it come about that. The second is the Russian writer novelist attics on the side of each soldier in the it's in the third is the English poet and Mt of letters Stephen Spender. Neither Mr Comer bottom enormous to Solzhenitsyn is able to be here with us today. We have in fact not yet been able to communicate with Mr Solzhenitsyn although we have sent to him notification of his election. The citation and credentials of membership for Mr Cohen. Are to be presented to him and should very shortly by the former secretary of this institute Mr Lay on Adele at a ceremony in Hawaii where both men happen to be at this time. Mr Cohen. Has however been kind enough to express to me in a personal letter. His appreciation for the sentiments that led to his election and his regrets at is inability to be here present personally today. This letter which you. May be able to see something of here is that. It's in itself such a work of beauty that. I think Mr Carwell bottom I Tarver and this is just his membership for his work in the visual arts even though he not earned it for his great distinction in the literary ones. The new. The citation that will be presented to Mr Cowen by Mr Ed Del reads as follows novelist critic poet and Nobel Prize winner whose beautiful novels have made a deep impression on the American public as well as on his own yes or no Rick how about is a worthy successor to Thomas Aki as an honorary member of the National Institute and the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Since it has not been possible to arrange for the formal induction of Mr Solzhenitsyn I will not read his citation today we shall hope that we'll have a more favorable occasion to do that. We are fortunate in having with us for this occasion the third of these on the runts my friend and stern critic Stephen Spender and I'd derive a special pride and pleasure from the privilege I have of making the presentation to him Stephen Will you stand forward. In the end the a. Poet. Author of short stories. Editor critic. Guardian of artistic and intellectual freedom Stephen Spender has made a major contribution to the literary arts both in his native country of England and here. As a figure for a long well known to the American reading public. He was going to meet him with a respectful and affectionate welcome among the members of this academy and institute and I am very pleased to be able to to be the first to be able to extend it to him. And the thanks. We come now to the annual presentation of the various awards of the academy and institute and for this purpose I'm going to turn to the president of the Institute Mr William Maxwell. Of standing on this platform ten years ago for the first time when I left my seat I was expecting to be handed an envelope with a check in it for which I was indeed most grateful but I also got something I was not expecting. But as the envelope was put into my hand I saw that Malcolm Carley was not just looking at me he was looking directly into my eyes in full recognition of who I was and what had brought me here and I was so startled and so moved that for an instant I totally forgot that I was supposed to go back to my seat in the audience. What is singular. About the grants of the academy and the institute is that they represent a kind of awareness that is needed commercial nor institutional a recognition given to artists by artists to writers by writers to composers by composers no outside influence can be brought to bear on it only the accomplishment can bring it about the three grants committees in art literature and music working sometimes in easy agreement and sometimes in profound and total disagreement but in any case working like the devil have in the end arrived at these twenty one men and women. Whom it is our delight to honor this day and each of whom we are extending with this grand our love. For his beautiful work for his courageous and patient and hard driving life as an artist and for his incorruptible self. It has been left to the discretion of the committees whether the grants should be in the amount of five thousand dollars or half that amount with double the number of grantees the brief citations I am about to read have been written with the assistance of the committee members. Now of the grantees will come forward as I call their names in alphabetical order. I suggest to the audience of the BE no applause until I have finished reading the citation. Anderson. To Leonard Anderson born in Detroit in one thousand twenty eight for the clarity of his perception and the cool inducts of harmonies and his painting. Thank you. William Christopher. To William Christopher born in nineteen twenty four in Columbia GA for his original vision of mankind a private apocalypse. Thanks. Frank Gallo. To Frank Gallagher a sculptor born in Toledo Ohio in one nine hundred thirty three. For his sophisticated and convincing use of plastic material portraying types of humanity in a spirit of caricature and compassion. Thank you for of. Layer no Gandara. To lay an egg on Gar a painter born in Karnataka Columbia in one nine hundred thirty two for his poetic mingling of the savage and the passionate vesting the tradition of figure skating with new spirit. Thank you. Read rooms. To Red Room was born in Nashville Tennessee in one nine hundred thirty seven Mr grooms is a satirist not a bitter but rather again beguiling one in three dimensional compositions as well as on canvas he depicts our noisy teeming streets are crowded sociability dancing eating and making love. For fifty. Said need her bit. To Sydney her wits born in Worcester Massachusetts in one nine hundred thirty two for his modern mastery of the old techniques of Engraving. Worth of. Ben cam here. To Bend County here born in Yakima Washington in one nine hundred twenty four for his large interiors that had inhabited by withdrawing melancholy and complicatedly composed human figures. For fifty. Alice Neal. To Alice Neal born in Marion Square Pennsylvania for her deeply disquieting portraits which people have presented as psychological and sociological evidence of a disorder that is always present. Thanks for the. John Ashbery. To John Ashbery born in Rochester from Rochester New York in one thousand twenty seven for his book rivers and mountains and especially for his long poem the skaters expressive of a dazzling liberation from logical sequence. Which Thanks. George. To George P. born in Knight's town Indiana in one thousand eight hundred and whose narrative and critical writing literary judgment and personal experience come together to produce an effect of great candor kindness and good humor. For the. Out of Ginsberg. Allen Ginsberg born in Newark New Jersey one thousand nine hundred twenty six for his poems that celebrate the life of continue appreciation. He takes on himself chaos and madness without their masks he makes his chance incantations out of the law prophetical music. His poems are signals in our time that everything that is holy. For the. Hue can or. To hew can are born in Peterborough Ontario Canada in one thousand nine hundred three whose most recent work for the counterfeiters deals with themes of the farcical intellect carried to extremes. For the. System and. Been Born in Detroit Michigan in one nine hundred twenty eight the poetry of Mr assessment is unadorned but never flat never diffuse brilliantly and objectively communicating forms of personal experience. For the. Michael Rosen. To Michael Brown. Born in New York City in one nine hundred thirty four. And instrumental compositions. Exceptional sensitivity and musicality. They are to. Jacob Druckman. To Jacob Druckman born in Philadelphia in one nine hundred twenty eight an adventurous and inventive composer in command of an expanded contemporary sound. Of the are the. Nicholas. To Nicholas Christakis born in Athens Greece in one nine hundred thirty four and its structure Mr music is both lucid and intricate beneath an often placid and reserved surface. It has the complex and constrained Passion of the classic composers. We are tired of. Cloud. To cloud. Born in. One thousand nine hundred twenty five composer conductor teacher and scholar. Mr speech has distilled from the past and the present. A Creative Mode possessing the immediacy of the person. And the promise of lasting interest. For the thing. There are in addition these special awards the American Academy of Arts and Letters confers each year upon a young writer of great promise a fellowship designed to make possible a year's residence and traveling abroad this year is in the amount of nine thousand dollars and has been given to Robert Stone. For the thanks. To Robert Stone born in Brooklyn in one nine hundred thirty seven for the sustained nightmare vision the unflagging reality and the narrative drive of his novel hall of mirrors. For the. The Marjorie Peabody weight award is conferred annually on an older person for continuing creativity and integrity in his art. It is given in rotation to an artist a composer and a writer. This year it is the composer's turn and is being given to her. For that. To. Born in Minneapolis Minnesota in eight hundred ninety eight. The distinguished composer of various works for voice and orchestra piano pieces and songs including the admirable ballet suite the happy hypocrite. For him. The two annual awards of two thousand dollars made possible by the Richard and Rosenthal Foundation are for first an American work of fiction published during the previous twelve months which though not a commercial success is a considerable literary achievement. It is being given this year to Frederick Exley. Thank you or. To Frederick actually born in Watertown New York in one thousand nine hundred four boys are to be a graphic novel A Fan's Notes with its maniacal and extended preoccupation with football and other games. Which were with of. The second Rosenthal award is for a younger American patriot of great distinction whose work has not yet been accorded the recognition it deserves is being given to Nicholas bear after us. Of the are the. Two Nicholas brackets born in New York City in one nine hundred forty three in recognition of his vitality and spontaneity as a painter fervently concerned with the fate of mankind. For the or the. I'm now going to ask an architect member Mr Petro below to make the present ation of the Arnold W. BRAWNER prize in architecture. Mr Noah Michael McCann on their seventh of the one thousand nine hundred sixty nine burner Memorial Award in architecture. Belongs to a young generation of creative designers who are attempting to provide new insight for our contemporary scene. In a world where old institutions and old believes are under questions. He has given fresh affirmative and vigorous answers. Among the banalities an over profit and loss to society and through the leveling grind of political constraints where architecture is seldom allowed to rise above them in the arc of the of the marketplace he and his colleagues have produced works of art for strength and poetic content indeed a fresh promise of fulfillment for the human spirit that the patient for Mr LET can know you one step here. Is we're searching new and vigorous ways the never ending quest for poetic expression in architecture. Thank you for that. It is the custom of these institutions. To bestow a special award each year to someone to whom in our opinion the world of the arts owns a very special debt for the support of its purposes and activities. For the presentation of this award I'm going to turn the rostrum over to Mr Virgil Thompson. Fifth through. By a weird good company today. And in the Land of that. I have in the name of an academy. To. Present to you The opposed to you know list three. My dearest of gods. And the trainer of science of chemistry as a recorder of fine music have long been a model of the world. You have trained. To play and sign you up as tradition trained young to read them. You have also trained to public a vast public to hear it was refined meant and to accept it as part of the its life contemporary music of all who and from all nations. This open door policy and it's relentless observance. Have been unswerving for nigh on to five decades now. And you seem still to be learning and performing new scores with the old perfection virtually one at least in every concept if I read your programs right. Such care for music's creative line. Far beyond the call of duty as this is now days conceived me merits not only our award for distinguished service to the arts but I think where. He is you know we're there being no maker of music and no consumer. Has escaped to a bounty. For the through it if. We all just do our best. And. We have a motto in the American Symphony Orchestra which is to better we're out here all the time every rehearsal Veta every concert better quality and it would be a good motto for life all over the world today United States and every country when we are killing. Instead of lobbying to do a better world. We come now to the senior awards the highest that these organizations and I think any organization in this country are capable of conferring the first of these is their ward of merit given in rotation for worked in the fields of painting sculpture the novel poetry and drama. This year it is the novel that has its turn and Mr William Maxwell not not in his capacity as president of the Institute but rather in his capacity as a great novelist in his own right will make the announcement of its presentation. The award of merit. Has been given to these five novelists only to the author of appointment in Samoa to the author of point counterpoint to the author of The Sun Also Rises to the author of Death in Venice and the author of Sister care it is being given this year to bed even a book off the one in St Petersburg in one thousand nine hundred nine Mr new book off is the Phoenix we had no reason to expect. He is one more in the line of great Russian storytellers and strangely he is our own we got him through accident history displaced him personally deprivation made him a great literary artist we are forever indebted to him for a divine comedy about the faulty communication between the hand and the head and the grand tragedy in which a blind man is undone in a game of hide and seek with his teetering tormentors the book off characters are deceiving and self deceiving men and women in whom we recognize profoundly ourselves his parts are chess games in which the chess men try to make up their own rules and naturally they fail at it this failure is transmitted into our His account of a heartless middle aged man and sexual pursuit of an even more heartless pre-adolescent girl turns out in the end to be by a feat of literary prestidigitation heartbreaking. No living novelist is better at sensory description or is written more movingly of the longing of the living to be reunited with the dead he was the vaudeville magician par excellence the stunning us again and again by producing out of the air in front of our eyes life untampered with. He is also the poet dealing in prose fiction with the shifting fictitious nature of reality with the artifice that we call time with the aurora borealis of memory there is no discoverable limit to his range or to his talent and sadness is very home. Mr book Off cannot be here today and sent a few words despite the hard things father has to say about terribly he should also have included Really I am really terribly sorry not to be present in the handsome old flash at the ceremonial. I can never remember if time is six hours slow or fast in the new word but anyway so as to thwart our I am being telepathically active in Switzerland at both nine am and again at nine pm. On this twenty first of May. And the book off shaped shimmer of grateful elation should be visible just a foot or so to the anatomical right of the Maxwell's right shoulder. Of to. There remain. Only the presentations of the gold medals. Two of these are bestowed annually. And they are being given this year respectively in the fields of graphic art and the drama Mr Julian Levy will make the presentation of the gold medal for graphic art installation. Then at least two or Cajuns of them have had the pleasure Ridge personally great admiration for learn to ski. First in one thousand fifty four. Writing recommendation for him for a Guggenheim fellowship I commented that I was amazed at the quality was graphic work since I'd always thought of him as being primarily a sculptor and then realized that his great graphic of the day was a logical outcome of the brilliant way he had combined his gifts for draftsmanship and understanding of life and with a past history of sculpture. In one hundred sixty one he wrote the following say Taishan in the cage to Mr Baskins receiving a grant from the nationalists to quote he succeeds triumphantly in making even more compelling and beautiful now in one thousand six thousand five hundred gratifying fulfillment of these early assessment with good immaturity is coming Welling and his powerful morally persuasive counter with admirable elegance and probity his suburban craftsmanship the tradition of previous winners of this medal is George gross invention. Deskins Prince reflective quality it seems. Appropriate to. This is. Carrying the full burden. Not without justification best recent work has been characterized combination of savanna room and say Francis. Today I have the great honor of presenting to the best in the name of the American Academy of Arts and it is the gold medal of the two excellent accomplishments in graphics. It were for or was. Thank you Thank you Julian. For continuing to be kind to your own student and to the members of the Institute and the academy my great and deep gratitude for the honor that you do me Thomas aken called himself a scientific realist and Di excuse the parodic Matic assassin style myself and Mario asked I aspire to or realize I'm acutely sensible to the formal fabric and sentient with necessary distortion a real ism which did not as an assassin this so Nason of the figure oh and the representation on which regards arts history as a life free starring benefaction. One struggles to couple that axial realism to a morality which notes the general and venal corruption with anger and anguish notes the horror of a society spoiling in the blood of its you MARL enough to celebrate youths revolt its insistence on life rather than death it is the special province of the graphic arts to be tendentious to excoriate attack and denounce even on occasion to pray and venting scarifying images with specific and immediate purport witness. Coverts. GROSS And Xan painting and sculpture are rather more reflective media they have not the more typically fewer are making didacticism of graphics may I take this medal to mean after Beijing and for the ten year of my work as I as I have so perfectly advanced it here thank you thank you OK. We have the presentation of the gold medal for drama the last recipient of this medal. Five years ago I was living in Helmand. And I think it eminently suitable that it should be she will make the present ation of the today. Of the. Going to be hard. And like talking to us the American see it is indeed a strange and difficult world it will often reward its practitioners with the generosity the approaches to Styria it is then that the critical heart is not only a loving heart but its space in the breast reserve for the rest of us becomes too small and the heart moves upward to find room in the head but evidently the head is not a comfortable place because in time the heart shrinks way and sometimes the head with it and too much loving turn this as it always must and to a sour rheumatic irritation. It is then that the playwright is held responsible for the general skiffs of the once over loving heart and he is turned on in the same spirit as the rich rich turned on the undeserving poor who have not fulfilled their moral hopes. It is no news except in my racket did good work has always been must always be allied with independent plan work that is less good if this were not true then the artist has grown frightened his powers have weakened and his artistic life is over. Criticism of one or any ten words may be and often is justified but such criticism must be based on the body of the work the total work and must be spoken of with respect for the past and hope for the future Tennessee Williams has been a major victim of this unpleasant game of yesterday's genius perhaps that in itself is a kind of tribute to the fact that with the glass menagerie one thousand nine hundred forty four and Streetcar Named Desire one nine hundred forty seven he brought to the theater the greatest challenge of the post-war generation there are many who are good writers who do not influence men who come after them influence is not the only measure of worth but I think it's safe to guess that William's influence in this theater will be there one hundred years from now because the mirror he held in his hand announced a new time almost a new people and that Nero is and remains will remain clear and clean since one thousand nine hundred forty four Mr Williams has written plays novels movies and poems is a dedicated career of a serious man to which we pay respect today. I hope that Mr Williams will be comforted by this medal given given to him by the only body of men and women in this country who are is equal to the gold medal for drama nine hundred sixty nine goes to Mr Tennessee Williams thank you thank you for that. I think essentially a human is you know as going to try and tell you something that make you laugh I hope it does if it doesn't then I'm no good. Perhaps most of you know our of. Marines Stapleton. One time she was seeing. A phone call from a friend of hers who said that. So and so was getting married and Maureen said who is married. And the caller said why is she's marrying there that men you know you don't with say. And. Where. And. What about the Brad. And. The caller said well because we know she's a lesbian. And then the caller said you know they're not even been married by a real minister they have been married by a minister who's been defrocked. And said I know she said to me when. Will you please invite tend to it. And. I think I do know Mr Williams wiser than him Marie and said well he's just playing pope. John the one that completes our program I haven't a very. Good. I will ask you to read yourselves the little directions for reaching the terrace after the ceremony you were to all find on the back of your programs but please do read them thank you very much.