Two American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medals are awarded each year by the academy for distinguished achievement. The two awards are taken in rotation from these categories:
- Belles Lettres and Criticism, and Painting;
- Biography and Music;
- Fiction and Sculpture;
- History and Architecture, including Landscape Architecture;
- Poetry and Music;
- Drama and Graphic Art.
The Academy voted in 1915 to establish an additional Gold Medal for "special distinction" to be given for the entire work of the recipient who is not a member of the academy. The first of these occasional lifetime achievement gold medals was awarded in the next year to former Harvard President, Charles Eliot.
Awards in individual categories are listed below (in alphabetical order) followed by a list of all prizes in reverse chronological order:
- This is an incomplete list, which may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by expanding it with reliably sourced entries.
Read more about American Academy Of Arts And Letters Gold Medals: Special Distinction, Architecture, Belles Lettres, Criticism, Essays, Biography, Drama, Fiction, Novel, Short Story, Graphic Art, History, Music, Painting, Poetry, Sculpture, All Winners
Famous quotes containing the words american, academy, arts, letters and/or gold:
“Im not an American hero. Im a person that loves children.”
—Clara Mcbride Hale (19051992)
“I realized early on that the academy and the literary world alikeand I dont think there really is a distinction between the twoare always dominated by fools, knaves, charlatans and bureaucrats. And that being the case, any human being, male or female, of whatever status, who has a voice of her or his own, is not going to be liked.”
—Harold Bloom (b. 1930)
“I too have arts and sorceries;
Illusion dwells forever with the wave.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (18031882)
“Letters are like wine; if they are sound they ripen with keeping. A man should lay down letters as he does a cellar of wine.”
—Samuel Butler (18351902)
“In our daily intercourse with men, our nobler faculties are dormant and suffered to rust. None will pay us the compliment to expect nobleness from us. Though we have gold to give, they demand only copper.”
—Henry David Thoreau (18171862)