The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is the "senior literary organisation in Britain". It was founded in 1820 by King George IV, in order to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". The society's first president was Thomas Burgess, Bishop of St David's (who was later appointed Bishop of Salisbury). There are 450 fellows of the Royal Society of Literature (generally 14 new fellows are named annually), who earn the privilege of using the post-nominal letters FRSL.
Past fellows include Samuel Taylor Coleridge, W. B. Yeats, Rudyard Kipling, Thomas Hardy, George Bernard Shaw, and Arthur Koestler. Present fellows include Chinua Achebe, Antonia Fraser, Athol Fugard, Doris Lessing, V. S. Naipaul, Peter Dickinson, Tom Stoppard, Helen Dunmore and J. K. Rowling. A newly created fellow inscribes his or her name on the official roll using either Byron's pen or Dickens's quill.
The society publishes an annual magazine, The Royal Society of Literature Review, and administers a number of literary prizes and awards, including the Ondaatje Prize, the Jerwood Awards and the V. S. Pritchett Memorial Prize. From time to time it confers the honour and title of Companion of the Royal Society of Literature to writers of particular note. Likewise the award of the Benson Medal for lifetime service in the field of literature is in its gift.
The RSL also runs a membership scheme and offers a varied programme of monthly lectures to members and their guests.
The Society is a cultural tenant at London's palatial Somerset House.
Read more about Royal Society Of Literature: Presidents, Current Fellows
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