In addition to his long publishing history, Kunitz has also been honored with many awards, including a National Book Award, the Bolligen Prize, and a Pulitzer Prize. Kunitz served from 1974 to 1976 as Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress, the post which preceded that of U.S. Poet Laureate. Random House will build a historic archive of its books and author correspondence. According to the New York Times, America's oldest publisher plans to build a proper archive within commuting distance of Manhattan. Archives are currently stored in a random manner, in spaces that have varying temperatures and humidity.
Retrieval methods depend on the collective memory of company employees.
Once the archive is built, historians, researchers, and Random House employees will have access to many first edition books, author letters, and photographs from the likes of Gertrude Stein, William Faulkner, and Eugene O'Neill. For the time being, the company continues to house materials in a company warehouse in Westminster, MD, at the University of Texas, and at Columbia University. The Times reported that Random House's U.K. office may also construct an archival facility. Stephen King will soon break even on his online self-publishing project. King recently posted the first part of his serialized novel, The Plant, and it was afterward reported in the New York Times that 152,132 copies were downloaded during the first week.