CEREMONIAL PROGRAM

Presentation by the President of the Institute

Malcolm Cowley

Arts and Letters Grants

Charles H. Alston      Herbert Gold        William Maxwell
David Aronson         Hunter Johnson      William Meredith
Al Blaustein         Herbert Katzman     James Purdy
Arnold Franchetti     Billy Jim Layton     Francis Steegmuller
Joseph Frank          R.W.B. Lewis        Jack Zajac
                         Seymour Lipton

Marjorie Peabody Waite Award to Dorothy Parker

Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Foundation Award to Bernard Malamud

Academy in Rome Fellowships to Robert Bagg and George Garrett

Presentation to Lincoln Kirstein of the Award for
Distinguished Service to the Arts

Glenway Wescott

Presentation to Jean de Marco of the Award of Merit Medal
for Sculpture

Paul Manship

Presentation to Henry R. Shepley of The Gold Medal
for Architecture

Lewis Mumford

Presentation to Conrad Aiken of The Gold Medal
for Poetry

Archibald MacLeish

Organ Recessional

Claire Coci, Organist

The National Institute of Arts and Letters

633 WEST 155 STREET
NEW YORK 32, NEW YORK

January 25, 1961

Dear Mr. Hughes:

I have the honor and pleasure to inform you that at the Annual Meeting of the National Institute of Arts and Letters, held this evening, January 25, in New York City, announcement was made of your election as a member of the Department of Literature. Formal induction of new members will take place at our public ceremonial, to be held on May 24, 1961, at three o'clock, at which time you will receive the Diploma of the Institute.

P. S. Please keep the news of your election confidential until it is released to the press. Under separate cover we are sending you a list of the members and a brochure describing the history and functions of the Institute

Mr. Langston Hughes
20 East 127 Street
New York City

January 27, 1961

Mr. Glenway Wescott,
National Institute
of Arts and Letters,
633 West 155th Street,
New York 32, New York.

Dear Glenway:

I am honored to have been elected a member of the Department of Literature of the National Institute of Arts and Letters. I will be present at the induction on May 24 a three o'clock. Thank you for informing me so promptly.

With cordial regards,

NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ARTS AND LETTERS

633 WEST 155 STREET · NEW YORK 32 · NEW YORK

Just a reminder that you have promised to attend the Dinner Meeting

on Tuesday, April 11th, 6:30 P.M.

at the Academy building, 633 W. 155 St., NYC

Please telephone AUdubon 6-1480 or telegraph collect to the address above if
you find you cannot be present.

Felicia Geffen, Assistant Secretary

April 10, 1961

Miss Louise Bogan,
The National Institute,
633 West 155th Street,
New York 32, N. Y.

Dear Miss Bogan:

I reccomend for consideration by the Grant
Committee for Literature of the National
Institute of Arts and Letters:

JULIAN MAYFIELD: Novels---THE HIT (Vanguard)
THE LONG NIGHT "
THE GRAND PARADE
Play------4-1-7

JAMES BALDWIN: Novels---GO TELL IT ON THE
MOUNTAIN
GIOVANNI'S ROOM
Essays---NOTES OF A NATIVE SON

Both authors, I think, are most talented.

April 17, 1961

Mrs. Matthew Josephson,
The National Institute
of Arts and Letters,
633 West 155th Street,
New York 32, New York.

Dear Hannah:

I am sending you by messenger the books and materials listed on the enclosed sheets—all of which the Library may keep if it is desirable to do so. I have duplicates of everything myself, as has the James Weldon Johnson Collection at Yale—except the original manuscript drafts of the short story, SORROW FOR A MIDGET. But these drafts may be a gift to the Institute, if of interest and value to visitors and researchers.

I am also sending you lists of my various books and other writings. If anything is needed for the exhibit that you do not have, perhaps I can lend it to you, if you will let me know what. I think I have first editions of all (or almost all) of my own books to lend if needed.

With cordial regards,

THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ARTS AND LETTERS

633 WEST 155 STREET • NEW YORK 32, N.Y.

TRIBOROUGH
STATION

Karamu Theatre,
Cleveland, Ohio,

May 5, 1961.

Miss Felicia Geffen,
National Institute
of Arts and Letters,
633 West 155th Street,
New York 32, New York.

Dear Miss Geffen:

Mr. Carl Van Vechten tells me it is
my **bounden** duty to rise from my bed (no
matter if I do work al night) and appear
for luncheon with the to-be-inducted new
members of the Institute preceding the
ceremonies on May 24th. Therefore, I will
so do. Please be so kind as to switch my
marks around on the acceptance card from
NO to YES.

Remembering how delightful our last
dinner was, I am looking forward to the
luncheon, and will be seeing you there.

At the moment I am en route to the
Coast where my only close relative—an
uncle who lives alone—is ill.

With cordial regards,

October 27, 1961

Dear Julian:

I am returning herewith your play, "417" which has come back from the Committee who had asked me for names for possible grants. The members read all your books (which they bought) and are meeting sometime later in the fall to make a selection of awardees. I am not on the Committee, so have no idea what will happen, but when I learn, will let you know.

Bill Branch drops a card from London that his play is in rehearsal and going well. Nothing is happening with my Theatre Guild play---casting problems. And what shame about KICKS dropping dead in Chicago! All that $400,000 gone down the drain!

Your piece on Monroe is excellent. What a background for a play?

Did you hear about LeRoi Jones getting indicted for sending his FLOATING BEAR play through the mails---since it out-Henrys Henry Miller? (By a long-shot!)

Cordial regards to your charming wife.
As ever

The American Academy of Arts and Letters

November 10, 1961

To the Members of the Institute:

The American Academy of Arts and Letters cordially invites the members of the National Institute of Arts and Letters and their wives (or husbands) for luncheon on Friday, December 1, 1961 at the Academy building, 633 West 155th Street, New York City. Cocktails will be served at 1:00 P. M. in the Hassam Room, luncheon at 1:15 P. M. in the library.

Luncheon guests will also be welcome at the reading of commemorative tributes to Mark Antony De Wolfe Howe by Mr. Van Wyck Brooks and to Eero Saarinen by Mr. Henry R. Shepley at 12:30 P. M. in the Members Room. If you intend to be present at the reading of the tributes, please be prompt, as no one will be seated after the readings have begun.

The exhibition in the Art Gallery of pictures eligible for purchase on the Childe Hassam Fund will still be open in case you have not yet had an opportunity to see it.

Please make every effort to attend and respond on the enclosed slip.

THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ARTS AND LETTERS

633 WEST 155 STREET • NEW YORK 32 • NEW YORK

February 23, 1962

Dear Fellow Members:

A call for nominations is now in order to fill the four
existing vacancies in the honorary membership of the Academy-Institute.

Nominations received will be considered by the appropriate
Departmental Committees and then presented to the joint boards of the
Academy and the Institute for approval.

Nominations must be submitted in writing and signed by
three members, of whom two must belong to that category of art or
letters in which the candidate has achieved distinction.

Attached is the roster of the present honorary membership.

John Hersey, Secretary
American Academy of Arts and Letters

Marchette Chute, Secretary
National Institute of Arts and Letters

April 9, 1962

Mr. Robert M. Coates, Chr.,
Committee on Grants for Literature,
National Institute of Arts and Letters,
633 West 155th Street,
New York 32, New York.

Dear Mr. Coates:

In answer to your communication of March 30, I suggest
as a possibility for the grants in literature to be given
in 1963: Mr. Arna Bontemps,

919 - 18th Avenue North,
Nashville 8, Tennessee.

Mr. Bontemps, now Librarian of Fisk University, is a quiet
scholarly writer of both prose and poetry, with a continuity
of work covering more than twenty years:

GOD SENDS SUNDAY, a novel
BLACK THUNDER, a novel,
CHARIOT IN THE SKY, factual
THE STORY OF THE NEGRO, factual
LONESOME BOY, juvenile
SAD FACED BOY, juvenile
100 YEARS OF NEGRO FREEDOM, factual

and various books in collaboration with others, including THE
POETRY OF THE NEGRO and THE BOOK OF NEGRO FOLKLORE as co-editor.
I consider him exceptionally worthy of recognition.

April 20, 1962

The Directors of the Academy cordially invite the members of
the National Institute of Arts and Letters and their wives (or husbands) to
attend a luncheon preceding the Ceremonial on Thursday, May 24th.

Cocktails will be served at 12:30 in the Library, luncheon at
1:00 o'clock in the Museum.

The annual Ceremonial of the Academy and the Institute will
be held at 3:00 o'clock in the Auditorium. Members are also invited to
attend the opening of exhibitions in the Art Gallery and Museum at
5:00 o'clock.

Please signify on the enclosed slip whether or not you will
attend the various functions.

November 14, 1962

Miss Felicia Geffen
American Academy,
New York City.

Dear Felicia:

For a Blanhfield speaker:

JOHN MASON BROWN, PHYLLIS MCGINTLEY,
MARIANNE MOORE, or if one wished a talk
on writing in relation to folk materials
or something of the sort, ARNA BONTEMPS,
author and librarian of Fisk University,
could provide an interesting hour.

With cordial regards,

Just a reminder that you have promised to attend the dinner

on April 2 at 6:30

at
the Institute.

MISS FELICIA GEFFEN,
NATIONAL INSTITUTE,
633 WEST 155th STREET,
NEW YORK 32, New York.

JUST BACK IN TOWN FROM LECTURE TRIP WITH
BAD COLD SO REGRET CANNOT ATTEND DINNER
TONIGHT AT THE INSTITUTE SORRY

LANG STON HUGHES

Present - 4/2/63

April 11, 1963

At the last meeting of the Council the following vacancies were
allocated:

7 in Art

9 in Literature

If you have a nomination to make, will you fill in the enclosed
form as proposer and obtain the signatures of two seconders? Any
member may nominate a candidate in any of the departments but at
least two of the three signatories required for the nomination must
be members of the department for which a candidate is proposed.
Members of the Institute must be native or naturalized citizens,
qualified by notable achievement in Art, Literature, or Music.
Nominations close on October 1, 1963.

A short appraisal of your candidate's qualifications (not to
exceed fifty words) should accompany the nomination. The biographical
data will be obtained by the Institute staff.