Newton Booth Tarkington (July 29, 1869 – May 19, 1946) was an American

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others asp ...

and

dramatist A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...

best known for his novels '' The Magnificent Ambersons'' (1918) and '' Alice Adams'' (1921). He is one of only four novelists to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction more than once, along with

William Faulkner William Cuthbert Faulkner (; September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962) was an American writer known for his novels and short stories set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, based on Lafayette County, Mississippi, where Faulkner spent most o ...

, John Updike, and

Colson Whitehead Arch Colson Chipp Whitehead (born November 6, 1969) is an American novelist. He is the author of eight novels, including his 1999 debut work '' The Intuitionist''; '' The Underground Railroad'' (2016), for which he won the 2016 National Book Awar ...

. In the 1910s and 1920s he was considered the United States' greatest living author. Several of his stories were adapted to film. During the first quarter of the 20th century, Tarkington, along with

Meredith Nicholson Meredith Nicholson (December 9, 1866 – December 21, 1947) was a best-selling author from Indiana, United States, a politician, and a diplomat. Biography Nicholson was born on December 9, 1866, in Crawfordsville, Indiana, to Edward Willis Nic ...

, George Ade, and

James Whitcomb Riley James Whitcomb Riley (October 7, 1849 – July 22, 1916) was an American writer, poet, and best-selling author. During his lifetime he was known as the "Hoosier Poet" and "Children's Poet" for his dialect works and his children's poetry. His ...

helped to create a Golden Age of literature in Indiana. Booth Tarkington served one term in the Indiana House of Representatives, was critical of the advent of automobiles, and set many of his stories in the Midwest. He eventually removed to

Kennebunkport, Maine Kennebunkport is a resort town in York County, Maine, United States. The population was 3,629 people at the 2020 census. It is part of the Portland– South Portland– Biddeford metropolitan statistical area. The town center, the are ...

, where he continued his life work even as he suffered a loss of vision.

Biography

Tarkington was born in

Indianapolis, Indiana Indianapolis (), colloquially known as Indy, is the state capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the seat of Marion County. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the consolidated population of Indianapolis and Mari ...

, the son of John S. Tarkington and Elizabeth Booth Tarkington. He was named after his maternal uncle Newton Booth, then the governor of

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

. He was also related to

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Mayor James Hutchinson Woodworth through Woodworth's wife Almyra Booth Woodworth. Tarkington attended

Shortridge High School Shortridge High School is a public high school located in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. Shortridge is the home of the International Baccalaureate and arts and humanities programs of the Indianapolis Public Schools district.(IPS). Originall ...

in Indianapolis, and completed his secondary education at Phillips Exeter Academy, a boarding school on the East Coast. He attended

Purdue University Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donated land and mone ...

for two years, where he was a member of the

Sigma Chi Fraternity Sigma Chi () International Fraternity is one of the largest North American fraternal literary societies. The fraternity has 244 active (undergraduate) chapters and 152 alumni chapters across the United States and Canada and has initiated more tha ...

and the university's Morley Eating Club. He later made substantial donations to Purdue for building an all-men's

residence hall A dormitory (originated from the Latin word ''dormitorium'', often abbreviated to dorm) is a building primarily providing sleeping and residential quarters for large numbers of people such as boarding school, high school, college or university s ...

, which the university named Tarkington Hall in his honor. Purdue awarded him an honorary doctorate.

College years

Some of his family's wealth returned after the

Panic of 1873 The Panic of 1873 was a financial crisis that triggered an economic depression in Europe and North America that lasted from 1873 to 1877 or 1879 in France and in Britain. In Britain, the Panic started two decades of stagnation known as the ...

, and his mother transferred Booth from Purdue to

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...

. At Princeton, Tarkington is said to have been known as "Tark" among the members of the

Ivy Club The Ivy Club, often simply Ivy, is the oldest eating club at Princeton University, and it is "still considered the most prestigious" by its members. It was founded in 1879 with Arthur Hawley Scribner as its first head. Ivy is one of the "Big Four ...

, the first of Princeton's historic Eating Clubs. He had also been in a short-lived eating club called ''"Ye Plug and Ulster,"'' which became Colonial Club. He was active as an actor and served as president of Princeton's Dramatic Association, which later became the

Triangle Club The Princeton Triangle Club is a theater troupe at Princeton University. Founded in 1891, it is one of the oldest collegiate theater troupes in the United States. Triangle premieres an original student-written musical every year, and then takes ...

, of which he was a founding member according to Triangle's official history. Tarkington made his first acting appearance in the club's Shakespearean spoof ''Katherine'', one of the first three productions in the Triangle's history written and produced by students. Tarkington established the Triangle tradition, still alive today, of producing students' plays. Tarkington returned to the Triangle stage as Cassius in the 1893 production of a play he co-authored, ''The Honorable Julius Caesar''. He edited Princeton's ''Nassau Literary Magazine'', known more recently as ''The Nassau Lit''. While an undergraduate, he socialized with

Woodrow Wilson Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was an American politician and academic who served as the 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921. A member of the Democratic Party, Wilson served as the president of ...

, an associate graduate member of the

. Wilson returned to Princeton as a member of the political science faculty shortly before Tarkington departed; they maintained contact throughout Wilson's life. Tarkington failed to earn his undergraduate A.B. because of missing a single course in the classics. Nevertheless, his place within campus society was already determined, and he was voted "most popular" by the class of 1893.

Awards and recognition

In his adult life, he was twice asked to return to Princeton for the conferral of honorary degrees, an A.M. in 1899 and a Litt.D. in 1918. Tarkington is the only alumnus to have been awarded more than one honorary degree by Princeton University. While Tarkington never earned a college degree, he was accorded many awards recognizing and honoring his skills and accomplishments as an author. He won the Pulitzer Prize in fiction twice, in 1919 and 1922, for his novels '' The Magnificent Ambersons'' and '' Alice Adams''. In 1921 booksellers rated him "the most significant contemporary American author" in a poll conducted by ''Publishers' Weekly''. He won the O. Henry Memorial Award in 1931 for his short story " Cider of Normandy". His works appeared frequently on best sellers lists throughout his life. In addition to his honorary doctorate from Purdue, and his honorary masters and doctorate from Princeton, Tarkington was awarded an honorary doctorate from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

, the administrator of the Pulitzer Prize, and several other universities. Many aspects of Tarkington's Princeton years and adult life were paralleled by the later life of another writer, fellow Princetonian

F. Scott Fitzgerald Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (September 24, 1896 – December 21, 1940) was an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer. He is best known for his novels depicting the flamboyance and excess of the Jazz Age—a term he popularize ...

Tarkington as "The Midwesterner"

Tarkington was an unabashed

Midwestern The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of the United States. I ...

regionalist and set much of his fiction in his native

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...

. In 1902, he served one term in the Indiana House of Representatives as a

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

. Tarkington saw such public service as a responsibility of gentlemen in his socio-economic class, and consistent with his family's extensive record of public service. This experience provided the foundation for his book '' In the Arena: Stories of Political Life''. While his service as an Indiana legislator was his only official public service position, he remained politically conservative his entire life. He supported

Prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcohol ...

, opposed FDR, and worked against FDR's New Deal. Tarkington was one of the more popular American novelists of his time. His '' The Two Vanrevels'' and '' Mary's Neck'' appeared on the annual best-seller lists a total of nine times. The '' Penrod'' novels depict a typical upper-middle class American boy of 1910 vintage, revealing a fine, bookish sense of American humor. At one time, his ''Penrod'' series was as well known as ''

Huckleberry Finn Huckleberry "Huck" Finn is a fictional character created by Mark Twain who first appeared in the book ''The Adventures of Tom Sawyer'' (1876) and is the protagonist and narrator of its sequel, ''Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'' (1884). He is 12 ...

'' by Mark Twain. Much of Tarkington's work consists of satirical and closely observed studies of the American class system and its foibles. He himself came from a

patrician Patrician may refer to: * Patrician (ancient Rome), the original aristocratic families of ancient Rome, and a synonym for "aristocratic" in modern English usage * Patrician (post-Roman Europe), the governing elites of cities in parts of medieval ...

family that lost much of its wealth after the

. Today, he is best known for his novel '' The Magnificent Ambersons'', which

Orson Welles George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter, known for his innovative work in film, radio and theatre. He is considered to be among the greatest and most influential f ...

filmed in 1942. It is included in the Modern Library's list of top-100 novels. The second volume in Tarkington's ''Growth'' trilogy, it contrasted the decline of the "old money" Amberson dynasty with the rise of "new money" industrial tycoons in the years between the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...

and

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. Tarkington dramatized several of his novels; some were eventually filmed including '' Monsieur Beaucaire'', '' Presenting Lily Mars'', and '' The Adventures and Emotions of Edgar Pomeroy'', made into a serialized film in 1920 and 1921. He also collaborated with Harry Leon Wilson to write three plays. In 1928, he published a book of reminiscences, ''The World Does Move''. He illustrated the books of others, including a 1933 reprint of ''Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'', as well as his own. He took a close interest in fine art and collectibles, and was a trustee of the John Herron Art Institute. Tarkington was married to Louisa Fletcher from 1902 until their divorce in 1911. Their only child, Laurel, was born in 1906 and died in 1923. He married Susanah Keifer Robinson in 1912. They had no children. Tarkington began losing his eyesight in the 1920s. He continued producing his works by dictating to a secretary. Despite his failing eyesight, between 1928 and 1940 he edited several historical novels by his

Kennebunkport Kennebunkport is a resort town in York County, Maine, United States. The population was 3,629 people at the 2020 census. It is part of the Portland– South Portland–Biddeford metropolitan statistical area. The town center, the are ...

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and ...

, neighbor Kenneth Roberts, who described Tarkington as a "co-author" of his later books and dedicated three of them (''Rabble in Arms'', ''

Northwest Passage The Northwest Passage (NWP) is the sea route between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans through the Arctic Ocean, along the northern coast of North America via waterways through the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. The eastern route along the Arc ...

'', and ''Oliver Wiswell'') to him. Tarkington underwent eye surgery in February 1929. In August 1930, he suffered a complete loss in his eyesight and was rushed from Maine to Baltimore for surgery on his right eye. He had an additional two operations in the latter half of 1930. In 1931, after five months of blindness, he underwent a fifth and final operation. The surgery resulted in a significant restoration in Tarkington's eyesight. However, his physical energy was diminished for the remainder of his life. Tarkington maintained a home in his native Indiana at 4270 North Meridian in Indianapolis. From 1923 until his death, Tarkington spent summers and then much of his later life in

at his much loved home, ''Seawood''. In Kennebunkport he was well known as a sailor, and his schooner, the ''Regina'', survived him. ''Regina'' was moored next to Tarkington's boathouse, ''The Floats'' which he also used as his studio. His extensively renovated studio is now the Kennebunkport Maritime Museum. It was from his home in Maine that he and his wife Susannah established their relation with nearby

Colby College Colby College is a private liberal arts college in Waterville, Maine. It was founded in 1813 as the Maine Literary and Theological Institution, then renamed Waterville College after the city where it resides. The donations of Christian philant ...

Tarkington - Jameson Mausoleum - June 2022 - Sarah Stierch

Tarkington made a gift of some his papers to

, his ''alma mater'', and his wife Susannah, who survived him by over 20 years, made a separate gift of his remaining papers to

after his death. Purdue University's library holds many of his works in its Special Collection's Indiana Collection. Indianapolis commemorates his impact on literature and the theatre, and his contributions as a Midwesterner and "son of Indiana" in its Booth Tarkington Civic Theatre. He is buried in

Crown Hill Cemetery Crown Hill Cemetery is a historic rural cemetery located at 700 West 38th Street in Indianapolis, Marion County, Indiana. The privately owned cemetery was established in 1863 at Strawberry Hill, whose summit was renamed "The Crown", a high point ...

in Indianapolis.

Legacy

In the 1910s and 1920s, Tarkington was regarded as the great American novelist, as important as Mark Twain. His works were reprinted many times, were often on best-seller lists, won many prizes, and were adapted into other media. ''Penrod'' and its two sequels were regular birthday presents for bookish boys. By the later twentieth century, however, he was ignored in academia: no congresses, no society, no journal of ''Tarkington Studies.'' In 1985 he was cited as an example of the great discrepancy possible between an author's fame when alive and oblivion later. According to this view, if an author succeeds at pleasing his or her contemporaries — and Tarkington's works have not a whiff of social criticism — he or she is not going to please later readers of inevitably different values and concerns. In an essay titled "Hoosiers: The Lost World of Booth Tarkington", appearing in the May 2004 issue of ''

The Atlantic ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...

'', Thomas Mallon wrote of Tarkington that "only general ignorance of his work has kept him from being pressed into contemporary service as a literary environmentalist — not just a 'conservationist,' in the TR mode, but an emerald-Green decrier of internal combustion":

The automobile, whose production was centered in Indianapolis before World War I, became the snorting, belching villain that, along with soft coal, laid waste to Tarkington's Edens. His objections to the auto were aesthetic—in ''The Midlander'' (1923) automobiles sweep away the more beautifully named "phaetons" and "surreys"—but also something far beyond that. Dreiser, his exact Indiana contemporary, might look at the Model T and see wage slaves in need of unions and sit-down strikes; Tarkington saw pollution, and a filthy tampering with human nature itself. "No one could have dreamed that our town was to be utterly destroyed," he wrote in ''The World Does Move''. His important novels are all marked by the soul-killing effects of smoke and asphalt and speed, and even in ''Seventeen'', Willie Baxter fantasizes about winning Miss Pratt by the rescue of precious little Flopit from an automobile's rushing wheels.

In an essay titled "The Rise and Fall of Booth Tarkington", appearing in the November 11, 2019 issue of ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'',

Robert Gottlieb Robert Adams Gottlieb (born April 29, 1931) is an American writer and editor. He has been editor-in-chief of Simon & Schuster, Alfred A. Knopf, and ''The New Yorker''. Early life and education Robert Gottlieb was born to a Jewish family in New Y ...

wrote that Tarkington "dwindled into America's most distinguished hack." Gottlieb criticized Tarkington's anti-modernist perspective, "his deeply rooted, unappeasable need to look longingly backward, an impulse that goes beyond nostalgia" for preventing him from "producing so little of real substance." In June 2019, the

Library of America The Library of America (LOA) is a nonprofit publisher of classic American literature. Founded in 1979 with seed money from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Ford Foundation, the LOA has published over 300 volumes by authors rang ...

published ''Booth Tarkington: Novels & Stories'', collecting '' The Magnificent Ambersons'', '' Alice Adams'', and ''In the Arena: Stories of Political Life''.

Works

Trilogies

Penrod

# 1914: '' Penrod'' # 1916: '' Penrod and Sam'' # 1929: '' Penrod Jashber'' Two film musicals were loosely based on the ''Penrod'' series, '' On Moonlight Bay'' (1951) and its sequel, '' By the Light of the Silvery Moon'' (1954), with Doris Day and

Gordon MacRae Albert Gordon MacRae (March 12, 1921 – January 24, 1986) was an American actor, singer and radio/television host who appeared in the film versions of two Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals ''Oklahoma!'' (1955) and '' Carousel'' (1956) and who p ...

Growth

# 1915: ''The Turmoil'' # 1918: '' The Magnificent Ambersons''
Winner of the 1919 Pulitzer Prize
Adapted for a 1942 film by

and a 2002 television movie # 1923: ''The Midlander'' (re-titled ''National Avenue'' in 1927)

Novels

* 1899: ''The Gentleman from Indiana'' * 1900: '' Monsieur Beaucaire''
Later adapted as a play, an operetta and two films:

1924 Events January * January 12 – Gopinath Saha shoots Ernest Day, whom he has mistaken for Sir Charles Tegart, the police commissioner of Calcutta, and is arrested soon after. * January 20– 30 – Kuomintang in China holds ...

and 1946 * 1901: ''Old Grey Eagle'' * 1903: ''Cherry''
Serialized in '' Harper's Magazine'', January and February 1901 * 1902: ''The Two Vanrevels'' (1902) * 1905: ''The Beautiful Lady'' * 1905: ''The Conquest of Canaan'' * 1907: ''The Guest of Quesnay'' * 1907: ''His Own People'' * 1909: ''Beasley's Christmas Party'' * 1912: ''Beauty and the Jacobin, an Interlude of the French Revolution'' * 1913: ''The Flirt'', adapted for '' The Flirt (1922 film)'' * 1916: '' Seventeen'' * 1916: ''The Spring Concert'' * 1917: ''The Rich Man's War'' * 1919: ''Ramsey Milholland'' * 1921: '' Alice Adams''
Winner of the

1922 Pulitzer Prize The following are the Pulitzer Prizes for 1922. Journalism awards *Pulitzer Prize for Public Service, Public Service: **''New York World'' - For articles exposing the operations of the Ku Klux Klan, published during September and October, 1921. *Pu ...

Adapted for film in

1923 Events January–February * January 9 – Lithuania begins the Klaipėda Revolt to annex the Klaipėda Region (Memel Territory). * January 11 – Despite strong British protests, troops from France and Belgium occupy the Ruhr area, t ...

and 1935 * 1922: '' Gentle Julia''
Filmed in

and

1936 Events January–February * January 20 – George V of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India, dies at his Sandringham Estate. The Prince of Wales succeeds to the throne of the United Kingdom as King E ...

* 1925: ''Women'' * 1927: ''The Plutocrat'' * 1928: ''Claire Ambler'' * 1928: ''The World Does Move'' * 1930: ''Mirthful Haven'' * 1932: ''Mary's Neck'' * 1933: ''Presenting Lily Mars''
Adapted for film in

1943 Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January * January 1 – WWII: The Soviet Union announces that 22 German divisions have been encircled at Stalingrad, with 175,000 killed and 137,650 captured. * January 4 ...

* 1934: ''Rumbin Galleries'' (romantic novel) * 1934: ''Little Orvie'' * 1936: ''Horse and Buggy Days''
Appeared in '' Cosmopolitan'', September 1936 * 1936: ''The Lorenzo Bunch'' * 1941: ''The Fighting Littles'' * 1941: ''The Heritage of Hatcher Ide'' * 1943: ''Kate Fennigate'' * 1945: ''Image of Josephine'' * 1947: ''The Show Piece'' (posthumously published)

Short story collections

* ''In the Arena: Stories of Political Life'' (1905) * ''The Fascinating Stranger and Other Stories'' (1923)

Short stories

* 1919: ''War Stories'' (one of Tarkington's stories was included in this anthology) * Miss Rennsdale Accepts )19__)

Collections

* 1904: ''Poe's Run: and other poems … to which is appended the book of the chronicles of the Elis'' (co-author, with M'Cready Sykes) * 1921: ''Harlequin and Columbine''

Non-fiction

What the Victory or Defeat of Germany Means to Every American (1917) * 1926: ''Looking Forward, and Others''
Contains "Looking Forward to the Great Adventure", "Nipskillions", "The Hopeful Pessimist", "Stars in the Dust-heap", "The Golden Age" and "Happiness Now" * The Collector's Whatnot (1923) * Just Princeton (1924) * The World Does Move (1929) * 1939: ''Some Old Portraits'' (essays on 17th century artworks) * What We've Got to Do (1942) * Booth Tarkington On Dogs (1944) * Your Amiable Uncle (1949) * On Plays, Playwrights, and Playgoers (1959)

Plays

* 1908: ''The Man from Home'' (stage play co-written with Harry Leon Wilson) * 1910: ''Your Humble Servant'' (stage play co-written with Harry Leon Wilson) * 1917: ''Mister Antonic'' (stage play) * 1919: ''The Gibson Upright'' (stage play co-written with Harry Leon Wilson) * 1919: '' Clarence: A Comedy in Four Acts'' (stage play) * 1921: ''The Country Cousins: A Comedy in Four Acts'' (stage play) * 1921: ''The Intimate Strangers: A Comedy in Three Acts'' (stage play) * 1922: ''The Wren: A Comedy in Three Acts'' (stage play) * 1922: ''The Ghost Story'' (stage play) * 1923: ''The Trysting Place'' (stage play) * 1926: ''Bimbo the Pirate'' (stage play) * 1927: ''Station YYYY'' (stage play) * 1927: ''The Travellers'' (stage play) * 1930: ''How's Your Health? A Comedy in Three Acts'' (stage play) * 1935: ''Mister Antonio: A Play in Four Acts'' (stage play) * 1945: ''Lady Hamilton and Her Nelson'' (radio play, written in 1940)

References

Harry Ransom Center The Harry Ransom Center (until 1983 the Humanities Research Center) is an archive, library and museum at the University of Texas at Austin, specializing in the collection of literary and cultural artifacts from the Americas and Europe for the pur ...

Online editions

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Tarkington, Booth 1869 births 1946 deaths 19th-century American novelists 20th-century American dramatists and playwrights 20th-century American novelists American male dramatists and playwrights American male novelists Burials at Crown Hill Cemetery Novelists from Indiana Old Right (United States) Phillips Exeter Academy alumni Princeton University alumni Pulitzer Prize for the Novel winners Purdue University alumni Writers from Indiana Writers from Indianapolis Republican Party members of the Indiana House of Representatives 20th-century American male writers Shortridge High School alumni Indianapolis Museum of Art people Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters