| The Benson Medal was
founded in 1916 by AC Benson, scholar, author and Fellow of
the Society, ‘in respect of meritorious works in poetry, fiction,
history and belles lettres’. The medal honours a whole career
rather than to a single work. The medal has been awarded several
times to writers in other languages, and is occasionally awarded
those who are not writers, but who have done conspicuous service
to literature.
Recipients include: Anita Desai, Maureen
Duffy, Lytton Strachey,
George Santayana, Edmund Blunden, JRR Tolkien, Philip Larkin,
Nadine Gordimer and Christopher Fry.
Recent recipients
2006
Ronald Blythe: poet, novelist, essayist and critic, author
of the classic ‘Akenfield’, which has been continually in
print since its publication in 1969.
Joan Winterkorn: Manuscript expert, who, in her long career
with Bernard Quaritch, has perhaps done more than any other
individual to help keep the manuscripts of British writers in
this country.
2005
Edward Upward: Novelist and short-story writer, author of
‘The Railway Accident’, friend and mentor of Auden,
Isherwood and Spender, and the last link with that 1930s
generation.
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