Royal Society of Literature
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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The Royal Society of Literature 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, who later became the 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 Coleridge, Yeats, Kipling, Thomas Hardy, and George Bernard Shaw; today's include Chinua Achebe, Antonia Fraser, Athol Fugard, Doris Lessing, V.S. Naipaul, Peter Dickinson, and Tom Stoppard. A newly created Fellow inscribes his or her name on the official roll using either Byron's pen or Dickens' quill.
The Society has an annual magazine, RSL, and administers a number of literary prizes and awards, including the Ondaatje Prize, the Jerwood Awards, and the V. S. Pritchett Memorial Prize. It can confer the honour of Companion of Literature for writers of particular note. It also awards the Benson Medal for lifetime service in the field of literature.
The Society is based at Somerset House in London.
Presidents
- 1820–1832 Thomas Burgess
- 1832–1833 Lord Dover
- 1834–1845 The Earl of Ripon
- 1845–1849 Henry Hallam
- 1849–1851 Lord Northampton
- 1851-1856 Earl of Carlisle
- 1856-1874 Lord Bishop of St. David's
- 1874-1876 Bishop of Thirlwall
- 1876-1885 His Royal Highness, Prince Leopold
- 1885-1893 Sir Patrick de Colquhoun
- 1893-1920 Lord Halsbury
- 1921-1946 Marquess of Crewe
- 1946-1947 Earl of Lytton
- 1947-1982 Lord R. A. Butler, MP
- 1983-1988 Sir Angus Wilson
- 1988-2003 Lord Jenkins
- 2003-Present Sir Michael Holroyd