The National Book Critics Circle is currently soliciting paragraphs of nomination from our members for the annual Ivan Sandrof Life Achievement Award. The award recognizes a dedication to book culture both long-standing and outstanding. Past winners have included Studs Terkel, Richard Howard, Pauline Kael, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Leslie Fiedler, Albert Murray, Alfred Kazin, Elizabeth Hardwick, William Maxwell, Donald Keene, James Laughlin, Robert Giroux, The Library of America and Leslie A. Marchand. As you can see from this list, publishers and critics have predominated, but by no means to the exclusion of the occasional wild card.
Ivan Sandrof, by the way, was the first president of the NBCC (and the man who first told Nicholas Basbanes, his successor as book editor of the Worcester Evening Gazette, not to be shy about having interviewees inscribe their books).
Please email nominations to us by December 30, 2006.