Word: kaufmann
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...Album's money was first offered Harvard, but the University declined to administer a prize fund. "Actually, Harvard's decision wasn't assnobbish as it might seem," recalls Myron S. Kaufmann, author of the novel Remember Me to God. "The Management of the investment of such a small fund is quite unwieldy and quite a nuisance. Thinking it over, we decided to keep the money in our own hands." The group also decided to abondon its original intention of investing the money. At the suggestion of Frederick Lewis Allen, father of one of the Album staffers and at that time...
...Dana Reed Prize Committee, the ex-Albumers had also to evolve some scheme for the formal administration of their award. Characteristically, they agreed to a plan whose basic element was relaxed informality. "We wanted to increase the prestige value of the award," said Kaufmann. "The best idea we could think of was to invite three different guest judges each year. Asking each judge to serve only once--and on a purely voluntary basis, of course--we could impose on people of higher rank, so to speak...
After the tension of their first year, the Very Young Prize Committee began to find the routine of award presentation somewhat more congenial. For one thing, judges were more readily available. "Once we got going, it was fairly easy," reflects Kaufmann. "Our only obstacle was that the potential judges didn't know who we were at first. But once we were able to tell them that Allen or Weeks had done it, we could approach anyone...
...judges own procedure was as informal as that of the committee, according to Kaufmann. "When the award is finally made in May" it represents a meeting of the minds of all three judges. But it does happen that they sometimes do all their meeting by mail. We prefer it if they get together." Being a aDna Reed Prize judge is, it seems, a far from unnerving experience. The novelist Jean Stafford, a judge in 1954--the year that produced the award's most notable recipient, John Updike '55--declared recently that "I had more pleasure reading for this than almost...
Every award presenting group has its problems, and even the chequered shade of the halls of the Dana Reed Prize Committee is occasionally darkened by worry. In Myron Kaufmann's words, "Our biggest headache now is deciding what publications at Harvard we can accept entries from. There have been a lot of new ones recently, and we'd like to have them included--but we really can never be sure if they're going to be reasonably permanent publications." The committee's own reasonable permanency is, of course, another problem that the Album must eventually face. There is some talk...