Since 1903, members of Arts and Letters have delivered commemorative tributes to fellow members who have passed away. These remarks celebrate and reflect on the lives and work of the members being honored and acknowledge their contribution to the arts. A selection of tributes is now available in the digital archive below. As we prepared this archive, we were reminded that these tributes reflect their times, and, in some instances, include terminology and social and moral judgments we do not endorse.
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Arch, wry, adjacent and remote.
She had a knack of warming without claiming.
She celebrated Language,
knew that Language conducts the world.
She was definer,
marking regeneration and extension.
She knew there's nothing like the accumulation of time
to demonstrate how life goes up and out
and sinks across and will rise down.
She knew that "Greatness" involves
rich heed to authenticity of detail, involves
freshness, large compulsion, and commitment.
(She knew, too, that commitment
can be to evil or to virtue.)
She did not aim for "Greatness" but for Marchette Chute.
Read by John Guare at the Academy Dinner Meeting on April 4, 1995.