I Would Like to Thank…

The annu­al meet­ing of the Amer­i­can Library Asso­ci­a­tion begins this week. The win­ners of the var­i­ous book awards are no doubt eye­ing the fes­tiv­i­ties with some trep­i­da­tion because they will be pre­sent­ing speech­es. This has been going on since the first New­bery Award was pre­sent­ed in 1922. Tra­di­tion­al­ly called “Accep­tance Papers,” the speech­es are the bul­l’s-eye of events that have over the years mor­phed from nice lit­tle white-glove lun­cheons into galas.

The Bookol­o­gist has been por­ing over the papers from the first 50+ years of the New­bery and Calde­cott awards* and thought, in cel­e­bra­tion of the speechi­fy­ing that will soon be going on in San Fran­cis­co, to share some snip­pets from speech­es past. Enjoy.

*Sources:

Mahoney, Bertha Miller, and Eli­nor Whit­ney Field, eds. New­bery Medal Books, 1922 – 1955, with Their Author’s Accep­tance Papers & Relat­ed Mate­r­i­al Chiefly from the Horn Book Mag­a­zine. Boston: Horn Book, 1955. Print.

Mahoney, Bertha Miller, and Eli­nor Whit­ney Field, eds. Calde­cott medal books, 1938 – 1957, with the Artist’s Accep­tance Papers & Relat­ed Mate­r­i­al Chiefly from the Horn Book Mag­a­zine. Boston: Horn Book, 1957. Print.

King­man, Lee, ed. New­bery and Calde­cott medal books, 1956 – 1965: with accep­tance papers, biogra­phies, and relat­ed mate­r­i­al chiefly from the Horn book mag­a­zine. Boston: Horn Book, 1965. Print.

King­man, Lee, ed. New­bery and Calde­cott medal books, 1966 – 1975: with accep­tance papers, biogra­phies, and relat­ed mate­r­i­al chiefly from the Horn book mag­a­zine. Boston: Horn Book, 1975. Print.