Books, Arts & Manners: A Passionate Voice

I’m told that those who gathered at the Ritz-Carlton in Chicago just before last Thanksgiving to observe the bestowal of the Ingersoll Prizes “came to hear Naipaul.” The widely respected —and sometimes vilified—Mr. V. S. Naipaul received the T. S. Eliot Award of $15,000, as had Eugene Ionesco, Anthony Powell, and Jorge Luis Borges before him.

“But,” the story goes, “they left talking about Lytle.” The other Ingersoll Prize, the Richard Weaver Award of an equal sum, was given to Andrew Lytle of Tennessee, a recognition previously tendered to such distinguished conservatives as Robert Nisbet, Russell Kirk, and James Burnham. Mr. Lytle stirred the audience with his provocative powers as a raconteur, for which he is legendary.

JT

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J. O. Tate

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I’m told that those who gathered at the Ritz-Carlton in Chicago just before last Thanksgiving to observe the bestowal of the Ingersoll Prizes “came to hear Naipaul.” The widely respected —and sometimes vilified—Mr. V. S. Naipaul received the T. S. Eliot Award of $15,000, as had Eugene Ionesco, Anthony Powell, and Jorge Luis Borges before him.

“But,” the story goes, “they left talking about Lytle.” The other Ingersoll Prize, the Richard Weaver Award of an equal sum, was given to Andrew Lytle of Tennessee, a recognition previously tendered to such distinguished conservatives as Robert Nisbet, Russell Kirk, and James Burnham. Mr. Lytle stirred the audience with his provocative powers as a raconteur, for which he is legendary.