In April Schwartz was told by the Prince Bernhard Cultural Foundation that in November he was going to receive their tri-annual prize for the humanities. He had to keep the news under wraps until it was announced by the Foundation, which happened this morning. It was fun keeping the secret, but it’s also fun to let you know about it.
Once every three years since 1992, the Prince Bernhard Cultural Foundation, originally launched under another name in 1940 to aid the war effort, has awarded a prize to a person or institution in the humanities. It is a generous prize of 50,000 euros, of which two-thirds is to be spent on projects in the field of the laureate. Of all the many deserving candidates in the Netherlands, the jury has seen fit to give the 2009 prize to me. It will be awarded on 4 November in the very nice location of the Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ in Amsterdam.
I have not yet seen the jury report, but I hope that the Schwartzlist is mentioned in it. In saying which, I would like to thank all 1166 of you who by subscribing to the list have inspired me to continue writing the columns. With special thanks to those of the fifty original subscribers who have been with me since 1995. That I have not written a column since April may have something to do with the confidentiality attached to the award. There was something peculiarly satisfying about knowing in secret that this announcement was coming.
In the meanwhile, I have embarked on another peculiarly satisfying endeavor. Since the beginning of September, I have been a fellow-in-residence of the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in Wassenaar. More about that will follow in the months to come.
(c) Gary Schwartz 2009. Published on the Schwartzlist on 10 September 2009.
[13 March 2017: The film that the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds made for the award is on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpqjKBuoey0.]Reactions to Gary.Schwartz@xs4all.nl.