Washington Irving Medal for Literary Excellence (1993,2000,2005,2010)

from Saint Nicholas Society’s web site, accessed 2/1/10, which does NOT have a list of all the winners.

The Saint Nicholas Society celebrates New York and the people that make it dynamic and exciting. It achieves this in several ways:

1) Honoring artists and scholars who have distinguished themselves through their work with the Washington Irving Medal for Literary Excellence, an award established in 1985. Recipients include: Louis Auchincloss, Simon Schama, David McCullough, Christopher Buckley, Russell Shorto and Charles Gehring (jointly), and Ron Chernow.

As their most literary of founders, then, Irving’s name appears on their Medal for Literary Excellence — but  writing about Irving is not a requirement for the award! David McCullough won it for Truman in 1993, Ron Chernow received it for Alexander Hamilton in 2005, while Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace got it in 2000 for Gotham.

2010 Award -- One of the more distinguished New York City literary prizes was awarded to Brian Jay Jones, author of Washington Irving: An American Original. The Associated Press called the book "authoritative" and the Washington Post's Michael Dirda praised it as "engaging, clearly written, and well researched."