The Benson Medal is a medal awarded by the Royal Society of Literature in the UK.

It was founded in 1916 by A. C. Benson who was a Fellow of the Society, to honour those who produce "meritorious works in poetry, fiction, history and belles-lettres.".^[1] The medal has been awarded several times to writers in other languages, and is occasionally awarded those who are not writers, but who have done conspicuous service to literature.

The medal is awarded at irregular intervals for life-long achievement. Recipients include: Edmund Blunden, Anita Desai, Maureen Duffy,^[1] E. M. Forster,^[2] Christopher Fry,^[1] John Gawsworth,^[3] Nadine Gordimer, Philip Larkin,^[1] R. K. Narayan^[4] A. L. Rowse,^[5] George Santayana,^[1] Wole Soyinka,^[6] Lytton Strachey, J. R. R. Tolkien,^[1] and Helen Waddell.^[7]

Recent Recipients[link]

2011[link]

• Diana Athill
• Francis King

2010[link]

• Al Alvarez

2009[link]

• Mark Le Fanu
• Kay Dunbar

2008[link]

• John Saumarez Smith
• Douglas Matthews

2007[link]

• Nadine Gordimer

2006[link]

• Ronald Blythe
• Joan Winterkorn — Manuscript expert,

2005[link]

• Edward Upward

Earlier Recipients[link]

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

• 2004 Maureen Duffy ^[8]
• 2003 Anita Desai ^[9]
• 2002 David Sutton ^[10]
• 2001 Christopher Fry ^[11]
• 1990 Wole Soyinka ^[12] Nadine Gordimer ^[13]
• 1981 Sir Sacheverell Sitwell^[14]
• 1980 R. K. Narayan ^[15]
• 1975 Philip Larkin ^[16]
• 1972 A. L. Rowse^[14]
• 1966 J.R.R. Tolkien ^[17]
• 1939 Christopher Hassall^[14] John Gawsworth
• 1937 E.M.Forster^[18]
• 1928 George Santayana
• 1923 Lytton Strachey

References[link]

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Craig R. Benson
79th Governor of New Hampshire
In office January 9, 2003 – January 6, 2005
Preceded by	Jeanne Shaheen
Succeeded by	John Lynch
Personal details
Born	(1954-10-08) October 8, 1954 (age 57) New York, New York
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Denise Benson
Profession	Businessman
Religion	Roman Catholic

Craig R. Benson (born in New York City, October 8, 1954^[1]) is an American politician and businessman. He served as Governor of New Hampshire from 2003 to 2005. Benson first came to public attention by founding Cabletron Systems, now known as Enterasys Networks that became one of the largest employers in New Hampshire.

Early life and business career[link]

Benson attended Chatham High School in Chatham, New Jersey. After receiving a bachelor's degree in finance from Babson College in 1977, Benson attended Syracuse University, graduating with an MBA in 1979.^[1]

In 1983, Benson and partner Robert Levine started Cabletron Systems in Levine's garage.^[2] The company moved to Rochester, New Hampshire in 1985 and went public in 1989, with what was then the largest IPO in Wall Street history.^[3] In 1991, Benson was named "Entrepreneur of the Year" by Inc. Magazine.^[4]

The company grew to have over $1.8 billion in annual revenue, but over time Cabletron faced heavy competition in the industry.^[5] Benson resigned in 1999,^[5] and Cabletron was dissolved into four separate companies (Enterasys Networks, Aprisma Management Technologies, Riverstone Networks, and Global Network Technology Services) in January 2000.^[6] The company's fragmentation brought layoffs,^[7] declines in stock price,^[6] and shareholder lawsuits.^[8]

Governor of New Hampshire[link]

Benson began running for governor of New Hampshire in 2001, promising to use technology and greater efficiency to save money in state government. Political signs appeared across the Granite State proclaiming "This is Benson Country." He was elected governor on November 5, 2002, in an open race to succeed the retiring governor, Jeanne Shaheen. In the primaries, Benson spent more than $15 million—$11 million of it his own money^[9]—in an effort to defeat former State Senator Bruce Keough and former U.S. Senator Gordon Humphrey to win the Republican nomination, making Benson's victory one of the most expensive in American history.^[10] In the general election, Benson overwhelmingly defeated Democratic state Senator Mark Fernald, 59 percent to 38 percent.^[11] Benson successfully made Fernald's support for a statewide income tax the dominant issue in the race. Benson spent more than $9 million, again mostly his own money, in this race.^[12]

As Governor, Benson pushed for state agencies to institute across-the-board budget reductions, and used a custom made, extra large "VETO" stamp to reject a state budget he thought was too large.^[13] Benson also signed into law a bill that required parental notification for minors seeking an abortion;^[14] this law was later challenged and upheld in the Supreme Court in the case Ayotte v. Planned Parenthood of New England, but subsequently repealed by the New Hampshire legislature in 2007.^[15]

Benson's administration came under criticism following the resignation of Attorney General Peter Heed, who had been accused of sexual harassment. While an investigation cleared Heed of any wrongdoing, it revealed improper interference by Benson's security commissioner.^[16] Further criticism stems from the inappropriate awarding of a nearly $900,000 no-bid contract by his "volunteer" adviser (and former Cabletron human resource administrator) Linda Pepin,^[17] who was not licensed to broker such a deal.^[18]

Benson also frequently used "volunteers" in his office to do gubernatorial work, but would not say who they were or what they did.^[19] These were not volunteers in the sense that they were unpaid staffers volunteering their time, rather Benson paid their salaries out of his own pocket, making them volunteers in the sense that they did not draw state salaries. This move was controversial, while proponents noted that Benson was generously allowing the state to save money, critics were concerned that it would limit scrutiny of the volunteer staff. Reporters discovered that one of these "volunteers" (and former Cabletron director of operations), Angela Blaisdell, was New Hampshire's official liaison with the federal government on homeland security.^[20] In addition, Benson was accused of engaging in political payback when Dori Wiggin, supervisor of the Department of Environmental Services Wetlands Division in Portsmouth, was transferred to the department's Concord headquarters. Under Wiggin, the DES had fined Benson in 1998 and 2003 for excavating beach sand without a permit at his Rye oceanfront home.^[21]

Benson was also criticized, by both supporters and critics, for a management style that was considered "autocratic".^[22] In an interview with The New York Times, Benson stated that one of his first acts after being elected was to purchase a large, high table at which to hold his meetings. Those in attendance were to stand during meetings, and any latecomers were locked out. "It's to remind people we're here to get in and do our business and get out," he explained.^[23]

In the 2004 election, Benson lost to Democratic challenger John Lynch—only the second time in 78 years that an incumbent New Hampshire governor was denied a second term—in a very close race, with Lynch securing just 51% of the vote.^[22]

Personal life[link]

Benson resides in Rye, New Hampshire with his wife Denise, a distinguished graduate of Simmons College, and their two children. He currently serves as an adjunct lecturer at Babson College, his alma mater. In 1995, he was inducted into the college's Academy of Distinguished Entrepreneurs.^[24]

Electoral history[link]

References[link]

• Steen, Jennifer (2006). Self-financed candidates in congressional elections. University of Michigan Press. ISBN 0-472-06903-9.

External links[link]

• 2002 campaign website

v t e Governors of New Hampshire Weare Langdon Sullivan Langdon Sullivan J. Bartlett Gilman Langdon J. Smith Langdon Plumer Gilman Plumer S. Bell Woodbury Morril Pierce J. Bell Pierce Harvey Dinsmoor Badger Hill Page Hubbard Steele Colby Williams Dinsmoor Jr. Martin Baker Metcalf Haile Goodwin Berry Gilmore Smyth Harriman Stearns Weston Straw Weston Cheney Prescott Head C. Bell Hale Currier Sawyer Goodell Tuttle J. B. Smith Busiel Ramsdell Rollins Jordan Bachelder McLane Floyd Quinby Bass Felker R. Spaulding Keyes J. H. Bartlett A. Brown F. Brown Winant H. Spaulding Tobey Winant Bridges Murphy Blood Dale Adams H. Gregg Dwinell Powell King Peterson Thomson Gallen Roy Sununu J. Gregg Merrill Shaheen Benson Lynch

Elizabeth P. Benson (born May 13, 1924)^[1] is an American art historian, curator and scholar, known for her extensive contributions over a long career to the study of pre-Columbian art, in particular that of Mesoamerica and the Andes. A former Andrew S. Keck Distinguished Visiting Professor of Art History at the American University in Washington, D.C., Benson had also a long association with the Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, where she served both as director of pre-Columbian studies and as curator of the institution's collection of pre-Columbian artworks.

Notes[link]

External links[link]

• Works by or about Elizabeth P. Benson in libraries (WorldCat catalog)

This article related to indigenous Mesoamerican culture is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

Richard M. A. Benson (November 8, 1943, Newport, Rhode Island) is an American printer, teacher, and photographer.

He taught at Yale University until 2011 and was dean of the Yale School of Art from 1996 to 2006.^[1]

Awards[link]

• 1978 Guggenheim Fellow
• National Endowment for the Arts fellow
• 1984 MacArthur Fellows Program

Works[link]

• Photographs from the Collection of the Gilman Paper Company, White Oak Press, 1985 (Benson made multiple halftone films from each photograph, exposed those films to plates, and printed the plates on a single-color sheet-fed offset printing press.)
• Lay This Laurel, Eakins Press, 1973, co-authored with Lincoln Kirstein
• A Maritime Album, The Mariners’ Museum, Newport News, Virginia, 1997 co-authored with John Szarkowski.
• A Yale Album, Yale University Press, 2001
• The Printed Picture, Museum of Modern Art, 2008

References[link]

External links[link]

• "A Single Person Making A Single Thing" Calvin Tomkins, Profiles, The New Yorker, December 17, 1990, p. 48
• "Richard Benson", View Camera, January/February, 1997
• "Richard Benson", Pace/McGill Gallery
• The Printed Picture by Richard Benson, October 18, 2008

Diane E. Benson (born 1954) is an Alaskan politician, inspirational speaker, video production consultant, published writer and dramatist. In August 2010, she became the Democratic candidate for Lt. Governor for the state of Alaska, defeating three other opponents in the Democratic primary on August 24, 2010.^[1] Benson's running mate for Governor was Ethan Berkowitz, who lost in the general election.

In March 2007, Benson filed in the state of Alaska to make her second bid for the U.S. House of Representatives, but was defeated by Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee "Red to Blue" candidate Ethan Berkowitz in the August 2008 Democratic primary.^[2] Benson ran for Alaska governor in 2002 and for U.S. Congress in 2006.

Life and education[link]

According to Benson’s official biography from her website, unlike her older brothers, Diane was born outside of Alaska in Yakima, Washington in 1954, while her mother was being treated for tuberculosis. Of Norwegian ancesry on her father's side and Tlingit ancestry on her mother's side, her tribal identity is T'akdeintaan (Sea Tern crest of the Raven Moiety), and of the Tax’ Hit, (Snail House).

Benson grew up in Southeastern Alaska in foster homes and boarding school as well as logging camps with her father and in Sitka with her grandparents. She began volunteer work with senior citizens at Ketchikan Hospital at the age of 12, and although often homeless, worked a variety of social service oriented jobs with the underprivileged and the elderly until she took a position with the Fairbanks Native Association. At the age of 18 she was the youngest person to ever serve on the FNA Executive Board, and was invited by then U.S. Senator Mike Gravel to work in Washington D.C. Diane was accepted to study at Harvard University, but could not attend due to personal and family reasons. Thereafter, she acquired a job as one of the first women tractor-trailer truck drivers on the Trans-Alaska Pipeline in 1975.

In 1977 after working on a gill-netter (fishing boat) in Bristol Bay, and after completion of the pipeline construction, she worked numerous jobs including as a researcher for Alaska Federation of Natives human resources department, layout artist and writer for the Tundra Times, researcher for North Pacific Rim, and other contracts. She paid for two years of college by driving trucks in the early 1980s as Alaska’s first female union concrete-mixer driver. She did volunteer research work for the Berger Commission, and 1986-1988 was a paralegal for Alaska Legal Services. Through the 1990s Diane ran Northern Stars Talent Agency promoting Alaska’s talent in films and commercials nationally and internationally.

In 2001 Benson made local and national news when she objected to her masters degree advisor’s use of her clan (Snail House) in a controversial sexual abuse poem, Indian Girls[1]. Benson filed a grievance regarding disparate classroom treatment but the U.S. Department of Education found in favor of the professor. Benson completed her master’s in creative writing in 2002 at another campus and under the tutelage of Pulitzer Prize winner, N. Scott Momaday. She continues graduate studies on a masters in public policy at New England College.

Theatre and writing[link]

Benson began performance work in 1980 and has worked with most major Alaskan theatre companies in such productions as Crimes of the Heart, Wonderland, and Keet Shagoon. She taught stage-craft to inmates in Alaska prisons; led at-risk kids in summer theatre and video programs with Out North Contemporary Art House, created the first contemporary Alaska Native theatre in the state of Alaska in 1985; The Alaska Native Dance & Story Theatre; toured nationally with Naa Kahidi Theatre; directed in Canada for the Nakai Theatre Ensemble, was project coordinator for the Silamiut Greenlandic Theatre Project, several time Artist-in-Residence in rural Alaska, and wrote a number of plays including Sister Warrior and When My Spirit Raised Its Hands. Her one-woman show centering on early civil rights leader Elizabeth Peratrovich, has earned Benson acclaim from Native journals and writer’s groups, and was performed in Washington D.C. March 2006 as part of the Smithsonian Institution’s contribution to Women’s History Month [2]. She is currently contributing to a made for PBS documentary on Elizabeth Peratrovich and Alaska civil rights, and just completed co-producing the video, Healing Child Sexual Abuse.

Benson has appeared in Disney’s White Fang, the award winning Box of Daylight, television’s Real Stories of the Highway Patrol, and the International Animated Film Festival award-winning Sacajawea (1989) and the Alaska film, Kusah Hakwaan, as well as numerous industrials and commercials.

Benson has received recognition for her literary and public service work and has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize in Poetry (2000), the Alpert Award in the Arts (2004), and a USA Fellowship (2005). Benson received a gold medal from the International Committee, the Mayor’s Certificate, and an Alaska State Legislature Citation for outstanding work as the 1996 Arctic Winter Games Cultural Coordinator, received a Goldie Award (2005) for her work on the radio program, Today in Alaska Native History, received an Outstanding Service Award (2006) from the Anchorage Equal Rights Commission and a Trailblazer Award (2007) from Delta Sigma Theta, A Professional Women’s Public Service Sorority.

Political career[link]

Benson entered the world of politics a week after completing her Masters degree to run as a Green Party candidate (2002) with Desa Jacobson as the first two Native women to fill a ballot for Governor and Lt. Governor. In 2006, Benson returned to the Democratic Party and defeated former state representative Ray Metcalfe, among others, to win the Democratic nomination for U.S. Congress, but lost in the 2006 general election run for Alaska's At-large congressional district to long-time incumbent Representative Don Young, finishing with just over 40 percent of the vote, to Don Young’s 57 percent.^[3] Benson ran a mostly volunteer campaign, with little support from the state or national Democratic parties until near the campaign's end. Her campaign spent about $200,000, about one-tenth of what the Don Young campaign spent. Benson focused in her campaign on a call to end the Iraq War and on criticizing Young over his relationship with lobbyist Jack Abramoff and the Northern Mariana Islands business interests that Abramoff represented [3] Benson was the third opponent to the incumbent in 33 years to obtain a high percentage of the vote, and the first in 16 years. Benson made history when just before the election she was the first to debate the incumbent in a live televised debate on the local NBC station. Benson also succeeded in breaking a long held policy omitting Congressional challengers at the state’s largest Alaskan conference when she took the stage at the Alaska Federation of Natives Convention at the insistence of the convention delegates to speak as a Congressional Candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives.

Personal life[link]

Benson lives in Chugiak, Alaska, a community of Anchorage, and has one foster daughter and one son. Her son, Latseen Benson, is an army veteran who was severely wounded in Iraq in November 2005.^[4]

Bibliography[link]

• "Standing Up Against the Giant", in American Indian Quarterly, 27.1&2 (2003) pp. 67–79, reproduced on line.
• Witness to the Stolen, Raven's Word Press, 2002.
• Sister Warrior, 2002. (play)
• When My Spirit Raised its Hands: The Story of Elizabeth Peratrovich and Alaska Civil Rights, 2001. (one-act play, see article below)
• Spirit of Woman
• Freight, Moon and Inconvenience, 2000.
• When Raven Cries (with Kadashan and Bertrand J. Adams), 1997. ISBN 1-890693-01-4
• Umyuugwagka: My Mind, My Consciousness. An Anthology of Poetry from the Arctic Regions ISBN 1-873918-14-3.
• Benson's history of the Tlingit peoples (encyclopedia entry)
• "Recovery" and "Potlatch Ducks", in Callaloo, 17:1 (Winter 1994) (Available via J-STOR, requires login.

Notes[link]

External links[link]

• Diane Benson for Lt. Governor
• Library of congress Web Archive of 2002 Gubinitorial Campaign Website
• Article on Benson's play, in "Canku Ota"
• SourceWatch Congresspedia — Diane Benson profile
• Benson's page at IMDB