Styron Is in Choice Company on Artistic Honor Roll

--William Styron questioned the necessity of the honor but he nevertheless accepted the Edward MacDowell Medal for lifetime achievement. “Are prizes necessary or even desirable?” the author of “Sophie’s Choice” and “The Confessions of Nat Turner” asked at the MacDowell artists’ colony in Peterborough, N. H. “Shouldn’t the satisfaction of one’s work be sufficient reward?” The Pulitzer Prize-winning writer joins 28 past recipients of the medal named for composer Edward MacDowell, who died in 1908. Others include Leonard Bernstein, Georgia O’Keeffe, Alexander Calder and John Updike. “No medals for Edgar Allan Poe, no medals for (Nathaniel) Hawthorne, no medals for (Walt) Whitman. No medals, no prizes, no annual publisher’s award, no seal of approval, no fellowships or grants,” Styron told the crowd of 800. He called the medal “one of the purest awards for artistic achievement in the United States.” Styron said he is working on a novel about the Marine Corps as well as a nonfiction piece on Nicaragua.

--Everybody is wondering what to expect should Michael S. Dukakis become the next President, but Julie Francis is pretty certain of what the nation can expect if Kitty Dukakis--size 6-8--becomes First Lady. Francis, Mrs. Dukakis’ favorite designer, said that one could expect to see bold and color-oriented fashions in the White House. “She has a great figure and she has height,” Francis said. “Kitty loves all the jewel tones. Her favorite color to wear is red, followed by bright royal blue and purple. . . . I definitely think Kitty will change fashion.”

--Richard N. Goodwin, in a new book, paints an unflattering picture of former President Lyndon B. Johnson engulfed by the events surrounding the Vietnam War in 1965. Goodwin, a former Johnson aide, writes in “Remembering America: A Voice From the Sixties,” to be published next month, that Johnson exhibited “paranoid” behavior and believed that the Communists were taking over the country. He also writes that Johnson believed Robert F. Kennedy was plotting to overthrow his presidency. Dean Rusk, secretary of state during the Johnson Administration, dismissed the allegations as “unworthy of consideration.”