Library of Congress Blog
“Light and liberty go together.”

This week, we announced that the Librarian of Congress will award the fourth John W. Kluge Prize for the study of humanity on Dec. 10. But we also announced that nominations will be accepted for a few more weeks, until July 15.

The $1 million Kluge Prize recognizes lifetime achievement in fields not traditionally represented by the Nobel Prize, such as “history, philosophy, politics, anthropology, sociology, religion, criticism in the arts and humanities, and linguistics.”

There is no doubt that Nobel laureates in “hard-science” fields like medicine, physics and chemistry have made incalculable contributions to society. But there are also great thinkers, those who help us frame and answer important questions about ourselves as people, the people whose ideas and writings are no less significant to human progress. Those are the people for whom the Kluge Prize was created.

If you know someone who might fit the bill, you can learn about the nominations process here.