The prestigious American Academy of Arts and Letters has announced eight new inductees, including historian Robert Caro, New Yorker humorist Calvin Trillin and poet Paul Muldoon. Founded in 1898, the academy is "an honor society of 250 architects, composers, artists, and writers," according to its web site, with new members voted in as "vacancies occur." The academy's goal is to "foster, assist, and sustain excellence" in the arts. Last year, Mr. Trillin released a best-selling memoir about his late wife, Alice Trillin based on the New Yorker essay that "seemed to trip some kind of secret wire in urban romantics’ hearts," wrote the Observer's Lizzy Ratner. And Mr. Caro, he of The Power Broker fame, is a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and wrote a multivolume series on Lyndon Johnson. More inductees, courtesy of the Associated Press, after the jump.  read more »

Last night Gourmet held a party at Bar Boulud and Calvin Trillin was sweating it out in the kitchen.

"I just came from a memorial service," he said. He was drinking a glass of water to relieve himself from the unbearable heat. A stunning bald man dressed in a perfectly tailored suit approached him.

"Mr. Trillin," he said, "We haven't seen each other in a year, but thank you so much for the book about your wife. It made me cry so much."  read more »

Fine writers and close friends gathered Tuesday afternoon to celebrate the passions and the prescience of Molly Ivins.  read more »