| Editor | Robert Wilson |
|---|---|
| Categories | Literary |
| Frequency | Quarterly |
| Publisher | John Churchill |
| First issue | 1932 |
| Company | Phi Beta Kappa Society |
| Country | United States |
| Based in | Washington, D.C. |
| Language | English |
| Website | www.theamericanscholar.org |
| ISSN | 0003-0937 |
The American Scholar is the literary quarterly of the Phi Beta Kappa Society, founded in 1932. The magazine has won fourteen National Magazine Awards from the American Society of Magazine Editors from 1999 to present, including awards for General Excellence (circulation >100,000).[1][2] Additionally, the magazine has won four UTNE Independent Press Awards from Utne Reader, most recently in 2011 in the category of Best Writing.[3]
The magazine is named for an oration by Ralph Waldo Emerson given before the society in 1837. According to its website, "the magazine aspires to Emerson’s ideals of independent thinking, self-knowledge, and a commitment to the affairs of the world as well as to books, history, and science." The Scholar began publishing fiction in 2006, and "essays, articles, criticism, and poetry have been mainstays of the magazine for 75 years." Its website runs a new weekly web posting, "Zinsser on Friday," featuring short essays on writing, the arts, and popular culture by William Zinsser, the author of On Writing Well.