It is only fitting that the award commemorating the life and work of Henry Paolucci should also carry the name of Walter Bagehot -- bringing into sharp focus a true partnership of mind and soul.The Walter Bagehot Research Council on National Sovereignty was established by Henry Paolucci in the mid-sixties. It was named after the great British political economist and man of letters, Walter Bagehot, who founded and edited for many years The Economist, one of the most important journals of the time. He also wrote many literary essays during his lifetime.Under the aegis of the Bagehot Council, Henry Paolucci founded and edited for over 25 years State of the Nation, a monthly newsletter dedicated to current issues dealing with American domestic and foreign policy (some of which will soon be published in a single volume). His own books, like the classic War, Peace and the Presidency (1969), and his last, Iran, Israel and the United States (1995), are indicators of his extraordinary grasp of political matters and display the range and accuracy of his political insights.His was perhaps the best disciple of Walter Bagehot, in that he, like Bagehot, had a wide mastery of political thought and knew how to bring the past into present political realities. But his intellectual interests included much else: authors like Aristotle, Plato, Hegel, St. Augustine, Machiavelli, Einstein, Newton, Adolf Harnak, Dante, T. S. Eliot, Francesco De Sanctis, Benedetto Croce and Giovanni Gentile, as well as Bagehot himself, and subjects as diverse as astronomy, mathematics, literary theory, political philosophy, Greek and Roman history, Christian dogma, church history, the legacy and history of the Jews, American history and foreign policy.In recent years, he had found a new scholarly focus: the age of European expansion and early American exploration, especially the massive work of Justin Winsor -- first librarian of Harvard, founder of the American Library Association, and co-founder of the American Historical Association -- an interest reflected in several volumes of Review of National Literatures, which he edited with his wife, Anne.His impeccable scholarship in all these subjects and his dedication to learning will long be remembered by those who were privileged to hear him in the classroom and in public forums; but they are clearly in evidence, as well, in his books, articles and speeches, some of which have been gathered in Selected Writings in Literature and the Arts; Science and Astronomy; Law, Government and Political Philosophy -- a collection which also reflects a rare gift: literary flair. As part of an ongoing project to make available to libraries both here and abroad some of Professor Paolucci's unpublished writings, as well as a number of his books no longer in print, the Bagehot Council recently issued a new edition of Essays on Dante and Medieval Culture (first published in Florence by Leo Olschki, in 1964) and his detailed study, James Thomson's "The City of Dreadful Night." A second volume of selected writings is scheduled for publication early in 2001.In 1964 Professor Paolucci was chosen by the Conservative Party of New York State to run against Robert Kennedy in that year's U. S. Senate race. Professor Paolucci brought the newly-formed Party into prominence as a result of his vigorous and articulate campaign. The New York Times featured him as "The Scholarly Candidate."
