Playwright Horton Foote will be inducted May 20 as a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, receiving one of the highest honors in the U.S. Foote is the only playwright among the 14 new members joining the academy this year. The induction ceremony, a two-hour affair, will commence at 3 PM at the Academy's headquarters in Washington Heights, New York. Foote won a Pulitzer Prize for his play The Young Man From Atlanta. His latest play, A Coffin in Egypt, will open in June at the Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor, Long Island. Foote's other dramas include A Trip to Bountiful, The Chase, Lily Dale, and Laura Dennis. He has also prospered in film, receiving Oscars for his screenplays to To Kill a Mockingbird and Tender Mercies.

The Academy is an honor society that was formed in 1898. It has only 250 members and a new artist can be asked to join only if a member resigns or dies, leaving a vacancy. Other dramatists and composers who have recently become members include John Guare, Arthur Miller, and Stephen Sondheim.

-- By Robert Simonson