Contact Us                     Members
Aurelian Honor Society Logo
Support Today

scholarships & Awards

The Book Prize

In 1998, Aurelian established a Book Prize to be given at select secondary schools as part of their Commencement or Prize seasons. The criteria presented to the schools were that it be presented to a student who has demonstrated forceful leadership, high scholarship, and sound character.

Never value anything as profitable to thyself which shall compel thee to break thy promise, to lose thy self-respect, to hate any man, to suspect, to curse, to act the hypocrite, to desire anything which needs walls and curtains.  Keep thyself simple, good, pure, serious, free from affectation, a friend of justice, kind, affectionate, strenuous in all proper acts. 

Remember his constancy, his evenness, his disregard of empty fame, how he bore with those who blamed him unjustly without blaming them in return, his firmness and uniformity in friendships, how he tolerated freedom of speech in those who opposed his opinions.  The pleasure that he had when any man showed him anything better.  How religious he was without superstition.  Imitate all this that thou mayest have as good a conscience, when thy last hour comes, as he had.

– Marcus Aurelius

The Prize Books are selected by Trustees and Delegates each year.  The criteria are that the subject matter aligns with the principles of Aurelian and if possible have authors with a Yale relationship.

selected by aurelian Trustees and Delegates

Aurelian Book Prizes

2023_ The Revolutionary_ Samuel Adams - Stacy Schiff
2023: The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams – Stacy Schiff
Book DescriptionAn illuminating biography of Adams’ transformation from an aimless son of a well-off family to a tireless, beguiling radical who mobilized the colonies.
2022_ Running Out_ In Search of Water on the High Plains - Lucas Bessire
2022: Running Out: In Search of Water on the High Plains – Lucas Bessire
Book DescriptionRunning Out: In Search of Water on the High Plains - Lucas Bessire is an urgent and unsettling meditation on environmental change.
2021_ Abe_ Abraham Lincoln in His Times - David S. Reynolds
2021: Abe: Abraham Lincoln in His Times – David S. Reynolds
Book DescriptionAn understanding of Lincoln’s life through the contexts of the frontier, education, religion, law, marriage, and politics.
2020_ The Education of an Idealist_ A Memoir - Samantha Power
2020: The Education of an Idealist: A Memoir – Samantha Power
Book DescriptionAdd a Tooltip Text
2019_ The Soul of America - Jon Meacham
2019: The Soul of America – Jon Meacham
Book DescriptionA look back at critical times in our history when hope overcame division and fear by bringing vividly to life turning points in American history.
2018_ Friends Divided, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams – Gordon S. Wood
2018: Friends Divided, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams – Gordon S. Wood
Book DescriptionA majestic dual biography of two of America's most enduringly fascinating figures, whose unlikely partnership helped birth a nation and whose subsequent falling out did much to fix its course.
2017_ Alexander Hamilton – Ron Chernow
2017: Alexander Hamilton – Ron Chernow
Book DescriptionA landmark biography of Alexander Hamilton, the Founding Father who galvanized, inspired, scandalized, and shaped the newborn nation.
2016_ World Poverty and Human Rights – Thomas Pogge
2016: World Poverty and Human Rights – Thomas Pogge
Book DescriptionThomas Pogge offers a modest, widely sharable standard of global economic justice and makes detailed, realistic proposals toward fulfilling it.
2015_ The Heathen School – John Demos
2015: The Heathen School – John Demos
Book DescriptionThe astonishing and moving story of a unique missionary project that probes the very roots of American identity.
2014_ America’s Unwritten Constitution – Akhil Reed Amar
2014: America’s Unwritten Constitution – Akhil Reed Amar
Book DescriptionThe solution to many constitutional puzzles lies not solely within the written document but beyond it—in the vast trove of values, precedents, and practices that complement and complete the terse text.
2013_ The Greater Journey_ Americans in Paris – David McCullough
2013: The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris – David McCullough
Book DescriptionThe story of the adventurous American artists, writers, doctors, politicians, and others who set off for Paris in the years between 1830 and 1900.
2017_ Alexander Hamilton – Ron Chernow
2012: Lion of Liberty: Patrick Henry – Harlow Unger
Book DescriptionThe epic story of Patrick Henry, who roused Americans to fight government tyranny — both British and American.
2011_ Eureka Man – Alan Hirshfeld
2011: Eureka Man – Alan Hirshfeld
Book DescriptionAlan Hirshfeld brings to life for general readers the genius of Archimedes, offering succinct and understandable explanations of some of his more important discoveries and innovations.
2010_ Lincoln at Peoria – Lewis Lehrman
2010: Lincoln at Peoria – Lewis Lehrman
Book DescriptionA thorough study of Lincoln's anti-slavery speech at Peoria that makes the case that the speech that marked the Kentucky-born Lincoln's re-entry into politics in 1854 after a five-year hiatus also established him as one of slavery's most important opponents.
2009_ A Passion for Nature – Donald Worster
2009: A Passion for Nature –  Donald Worster
Book DescriptionDonald Worster explores John Muir’s life and his extraordinary ability, then and now, to get others to see the sacred beauty of the natural world.
2008_ Education’s End – Anthony Kronman
2008: Education’s End – Anthony Kronman
Book DescriptionAnthony Kronman explores why the modern research ideal has caused our colleges and universities to stop asking the question of what living is for and calls for the restoration of life’s most important question to an honored place in higher education.
2017_ Alexander Hamilton – Ron Chernow
2007: The Unexpected George Washington – Harlow Unger
Book DescriptionIn this one-of-a-kind book, readers will discover numerous, often touching traits about the Father of the Country that they never knew.
2006_ 1776 – David McCullough
2006: 1776 – David McCullough
Book DescriptionDavid McCullough tells the story of those who marched with General George Washington in the year of the Declaration of Independence - when the whole American cause was riding on their success.
2005_ Noah Webster – Harlow Unger
2005: Noah Webster – Harlow Unger
Book DescriptionHarlow Unger restores Webster's monumental legacy as a teacher, legislator, philosopher, lawyer, editor, and one of history's most profoundly influential lexicographers and paints an intriguing portrait of the United States as an energetic and confident young country.
2004_ Lafayette – Harlow Unger
2004: Lafayette – Harlow Unger
Book DescriptionAn admirable account of the Gilbert de Motier, the marquis de Lafayette 's two revolutions-one might even say his two lives-the French and the American.
2003_ Benjamin Franklin – Edmund S. Morgan
2003: Benjamin Franklin – Edmund S. Morgan
Book DescriptionEdmund S. Morgan shows Franklin as a reluctant revolutionary who led the fight for American independence, who viewed his own groundbreaking experiments as secondary to his civic duties, and who was the rare individual who consistently placed the public interest before his own desires.
2002_ John Adams – David McCullough
2002: John Adams – David McCullough
Book DescriptionDavid McCullough portrays the adventurous life-journey of John Adams, the brilliant, fiercely independent, often irascible, always honest Yankee patriot who spared nothing in his zeal for the American Revolution and rose to become the second President of the United States.
2001_ In Praise of Public Life – Joseph Lieberman
2001: In Praise of Public Life – Joseph Lieberman
Book DescriptionJoseph Lieberman offers a vigorous defense of the benefits and virtues of public life, discussing issues of standards, partisanship, big money, and the current political climate.
2000_ Shaping a Nation – Carter Wiseman
2000: Shaping a Nation – Carter Wiseman
Book DescriptionAn authoritative and illustrated narrative history of the buildings that shaped the American century and the architects who gave them form. It is an original, readable, and crisply articulated account of the major figures, influential movements, and landmark buildings.
1998_ Sentinel Under Siege – Stanley Flink
1998: Sentinel Under Siege – Stanley Flink
Book DescriptionConcerned with the legal content given to freedom of the press by the Supreme Court, and the fitful attempts of media criticism to build a greater sense of responsibility among the practitioners, this book traces the evolution of the media in the United States and its capacity to examine and regulate itself, from its earliest colonial roots to the modern explosion of digital technology.

what schools are saying

Accolades

“A book is presented by the Aurelian Honor Society of Yale University to that member of the SIXTH FORM who is outstanding in sterling character, high scholarship, and forceful leadership.  The name of the winner, who is selected by the class, is added to the plaque in Rowe Hall.”

Shady Side Academy

PA

“The Prize presented by The Aurelian Honor Society of Yale University for Character, Leadership, and Scholarship.”  It is presented by the Headmaster who speaks and personalizes it about those 3 traits as it concerns the student.”

Hill School

PA

“The Yale Cup and Book Prize is awarded each year by the Aurelian Honor Society of Yale University to that member of the Senior class who best combines the highest standards of character and leadership with excellence in his(her) studies and in athletics.”

Phillips Exeter Academy

NH

prize receiptients

The Schools

Taft School – CT
Choate Rosemary Hall – CT
Phillips Andover Academy – NH
Phillips Exeter Academy – NH
The Hill School – PA
Lawrenceville – NJ
Shady Side Academy – OH

Mercersburg – PA
New Trier High School – IL
The University School – OH
Walnut Hills High School – OH
Harding Charter Prep – OK
Lake Shore Academy – IL
Stuyvesant High School –NY

Millbrook School – NY
MICDS – MO
Bolles School – FL
Maclay School – FL
University City High School – MO
Medford HS – OR

help Empower Our Communities

Join Us in Making a Difference

Through our outreach and giving programs, we encourage high moral character and honorable conduct at the collegiate level while reaching beyond Yale to serve our communities.

Support Today