The U.S. National Book Award was reestablished in 1950 with awards by the book industry to authors of books published in 1949 in three categories. Williams won the first National Book Award for Poetry, recognizing both the third volume of Paterson and Selected Poems.[41]
In 1952, Williams was named Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in Washington, DC, but was barred from serving out his term due to unfounded accusations of Williams's membership in a communist organization. Williams retained legal counsel to refute the charges but was never allowed to respond to his critics and never received an apology from the Library of Congress.[42][43] The next year, however, he received the Bollingen Prize along with Archibald MacLeish.
In May 1963, he was posthumously awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Pictures from Brueghel and Other Poems (1962) and the gold medal for Poetry of the National Institute of Arts and Letters. The Poetry Society of America presents the William Carlos Williams Award annually for the best book of poetry published by a small, non-profit or university press.
Williams's house in Rutherford was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.[44] He was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame in 2009.[45]
