Damon Knight Grand Master Award is an award given by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) and is given to a living author as a lifetime achievement in fantasy or science fiction. Up until 2002 it was just known as the Grand Master Award but it was renamed in the honour of the founder of the SFWA, Damon Knight.
These awards are not strictly annual, up to 1995 no more than 6 a decade were awarded but this has been somewhat relaxed now due to the fact that these awards cannot be given posthumously.
A classic is something that everybody wants to have read and nobody wants to read.