The volume, in English and Spanish, is a collection of articles about the Laureates published in the American newspaper.

This unusual project includes an introduction by H.R.H. the Prince of Asturias.

The newspaper The New York Times and the Prince of Asturias Foundation have just published the book Virtue and Achievement, with articles and interviews from the American newspaper on the personalities and organizations awarded the Prince of Asturias Award between 1981 and 2006. This edition is launched in both English and Spanish, the latter being titled La huella de los grandes.

Virtue and Achievement, with an introduction by H.R.H. the Prince of Asturias, also contains some Laureates speeches during the Awards presentation ceremony and an extensive collection of photographs. The The New York Time´s contribution includes the work of some of its most renowned reporters.

Woody Allen (Arts Award 2002), Pedro Almodóvar (Arts 2006), Fernando Alonso (Sports 2005), Paul Auster (Letters 2006), Daniel Barenboim and Edward Said (Concord 2002), Sergei Bubka (Sports 1991), Plácido Domingo (Arts 1991), Umberto Eco (Communication and Humanities 2000), Vittorio Gassman (Arts 1997), the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (International Cooperation 2006), Günter Grass (Letters 1999), Barbara Hendricks (Arts 2000), Ryszard Kapuściński (Communications and Humanities 2003), Arthur Miller (Letters 2002), Susan Sontag (Letters 2003) and Muhammad Yunus (Concord 1998) are some of the Laureates whose stories appear in Virtue and Achievement.

The acclaimed American journalist Marisa Bartolucci, who highlights the history of the Awards and Asturias in her introduction, was the editor of the book.

H.R.H Prince Felipe said "Through the Prince of Asturias Award, the Foundation has endeavoured with enormous optimism to promote the social and cultural achievements of the Hispanic people and all the other peoples of the world. This book is a celebration of its efforts. Let us express our gratitude to The New York Times for generously collaborating with us in publishing this record of our first twenty-six years."

Mike Levitas, from The New York Time Book Development, explains in the book "The Times received with enthusiasm this opportunity to strengthen the importance and, implicitly, the dissemination of the human values present in all of the Foundation´s objectives."

The book includes the by-lines of novelist Frederic Morton, art critic Grace Glueck, cinema critic Vincent Canby, former correspondent and foreign editor Roger Cohen, former chief European cultural correspondent Alan Riding and novelist and translator Toby Talbot, among many others. It also bears the signature of Pulitzer Prize winners like John Noble Wilford, Bill Keller, Michiko Kakutani, Judith Miller, Harold C. Schoenberg, Dave Anderson, John F. Burns, Brooks Atkinson and Thomas Friedman.