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48-561: Matthiessen revised, condensed, and combined his three previously published novels about Edgar Watson to create this single-volume novel, which is divided into three sections that conform to the three original books. Shadow Country won the National Book Award for Fiction in 2008 and the William Dean Howells Medal in 2010. Shadow Country is a reworked, re-edited, and retitled single-volume version of

96-401: A trilogy published in the 1990s. The three parts of this book correspond to the three original novels: Killing Mr. Watson (1990), Lost Man's River (1997), and Bone By Bone (1999). Matthiesen's original intention was to produce a single long novel, but his publisher balked at the length of the manuscript and published it as three separate books. Matthiessen was not entirely satisfied with

144-792: A bronze sculpture. The first National Book Awards were presented in May 1936 at the annual convention of the American Booksellers Association , one month after The New York Times reported institution of the "new annual award". The winners were authors of four 1935 books selected by a vote of ABA members. Virginia Kirkus chaired the central committee of seven including the ABA president, three bookshops, Publishers Weekly , and American News Company . Three were called "the most distinguished of 1935" (novel, biography, and general nonfiction) and one "the most original" (novel). Two of

192-700: A greater guarantee of reading pleasure than any other literary prizes. In January 1950 three book industry organizations announced that "works by Americans published here" would be recognized by three awards in March (at the annual convention?). There would be three distinct panels of five judges. The fifteen judges were "Elmer Davis, John Kieran, Henry Steele Commager, Fairfield Osborn and Norman Cousins for non-fiction; Mary Colum, Glenway Wescott, Max Gissin, W. G. Rogers and Malcolm Cowley for fiction; and W. H. Auden, Louise Bogan, Babett Duetsch, Horace Gregory and Louise Untermeyer for poetry." The awards were administered by

240-460: A nomination in the spring and mail copies to the panelists. The panelists read all the valid nominees during this time, and the panels compile shortlists in September. The pre-war awards were announced in the winter, usually February, and described with reference to the year of publication, if any; for example, "National Book Awards for 1939" announced February 1940. The 1950 to 1983 awards, as

288-591: A quicker and easier passage through the swamp, but fewer shades and shadows. Tampa Bay Times book editor Colette Bancroft praised the book's wider theme and context: Matthiessen is writing about one man's life in Shadow Country , but he is also writing about the life of the nation over the course of half a century. Watson's story is essentially the story of the American frontier, of the conquering of wild lands and people, and of what such empires cost. Most of

336-604: A set of annual U.S. literary awards . At the final National Book Awards Ceremony every November, the National Book Foundation presents the National Book Awards and two lifetime achievement awards to authors. The National Book Awards were established in 1936 by the American Booksellers Association , abandoned during World War II , and re-established by three book industry organizations in 1950. Non-U.S. authors and publishers were eligible for

384-586: A translation award from 1967-1983, but did not require the author to be living and was for fiction only. In 2024, the National Book Foundation announced the awards would no longer require U.S. citizenship for eligibility, following a similar decision the Pulitzer Prizes had made in 2023. A book must be published "between December 1 of the previous year and November 30 of the current year" to be eligible. Its publisher must complete

432-475: Is a collection of first-person narrative accounts of Edgar "Bloody" Watson's rise to power and eventual death at the hands of his neighbors. The book opens with Watson's death - his shooting by a local posse on the shores of Chokoloskee Island behind the Ted Smallwood Store . The rest of the book pieces together first-person accounts of 12 characters who recount the story from Watson's arrival in

480-472: Is his great book. National Book Award for Fiction The National Book Award for Fiction is one of five annual National Book Awards , which recognize outstanding literary work by United States citizens. Since 1987, the awards have been administered and presented by the National Book Foundation , but they are awards "by writers to writers." The panelists are five "writers who are known to be doing great work in their genre or field." General fiction

528-457: The Children's or Young People's categories. This list covers only the post-war awards ( pre-war awards follow) to general fiction for adult readers: one annual winner from 1950 except two undifferentiated winners 1973 to 1975, dual hardcover and paperback winners 1980 to 1983. For each award, the winner is listed first followed by the finalists. Unless otherwise noted, the year represents

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576-567: The National Book Award for Translated Literature , was added in 2018, recognizing works in translation for the first time since 1983. At the National Book Awards Ceremony and Dinner held in New York City each November, the chair of each judging panel announces the winners of the year's National Book Awards. Each finalist receives $ 1,000, a medal, and a citation written by the judging panel; winners get $ 10,000 and

624-525: The Pulitzer Prizes (not yet announced in February 1938) as potential ratifications. "Unlike the Pulitzer Prize committee, the booksellers merely vote for their favorite books. They do not say it is the best book or the one that will elevate the standard of manhood or womanhood. Twenty years from now we can decide which are the masterpieces. This year we can only decide which books we enjoyed reading

672-599: The "Most Distinguished Novel" (1935–1936) or "Favorite Fiction" (1937–1940). Furthermore, works of fiction were eligible for the "Bookseller Discovery" and "Most Original Book" awards; fiction winners are listed here. There was only one National Book Award for 1941, the Bookseller Discovery, which recognized the novel Hold Autumn In Your Hand by George Perry; then none until the 1950 revival in three categories including Fiction. 1935: Rachel Field , Time Out of Mind 1936: Margaret Mitchell , Gone With

720-470: The "National Book Awards" were canceled and replaced by "American Book Awards" on the film industry model (Oscars). "It will be run almost exactly the way the Academy Awards are run," a spokesman told reporters." There would be nearly 30 awards presented in an extravagant TV-friendly ceremony, to winners selected by a standing "academy" of more than 2,000 people in the book industry. Implementation

768-541: The "National" award returned in name. Covering the November ceremony, Edwin McDowell of The New York Times remarked upon the recurring changes in format and contrasted 1983 in particular, when there were 96 finalists in 27 awards categories (listed above). The surviving awards for general Fiction and Nonfiction , now with precisely five finalists each, were administered by National Book Awards, Inc., whose Chairman of

816-619: The 1937/38 cycle, ballots were received from 319 stores, triple the number who voted in the first rendition early in 1936. In a 1941 advertisement, the Booksellers described the "significance of the awards" thus: In effect, his ballot says, "Of all the books of the year these are the three I enjoyed most – in two ways ! I enjoyed reading them; and I enjoyed selling them." And that to a bookseller means people who, on his recommendation, read and enjoyed – and sent in other people who also read and enjoyed. The National Book Awards give you perhaps

864-441: The 60th postwar awards in 2009, all but three of the 77 previous winners in fiction categories were in print. The 77 included all eight 1980 winners but excluded the 1981 to 1983 children's fiction winners. The award recognizes one book written by a U.S. citizen and published in the U.S. from December 1 to November 30. The National Book Foundation accepts nominations from publishers until June 15, requires mailing nominated books to

912-739: The AAP Board voted to fund a new version of the Awards, which had been "close to expiring from lack of support". At the time, AAP and Harper & Row president Brooks Thomas anticipated "probably fewer than ten" categories, including some "only for original paperbacks, not reprints". Edwin McDowell reported that "many book-industry officials hope ... [to] rank in importance with the $ 15,000 Booker McConnell Prize for Fiction " (British). For 1983 publications (January to October) there would be no awards. A committee comprising American Book Awards executive director Barbara Prete and four publishers designed

960-476: The Board was the president of Hearst Trade Book Group. He declaimed that "Book people are really not actors, and there's a realization now that we should not try to reward things like who did the best book blurb." The fixed number five finalists was retained through 2012, while the number of book categories has doubled with the addition of Poetry in 1991 and Young People's Literature in 1996. Beginning with 2013,

1008-553: The Foundation announced there would be a "longlist" of 10 titles in each of the four categories in September (40 titles), followed by a "finalist" list of 5 titles in October (20 titles), and then the winners in November (4 titles). In 2018 a fifth award category was announced, the National Book Award for Translated Literature . It is for living translators and authors and for fiction and non-fiction. The foundation previously gave

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1056-479: The Foundation at the final ceremony for the Book Awards. The medal comes with a cash prize of $ 10,000. It recognizes someone who "has enriched [American] literary heritage over a life of service, or a corpus of work." Five of the seventeen medalists through 2004 were previous National Book Award winners (Bellow, Welty, McCullough, Updike, and Roth, all but McCullough for fiction). Between 2005 and 2018, all of

1104-536: The King's Men . Little wonder, too, that parts of the story of E.J. Watson call up comparisons with Dostoevsky , Conrad , and, inevitably, Faulkner . In every way, Shadow Country is a bravura performance, at once history, fiction, and myth—as well as the capstone to the career of one of the most admired and admirable writers of our time. Tom LeClair , reviewing the work for the New York Times , considered that

1152-743: The National Book Committee from 1950 to 1974, when the Committee disbanded after publishers withdrew support. In 1950 and 1967, at least, the prize sponsors were three book-industry organizations American Booksellers Association, the American Book Publishers Council and the Book Manufacturers Institute . In 1973 NYTimes still called the National Book Committee a nonprofit funded "by publishers and by organizations involved in

1200-419: The National Book Committee was disbanded. In 1975 the temporary administrator"begged" judges not to split awards. Three of 27 awards were split in 1983 before the drastic cutback that also required selection of a single winner in all three categories for 1984. The currently active Poetry category was added in 1991, followed by Young People's Literature in 1996, and Translated Literature in 2018. In 1980

1248-461: The National Book Foundation labeled them, were presented in the spring to works published during the preceding calendar year. Since 1984 the NBA have been presented in the fall, usually November, to books published roughly during the calendar year (December of the previous year through November). The Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters is a lifetime achievement award presented by

1296-494: The Ten Thousand Islands in the early 1890s until his demise in 1910. Many of the "characters" who tell the story are based on real people who lived in the area at the time. Book Two is based on Lost Man's River . It is set several years after Book One, and it tells the story of Lucius, one of Watson's sons and an alcoholic historian, who tries to reconstruct his father's life in an attempt to determine whether he

1344-936: The Wind 1937: A. J. Cronin , The Citadel 1938: Daphne Du Maurier , Rebecca 1939: John Steinbeck , The Grapes of Wrath 1940: Richard Llewellyn , How Green Was My Valley 1936: Norah Lofts , I Met a Gypsy (short stories) 1937: Lawrence Watkin , On Borrowed Time (novel) 1938: see nonfiction 1939: Elgin Groseclose , Ararat (novel) 1940: see nonfiction 1941: George Sessions Perry , Hold Autumn in Your Hand (novel) 1935: Charles G. Finney , The Circus of Dr. Lao (novel) 1936: see nonfiction 1937: see nonfiction 1938: see nonfiction 1939: Dalton Trumbo , Johnny Got His Gun (novel) National Book Award The National Book Awards ( NBA ) are

1392-560: The award in three decades (1954, 1965, 1971) and is the only author to have won the National Book Award for Fiction three times. From 1935 to 1941 , there were six annual awards for general fiction and the "Bookseller Discovery" or "Most Original Book" was sometimes a novel. From 1980 to 1985, there were six annual awards to first novels or first works of fiction . In 1980 there were five awards for mystery, western, or science fiction . There have been many awards to fiction in

1440-688: The best literature in America, expand its audience, and ensure that books have a prominent place in American culture." In 2018, there were 1,637 books nominated for the five award categories, led by the Nonfiction category with 546 nominations. The 2018 ceremony was held on November 14 in New York City. National Book Awards are given to one book (author) annually in each of five categories: fiction , nonfiction , poetry , translation , and young people's literature . There have previously been many other categories but they have been retired or subsumed in

1488-443: The book is set in frontier Florida, a Florida virtually unimaginable in our air-conditioned, subdivided century. It is a brutally beautiful wilderness where, just 100 years ago, panthers and red wolves stalked the woods, plume hunters made fortunes wiping out whole species of birds and men like Watson made their own law. Shadow Country takes us there in unforgettable fashion. Even among a body of work as magnificent as Matthiessen's, this

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1536-408: The book trade" A temporary Committee on Awards Policy handled 1975. In 1964 Nonfiction was divided in three. The National Book Award for Translation was introduced in 1967 and split between two books, the first split. Children's literature was first recognized as one of seven categories in 1969. Two awards were split in 1973 for the first time. Publishers dropped their support after 1974 and

1584-627: The books were advertised by their publishers as "The most distinguished autobiography of 1935" and "The most distinguished general non-fiction book of 1935" in NYTimes on May 12, the same day that the newspaper reported yesterday's awards. For the next six years, 1937 to 1942, the awards were announced from mid-February to early March. The "Most Distinguished" Nonfiction, Biography, and Novel (for 1935 and 1936) were reduced to two and termed "Favorite" Nonfiction and Fiction beginning 1937. Master of ceremonies Clifton Fadiman declined to consider

1632-574: The existing five. The National Book Foundation also presents two lifetime achievement awards each year: the "Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters" and the "Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community". Only publishers nominate books for the National Book Awards, but panelists may request particular nominations from publishers. Each panel comprises five judges, including writers, librarians, booksellers, and literary critics. In 2013,

1680-454: The judging panels were expanded to include experts in the literary field in addition to established writers. Each panel considers hundreds of books each year in each of the five categories. In 2013, the Foundation announced the addition of a National Book Awards longlist—announced in September and consisting of ten titles per category—to precede the finalists list, announced in October and comprising five titles per category. The fifth category,

1728-423: The medalists except Leonard and Allende have been previous National Book Award winners. The Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community is a lifetime achievement award presented by the Foundation annually from 2005. It recognizes "an individual for outstanding service to the American literary community, whose life and work exemplify the goals of the National Book Foundation to expand

1776-429: The most." The Bookseller Discovery officially recognized "outstanding merit which failed to receive adequate sales and recognition" (quoted by NYT) Finally that award stood alone for 1941 and the New York Times frankly called it "a sort of consolation prize that the booksellers hope will draw attention to his work." The winning authors and books were selected by a nationwide poll of booksellers (ABA members); during

1824-426: The new and improved program, implemented fall 1984 for a publication year beginning November 1983. They cut the roster to merely three (Nonfiction, Fiction, and First Work of Fiction), moved the ceremony from early spring to late fall, and redefined eligibility to require publication during the calendar year of the awards (roughly, see Annual eligibility). There were only fiction and nonfiction awards in 1986. In 1987

1872-490: The panelists by August 1, and announces five finalists in October. The winner is announced on the day of the final ceremony in November. The award is $ 10,000 and a bronze sculpture; other finalists get $ 1,000, a medal, and a citation written by the panel. Authors who have won the award more than once include William Faulkner , John Updike , William Gaddis , Jesmyn Ward , and Philip Roth , each having won on two occasions along with numerous other nominations. Saul Bellow won

1920-471: The pre-war awards. Since then they are presented to U.S. authors for books published in the United States roughly during the award year. The nonprofit National Book Foundation was established in 1988 to administer and enhance the National Book Awards and "move beyond [them] into the fields of education and literacy", primarily by sponsoring public appearances by writers. Its mission is "to celebrate

1968-411: The resulting works and continued to refine his original manuscript off and on for the next several years. The eventual publication of Shadow Country involved substantial editing and culling: while the three separately published books together numbered some 1,300 pages, Shadow Country would number around 900. Most of the cuts came from Lost Man's River . Book One is based on Killing Mr. Watson and

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2016-538: The work failed to live up to the sum total of its originally published parts, stating: By reducing his Watson materials to one volume, Matthiessen has sacrificed qualities that gave those novels their powerful reinforcing illusions of authenticity and artlessness. Book I still has that Ten Thousand Islands quality, but "Shadow Country" as a whole is like the Tamiami Trail that crosses the Everglades. It offers

2064-455: The year the award was given for books published in the prior year. Thus, the award year 1950 is for books published in 1949. For 1980 to 1983 this list covers the paired "Fiction (hardcover)" and "Fiction (paperback)" awards in that order. Hard and paper editions were distinguished only in these four years; none of the paperback winners were original ; in their first editions all had been losing finalists in 1979 or 1981. From 1980 to 1985 there

2112-583: Was also one award for first novel or first work of fiction and in 1980 there were five more awards for mystery, western, and science fiction. None of those are covered here. 1983 entries were published during 1982; winners in 27 categories were announced April 13 and privately celebrated April 28, 1983. 1984 entries for the "revamped" awards in three categories were published November 1983 to October 1984; eleven finalists were announced October 17. Winners were announced and celebrated November 15, 1984. The National Book Awards for 1935 to 1940 annually recognized

2160-419: Was one of four categories when the awards were re-established in 1950. For several years beginning 1980, prior to the Foundation, there were multiple fiction categories: hardcover, paperback, first novel or first work of fiction; from 1981 to 1983 hardcover and paperback children's fiction ; and only in 1980 five awards to mystery fiction , science fiction , and western fiction . When the Foundation celebrated

2208-452: Was one of many critics who lavished praise on the work: Shadow Country is altogether gripping, shocking, and brilliantly told, not just a tour de force in its stylistic range, but a " Great American Novel ," as powerful a reading experience as nearly any in our literature. This magnificent, sad masterpiece about race, history, and defeated dreams can easily stand comparison with Ralph Ellison 's Invisible Man and Robert Penn Warren 's All

2256-499: Was poor, the episode a disaster. Most new categories survived only one to four cycles, 1980 to 1983. There were seven awards categories in 1979, twenty-eight in 1980, nineteen in 1983 (plus graphics awards, see below), three in 1984. In 1983 there were 30 award winners in 27 categories including 14 categories of literary achievement in writing for adults; in turn, five for hardcover editions, six for paperback editions, and three general. 1983 awards categories (27) Late that year,

2304-589: Was really a murderer and an outlaw. It is written as a third person narrative . Book Three is based on Bone By Bone . In this first-person section, Edgar Watson tells his own life story, from his childhood in South Carolina to his fatal encounter with his neighbors on the edge of the Florida Everglades . By using this chronology, Matthiessen ends the book with the same scene in which it began told from opposite points of view. Michael Dirda

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