Annette Gordon-Reed’s wonderful book, The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family, was awarded the 2008 National Book Award for non-fiction last night at the National Book Foundation’s annual dinner in Manhattan.

Having admired Gordon-Reed’s literary work for years, I felt doubly fortunate to be at the dinner and thus able to congratulate her in person, and that TheDefendersOnline had chosen her award-winning book as the first we reviewed in “The Book Corner” section.

In honor of Gordon-Reed’s well-deserved achievement, we are happy to have the review of The Hemingses occupy that space for a few more days.

Read the full story from The New York Times.

– Lee A. Daniels, Editor-in-Chief, TheDefendersOnline

Article originally published in  “The New York Times” on November 19, 2008:

Book Prizes Awarded With Nod to History

On the night of her 50th birthday, Annette Gordon-Reed won the National Book Award for nonfiction for “The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family.”

By MOTOKO RICH

Annette Gordon-Reed won the National Book Award for nonfiction on Wednesday night for “The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family,” a sweeping, prodigiously researched biography of three generations of a slave family owned by Thomas Jefferson.

Ms. Gordon-Reed, who celebrated her 50th birthday on the night of the awards, was the first African-American author to win the prize for nonfiction since Orlando Patterson won for “Freedom” in 1991. “I can’t say what a wonderful November this has been,” she said. “It’s sort of wonderful to have the book come out at this time. People ask me if I planned it this way; I didn’t. All of America — we’re on a great journey now and I look forward to the years to come.” The book was published by W. W. Norton.

In the fiction category, Peter Matthiessen won for “Shadow Country,” a one-volume compilation of three previously released but revised and condensed novels based on the life of Edgar J. Watson, a 19th century ruthless cane farmer in Florida who was said to be a serial killer. It was published by Modern Library.

A National Book Award winner in 1979 for his nonfiction work “The Snow Leopard,” Mr. Matthiessen said, “I’ve had a hard time over the years persuading people that fiction was my natural thing,” and then raised his bronze statue above his head.

The awards, celebrating their 59th year, were presented at a black-tie dinner for the first time at Cipriani’s Wall Street in Manhattan, on a day when the Dow Jones industrial average fell to its lowest level in five years. Harold Augenbraum, executive director of the National Book Foundation, said that despite the economic climate, there were nearly 700 attendees, 50 more than last year, paying up to $12,000 per table.

Eric Bogosian, the writer and actor, was the host of the ceremony, taking a political tone in his remarks. Congratulating President-elect Barack Obama, he said, “As far I know, Barack Obama is a reader,” adding, “hopefully we will have a president who reads history and hopefully is not condemned to repeat it.”

This year’s winners received a bronze statue and $10,000.

The prize for young people’s literature was awarded to Judy Blundell for “What I Saw and How I Lied,” a noirish novel published by Scholastic Press about a teenage girl who enters into a complex relationship with a soldier who served with her father during World War II.

Ms. Blundell, who has spent most of her career as a writer for hire, said this was the “first book I put my name on.”

Mark Doty won the award for poetry for “Fire to Fire,” a collection of poems from seven previous volumes.

A National Book Award can help fuel sales. “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” by Sherman Alexie, which won the young people’s fiction award last year, has sold 128,000 copies in hardcover, according to Nielsen BookScan, which tracks about 70 percent of sales. It has remained on the New York Times best-seller list for children’s chapter books for 48 weeks.

Maxine Hong Kingston, the author of “The Woman Warrior,” was awarded the 2008 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters.

Barney Rosset, the publisher of Grove Press and The Evergreen Review, a literary magazine, received the 2008 Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community. Hunched over and walking with a cane, Mr. Rosset, 86, received a standing ovation. He spoke of his victorious fight to publish “Tropic of Cancer” by Henry Miller and praised the election of Mr. Obama.

“The country looks like it may emerge from these dark decades with a new and uplifting agenda,” Mr. Rosset said, adding that he hoped publishing “now will go through a similar renewal.”

“I hope so,” he said. “I think so.”