 |
The New York Public Library Helen Bernstein
Book Award for Excellence in Journalism
|
Journalist and author Jane Mayer received the 2009 New York Public Library Helen Bernstein Award for Excellence in Journalism for her book,The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals.
Press Release
Jane Mayer is a Washington-based staff writer for The New Yorker specializing in political and investigative reporting. She was previously a senior writer and front page editor for The Wall Street Journal, as well as their first female White House correspondent. She has co-authored two best-selling books, Landslide: The Unmaking of the President, 1984-1988 and Strange Justice: The Selling of Clarence Thomas, the latter of which, along with The Dark Side, was a National Book Award finalist.
The book chronicles the secret unconstitutional actions, including torture, taken by the Bush administration in the pursuit of terrorists. The award was presented by Library President Paul LeClerc, Selection Committee Chair James F. Hoge and Library Trustee David Remnick at a reception in the Trustees Room at the Library's Stephen A. Schwarzman Building.
"When I wrote this book I wanted to take my stories from The New Yorker and write not just about what went wrong with America but of the people who fought back. They were very inspiring to me and had un-chronicled acts of courage that I thought needed to be shared," said Mayer. "As a native New Yorker and child and grandchild of New Yorkers I am especially moved that my work is being recognized by the Library which is such an iconic symbol of the cultural grandeur of this City."
Mayer was selected from more than 75 nominees and four other finalists who received a $1,000 cash prize. The finalists were Dexter Filkins, The Forever War(Knopf); Peter Gosselin, High Wire: The Precarious Financial Lives of American Families (Basic Books); Melody Peterson, Our Daily Meds: How the Pharmaceutical Companies Transformed Themselves in Slick Marketing Machines and Hooked the Nation on Prescription Drugs (Sarah Crichton Books / Farrar, Straus and Giroux); and Robin Wright, Dreams and Shadows: The Future of the Middle East (The Penguin Press).
About The New York Public Library Helen Bernstein Book Award
About the Library Review Committee
Past winners of New York Public Library Helen Bernstein Book Award
How to Nominate a Book
