Backgrounder
The New York Public Library Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in
Journalism
1999 Finalists
Buzz Bissinger
A Prayer for the City (Random House)
A Prayer for the City is Buzz Bissinger's epic story of Philadelphia
Mayor Edward Rendell's remarkable efforts to revive his declining city. With
both humor and poignancy, Mr. Bissinger describes the way a city really works
as the Mayor maneuvers through high-power politics while tackling issues such
as unemployment and crime. Over the five years Mr. Bissinger wrote his book,
he had exclusive access to Mayor Rendell's administration. Currently a contributing
editor to Vanity Fair, he has been a reporter for the Chicago Tribune
and the Philadelphia Inquirer, where he won the Pulitzer Prize for investigative
reporting.
Roger Cohen
Hearts Grown Brutal: Sagas of Sarajevo (Random House)
The history of Yugoslavia and the story of the Bosnian War of 1992 to 1995 are
at the center of Roger Cohen's moving book, in which he describes the events
that led up to the conflict, as well as the reluctance of the United States
and others to confront another act of genocide on European soil. A testament
to the loss of a multi-ethnic European state, the story is told through the
personal experiences of four families. Roger Cohen is the Berlin bureau chief
and former Balkan bureau chief of The New York Times. He has been a foreign
correspondent for the Wall Street Journal and Reuters, and is coauthor
of a biography of General Norman Schwarzkopf, In the Eye of the Storm.
William Finnegan
Cold New World: Growing Up in a Harder Country (Random House)
“While the national economy has been growing,” writes William Finnegan, “The
economic prospects of most Americans have been dimming.” In this groundbreaking
work of social journalism, he has focused on families ? in particular their
teenage children ? in four communities across America. The resulting portraits
reveal multifaceted individuals who live in a country where inequality and cultural
alienation are growing at a dangerous pace. William Finnegan has been a staff
writer at The New Yorker since 1987. Among his previous works are A
Complicated War: The Harrowing of Mozambique and Crossing the Line: A
Year in the Land of Apartheid.
Philip Gourevitch
We
wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families: Stories
from Rwanda (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
When the Rwandan government implemented a policy in 1994 that called on the
Hutu majority to murder the Tutsi minority, 800,000 people were massacred in
only 100 days. Philip Gourevitch's explores the unfolding of this genocide,
as well as its background and aftermath, and a presents an intimate portrait
of Rwandans in all walks of life as they try to cope with the psychological
and political challenges of survival. A staff writer at The New Yorker
and a contributing editor to the Forward, Mr. Gourevitch has reported
from Africa, Asia, and Europe for such publications as Harper's and The
New York Review of Books. He lives in New York.
Sylvia Nasar
A Beautiful Mind (Simon & Schuster)
In her moving biography of mathematical genius John Forbes Nash, Jr., Sylvia
Nasar recreates the life of a man whose brilliant career was cut short by a
devastating mental breakdown and ensuing descent into insanity. Miraculously,
after years of living in quiet near-obscurity, Nash recovered and was awarded
a Nobel Prize. Ms. Nasar, who is a reporter at The New York Times,
conducted hundreds of interviews with Nash's friends and family to tell his
remarkable story. She has also been a writer at Fortune and a columnist
at U.S. News & World Report. She resides in Westchester County, New
York.
Return to 1999 Bernstein Award Release
thoerenz: pro: 05-05-99
