Five Finalists Chosen for The New York Public Library Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism

New York, N.Y., April 5, 2002 -- The finalists for The New York Public Library’s 15th-annual Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism were announced today by Library President Paul LeClerc. One of the largest literary prizes awarded in the United States, the award honors an outstanding journalist whose book has drawn public attention to current issues.

The finalists for the Library’s 2002 Book Award are James Bamford for Body of Secrets (Doubleday), Nina Bernstein for The Lost Children of Wilder (Pantheon), Steven Johnson for Emergence (Scribner), Andrew Solomon for The Noonday Demon (Scribner), and Diane McWhorter for Carry Me Home (Simon & Schuster). The winner will be selected by a committee of distinguished journalists and publishers and announced at a ceremony on May 9 at the Humanities and Social Sciences Library, Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street. The winner will receive a cash prize of $15,000, and the other finalists will each receive $1,000.

"The task before the Bernstein Award Selection Committee is both formidable and deeply engaging, as its members must single out an award winner among books that represent the finest works of journalism in the country," said President LeClerc. "From foster care to civil rights to national security, the issues addressed are those of utmost concern in contemporary American society."

About the Selection Committee

The winner of the Library’s Book Award is chosen by an independent Selection Committee of professional journalists and publishers, chaired by Osborn Elliott, Chairman of the Citizens Committee for New York City. This year’s committee members are Ellis Cose, Contributing Editor of Newsweek; James F. Hoge, Jr., Editor of Foreign Affairs; Harold W. (Terry) McGraw III, Chairman, President, and CEO of The McGraw-Hill Companies; Jack Rosenthal, Chairman,

The New York Times Foundation; Ray Sokolov, Leisure & Arts Editor, The Wall Street Journal; and Alair Townsend, Publisher, Crain’s New York Business.

The five finalists were chosen by a review committee of NYPL librarians from a field of 80 books nominated by publishers, editors, and executives of major newspapers, magazines, and publishing houses nationwide.

About the Finalists

Body of Secrets: Anatomy of the Ultra-Secret National Security Agency from the Cold War through the Dawn of a New Century (Doubleday)
by James Bamford
Body of Secrets is an examination of the National Security Agency through unique access to thousands of internal documents and interviews with current and former officials. Mr. Bamford is the author of The Puzzle Place, and was until recently Washington Investigative Producer for ABC’s World News Tonight with Peter Jennings.

The Lost Children of Wilder: The Epic Struggle to Change Foster Care (Pantheon Books)
by Nina Bernstein
The Lost Children of Wilder follows the challenge to the foster care system provoked by the controversial legal case of 13-year-old Shirley Wilder, an abused runaway whose childhood was shaped by the system’s inequities. Ms. Bernstein is a reporter for The New York Times.

Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities and Software (Scribner)
by Steven Johnson
Emergence examines systems that at first glance seem vastly different -- ant colonies, human brains, cities, immune systems -- but that organize themselves similarly to form more intelligent, adaptive higher-level behavior. Mr. Johnson is the cofounder of Feed (www.feedmag.com), the acclaimed Internet source on technology, science, and culture.

The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression (Scribner)
by Andrew Solomon
The Noonday Demon explores depression in personal, cultural, and scientific terms, drawing on the author’s own struggles with the illness and in interviews with fellow sufferers, doctors and scientists, and policymakers. Mr. Solomon is the author of The Irony Tower: Soviet Artists in a Time of Glasnost and the novel A Stone Boat.

Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama -- The Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution (Simon & Schuster)
by Diane McWhorter
Carry Me Home is a dramatic account of the civil rights era’s climactic battle of 1963 in Birmingham, Alabama, led by Martin Luther King, Jr., which brought down the institutions of segregation and led to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Ms. McWhorter is a contributor to The New York Times, USA Today, and The Washington Post.

About the Bernstein Award

Established in 1987, The New York Public Library Helen Bernstein Book Award is one of the largest annual book prizes in the United States. The award was established with a gift from Joseph F. Bernstein in honor of Helen Bernstein, a former journalist in Palm Beach, Florida. The gift also included an endowment for the position of Helen Bernstein Chief Librarian for Periodicals and Journals in the General Research Division of the Library. The chair is currently held by Stewart Bodner, who oversees a collection of 11,500 current periodicals in 24 languages. This collection is used by approximately 60,000 researchers annually and is an invaluable resource for writers, artists, journalists, broadcasters, business people, and students.

Previous Winners

The previous 14 winners are:

2001: Elaine Sciolino, Persian Mirrors: The Elusive Face of Iran

2000 (joint award): James Mann, About Face: A History of America’s Curious Relationship with China, from Nixon to Clinton; Patrick Tyler, A Great Wall: Six Presidents and China: An Investigative History

1999: Philip Gourevitch, We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families: stories from Rwanda

1998: Patti Waldmeir, Anatomy of a Miracle: The End of Apartheid and the Birth of the New South Africa

1997: David Quammen, The Song of the Dodo: Island Biography in an Age of Extinctions

1996:Tina Rosenberg, The Haunted Land: Facing Europe's Ghosts After Communism

1995: Joseph Nocera, A Piece of the Action: How the Middle Class Joined the Money Class

1994: David Remnick, Lenin's Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire

1993: Samuel Freedman, Upon This Rock: The Miracles of a Black Church

1992: Alex P. Kotlowitz, There Are No Children Here: The Story of Two Boys Growing Up in the Other America

1991: Nicholas Lemann, The Promised Land: The Great Black Migration and How It Changed America

1990: Thomas Friedman, From Beirut to Jerusalem

1989: Judy Woodruff for her series of television reports focusing on the Iran-Contra affair

1988: James Reston, in special recognition of his 50-year contribution to journalism.

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Contact: Ellen T. White 212.704.8648

 

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