Nina Bernstein Wins the 2002 The New York Public Library Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism

The Award Honors Bernstein’s The Lost Children of Wilder: The Epic Struggle to Change Foster Care

New York, May 9, 2002 -- Nina Bernstein has won the 2002 The New York Public Library Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism for her powerful book The Lost Children of Wilder: The Epic Struggle to Change Foster Care (Pantheon Books). Ms. Bernstein (no relation to Helen Bernstein), whose book follows the challenge to the foster care system provoked by a controversial 1973 federal lawsuit, received the $15,000 award at a luncheon today. Now in its 15th year, the Library award honors a journalist whose work brings clarity and public attention to important issues, events, or policies.

The ceremony was hosted by Library President Dr. Paul LeClerc in the Trustees Room of the Humanities and Social Sciences Library, at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street. The presentation of the award, one of the largest journalism prizes in the United States, was made jointly by Dr. LeClerc and Osborn Elliott, Chairman of the Selection Committee. The other four finalists received an Honorable Mention and a $1,000 prize: James Bamford for Body of Secrets (Doubleday), Steven Johnson for Emergence (Scribner), Andrew Solomon for The Noonday Demon (Scribner), and Diane McWhorter for Carry Me Home (Simon & Schuster).

"The competition for this year’s Helen Bernstein Award for Excellence in Journalism was stiff and the topics covered by the five finalists reflect some of our deepest concerns as a nation," said Mr. Elliott, Dean Emeritus of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. "In her book, Nina Bernstein has expanded her excellent reporting into a truly notable work of nonfiction -- replete with all the pathos and fascinating characters one might expect to find in a novel."

About the Book
The Lost Children of Wilder: The Epic Struggle to Change Foster Care is a study of America’s child-welfare system through the federal lawsuit that has touched three generations of children in one family. That 1973 class-action suit, filed in New York City, came to be known as Wilder after the 13-year-old plaintiff, Shirley Wilder, an abused runaway whose childhood was shaped by the system’s inequities. Nina Bernstein’s account takes the reader behind the scenes of far-reaching legal and legislative battles, and, in counterpoint, shows the consequences as they are played out in the life of Shirley and her son, Lamont. Bernstein paints vivid portraits of the players -- among them, Marcia Lowry, the attorney who made the lawsuit a personal crusade, and Lamont, whose terrifying journey through the system has produced a man with deep emotional wounds, and a son of his own growing up in the system’s shadow.

About the Author
Nina Bernstein is a reporter for The New York Times. In 1994, her New York Newsday series about Wilder won the Columbia Journalism School’s Mike Berger Award, and Ms. Bernstein was awarded an Alicia Patterson Foundation fellowship to continue her research into foster care. In 1995, she received the George Polk Award for distinguished metropolitan coverage.

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, former Editor-in-Chief of Newsweek and 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 Bernstein Award
Established in 1987, The New York Public Library Helen Bernstein Book Award honors journalists and their unique role in drawing the attention of the public to important current issues. 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. Information about the award and the nomination process is available online at nypl.org/admin/pro/awardpage.html.

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.

Contact: Ellen T. White 212.704.8648
(ewhite@nypl.org)

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