A lovable, intractable, perhaps inviolable spirit-namely Principato's father-is dying of throat cancer he is the possessor of the Defiance, has stayed out of the Church for 35 years while telephoning in his sins every Friday night to a priest who says ''uh huh.'' Now he has bequeathed that ineffable Defiance to his son Principato, a sallow, trapped ineffectual who has been condemned to the ''safe predictable misery'' of one Cynthia Corrigan, their five children, and her family of prelates. Principato is an inventive, resilient and inordinately sympathetic first novel staked out in the playing fields of the here and the hereafter and engaging in the sempiternal scrimmage between dogma and the spirit. A bit scuffed but all pages intact and legible. Please see any and all photos connected with this listing. Thus, the award year 1950 is for books published in 1949.Soft cover.

Unless otherwise noted, the year represents the year the award was given for books published in the prior year. National Book Award Winners from 1950-1979įor each award, the winner is listed first followed by the finalists. Saul Bellow won the award in three decades (1954, 1965, 1971) and is the only author to have won the National Book Award for Fiction three times. The award is $10,000 and a bronze sculpture other finalists get $1000, a medal, and a citation written by the panel.Īuthors who have won the award more than once include such noted figures as William Faulkner, John Updike, William Gaddis, Jesmyn Ward, and Philip Roth, each having won the award on two occasions along with numerous other nominations. The winner is announced on the day of the final ceremony in November.

The National Book Foundation accepts nominations from publishers until June 15, requires mailing nominated books to the panelists by August 1, and announces five finalists in October. The award recognizes one book written by a U.S. The 77 included all eight 1980 winners but excluded the 1981 to 1983 children’s fiction winners. When the Foundation celebrated the 60th postwar awards in 2009, all but three of the 77 previous winners in fiction categories were in print. For several years beginning 1980, prior to the Foundation, there were multiple fiction categories: hardcover, paperback, first novel or first work of fiction from 1981 to 1983 hardcover and paperback children’s fiction and only in 1980 five awards to mystery fiction, science fiction, and western fiction. General fiction was one of four categories when the awards were re-established in 1950.

The panelists are five “writers who are known to be doing great work in their genre or field”. Since 1987 the awards have been administered and presented by the National Book Foundation, but they are awards “by writers to writers”. The National Book Award for Fiction is one of five annual National Book Awards, which recognize outstanding literary work by United States citizens.

Farragan's Retreat by Tom McHale