Blume Wins American Letters Award

The National Book Foundation announced that Judy Blume will be the first author of young adult books and the fifth woman to receive its prestigious medal for a Distinguished Contribution to American Letters.Executive director Harold Augengraum noted that in addition to having “influenced and inspired countless children since the early ’70s,” Ms. Blume’s “active participation in the causes of the literary community and her struggles against censorship have also been exemplary.”The foundation’s release also underscores that Ms. Blume “has had a tremendous impact on young people, who turn to her books for help in navigating the travails of growing up and for characters with whom they can identify.”At a time when the publishing business is desperate to raise a new generation of readers, the award is an important signal – and thus may be more immune to the ridiculous controversy that surrounded last year’s honoring of Stephen King – even though Ms. Blume is popular and has written primarily for adolescent girls.Last year certain more high-minded community members took umbrage at giving such an award to a prolific and commercial author like Mr. King, and he responded by giving as good as he got in a fiery acceptance speech.Of course the actual National Book Award winners, presented at the same ceremony, are but a distant and rather less commercial memory now (Shirley Hazzard won the fiction prize for “The Great Fire” and Carlos Eire won the nonfiction award for “Waiting for Snow in Havana: Confessions of a Cuban Boy”). One can hardly say that fuss served the cause of literature or reading.***Meanwhile, another recent award winner, the 2004 Pulitzer Prize nonfiction winner for “Gulag,” Anne Applebaum, has signed again with Doubleday for a follow-up project.“The Anti-Civilization” will look at how the Soviet Union imposed communism on Eastern Europe after World War II, focusing on the experiences of the millions of people who were forced to adjust to a radically new political and moral system. Ms. Applebaum expects the research – which will include interviews with survivors and research in the national archives of several Eastern European countries – will take up to five years.***In another prominent deal, ABC News correspondent Lynn Sherr will write a memoir, “Outside the Box,” for Rodale. Ms. Sherr will share her personal survival stories for the first time in print, recounting the painful loss of her husband to cancer, and her own fight with colon cancer. She will also share her observations from inside the world of television as part of the first wave of women in broadcasting in the 1970s.

Blume Wins American Letters Award

Blume Wins American Letters Award

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