Jump to content

James Tait Black Memorial Prize

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 86.40.102.53 (talk) at 02:31, 17 May 2013 (at afc). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

The James Tait Black Memorial Prizes are literary prizes awarded for literature written in the English language. They are Britain's oldest literary awards. Based at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, United Kingdom, the prizes were founded in 1919 by Mrs Janet Coutts Black in memory of her late husband, James Tait Black, a partner in the publishing house of A & C Black Ltd.

History

Four winners of the Nobel Prize in Literature received the James Tait Black earlier in their careers; Sir William Golding, Nadine Gordimer and J. M. Coetzee each collected the James Tait Black for fiction, whilst Doris Lessing took the prize for biography. In addition to these literary Nobels, Sir Ronald Ross, whose 1923 autobiography Memoirs, Etc. received the biography prize, was already a Nobel Laureate, having been awarded the 1902 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work on malaria.

In 2012, a third prize category was announced for Drama, the first winner of this award will be announced in August 2013.

Selection process and prize administration

The winners are chosen by the Professor of English Literature at the University, who is assisted by PhD students in the shortlisting phase, a structure which is seen to lend the prizes a considerable gravitas. At the award of the 2006 prizes, Cormac McCarthy's publisher commented positively on the selection process noting that, in the absence of a sponsor and literary or media figures amongst the judging panel, the decision is made by "...students and professors, whose only real agenda can be great books and great writing".[1] The original endowment is now supplemented by the University and, as a consequence, the total prize fund rose from £6,000 to £20,000 for the 2005 awards.[2] This increase made the two annual prizes, one for fiction and the other for biography, the largest literary prizes on offer in Scotland.[3] The University is advised in relation to the development and administration of the Prize by a small committee which includes Ian Rankin, Alexander McCall Smith and James Naughtie amongst its members. In August 2007 the prize ceremony was held at the Edinburgh International Book Festival for the first time.[4]

Eligibility

Only those works of fiction and biographies written in English and first published in Britain in the 12 month period prior to the submission date are eligible for the award. Both prizes may go to the same author, but neither prize can be awarded to the same author on more than one occasion.

List of recipients

Year Fiction Award Year Biography Award
1919 Hugh Walpole, The Secret City 1919 Henry Festing Jones, Samuel Butler, Author of Erewhon (1835-1902) - A Memoir (Samuel Butler)
1920 D. H. Lawrence, The Lost Girl 1920 G. M. Trevelyan, Lord Grey of the Reform Bill (Earl Grey)
1921 Walter de la Mare, Memoirs of a Midget 1921 Lytton Strachey, Queen Victoria (Queen Victoria)
1922 David Garnett, Lady into Fox 1922 Percy Lubbock, Earlham
1923 Arnold Bennett, Riceyman Steps 1923 Ronald Ross, Memoirs, Etc. (autobiography)
1924 E. M. Forster, A Passage to India 1924 William Wilson, The House of Airlie (The Earls of Airlie)
1925 Liam O'Flaherty, The Informer 1925 Geoffrey Scott, The Portrait of Zelide (Isabelle de Charrière)
1926 Radclyffe Hall, Adam's Breed 1926 Reverend Dr H. B. Workman, John Wyclif: A Study of the English Medieval Church (John Wyclif)
1927 Francis Brett Young, Portrait of Clare 1927 H. A. L. Fisher, James Bryce, Viscount Bryce of Dechmont, O.M. (James Bryce, 1st Viscount Bryce)
1928 Siegfried Sassoon, Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man 1928 John Buchan, Montrose (James Graham)[5]
1929 J. B. Priestley, The Good Companions 1929 Lord David Cecil, The Stricken Deer: or The Life of Cowper (William Cowper)
1930 E. H. Young, Miss Mole 1930 Francis Yeats-Brown, Lives of a Bengal Lancer (autobiography)
1931 Kate O'Brien, Without My Cloak 1931 J. Y. T. Greig, David Hume (David Hume)
1932 Helen de Guerry Simpson, Boomerang 1932 Stephen Gwynn, The Life of Mary Kingsley (Mary Kingsley)
1933 A. G. Macdonell, England, Their England 1933 Violet Clifton, The Book of Talbot (John Talbot Clifton)[6]
1934 Robert Graves, I, Claudius and Claudius the God 1934 J. E. Neale, Queen Elizabeth (Elizabeth I of England)
1935 L. H. Myers, The Root and the Flower 1935 Raymond Wilson Chambers, Thomas More (Thomas More)
1936 Winifred Holtby, South Riding 1936 Edward Sackville West, A Flame in Sunlight: The Life and Work of Thomas de Quincey (Thomas de Quincey)
1937 Neil M. Gunn, Highland River 1937 Lord Eustace Percy, John Knox (John Knox)
1938 C. S. Forester, A Ship of the Line and Flying Colours 1938 Sir Edmund Chambers, Samuel Taylor Coleridge (Samuel Taylor Coleridge)
1939 Aldous Huxley, After Many a Summer Dies the Swan 1939 David C. Douglas, English Scholars[7]
1940 Charles Morgan, The Voyage 1940 Hilda F. M. Prescott, Spanish Tudor: Mary I of England (Mary I of England)
1941 Joyce Cary, A House of Children 1941 John Gore, King George V (George V)
1942 Arthur Waley, Translation of Monkey by Wu Cheng'en 1942 Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede, Henry Ponsonby: Queen Victoria's Private Secretary (Henry Ponsonby)
1943 Mary Lavin, Tales from Bective Bridge 1943 G. G. Coulton, Fourscore Years (autobiography)
1944 Forrest Reid, Young Tom 1944 C. V. Wedgwood, William the Silent (William the Silent)
1945 L. A. G. Strong, Travellers 1945 D. S. MacColl, Philip Wilson Steer (Philip Wilson Steer)
1946 Oliver Onions, Poor Man's Tapestry 1946 Richard Aldington, A Life of Wellington: The Duke (Arthur Wellesley)
1947 L. P. Hartley, Eustace and Hilda 1947 Charles E. Raven, English Naturalists from Neckam to Ray (Alexander Neckam and John Ray)
1948 Graham Greene, The Heart of the Matter 1948 Percy A. Scholes, The Great Dr. Burney (Charles Burney)
1949 Emma Smith, The Far Cry 1949 John Connell, W. E. Henley (W. E. Henley)
1950 Robert Henriques, Through the Valley 1950 Cecil Woodham-Smith, Florence Nightingale (Florence Nightingale)
1951 Chapman Mortimer, Father Goose 1951 Noel Annan, Leslie Stephen (Leslie Stephen)
1952 Evelyn Waugh, Men at Arms 1952 G. M. Young, Stanley Baldwin (Stanley Baldwin)
1953 Margaret Kennedy, Troy Chimneys 1953 Carola Oman, Sir John Moore (John Moore)
1954 C. P. Snow, The New Men and The Masters 1954 Keith Feiling, Warren Hastings (Warren Hastings)
1955 Ivy Compton-Burnett, Mother and Son 1955 R. W. Ketton-Cremer, Thomas Gray (Thomas Gray)
1956 Rose Macaulay, The Towers of Trebizond 1956 St John Greer Ervine, George Bernard Shaw (George Bernard Shaw)
1957 Anthony Powell, At Lady Molly's 1957 Maurice Cranston, Life of John Locke (John Locke)
1958 Angus Wilson, The Middle Age of Mrs. Eliot 1958 Joyce Hemlow, The History of Fanny Burney (Fanny Burney)
1959 Morris West, The Devil's Advocate 1959 Christopher Hassall, Edward Marsh (Edward Marsh)
1960 Rex Warner, Imperial Caesar 1960 Canon Adam Fox, The Life of Dean Inge (Dean Inge)
1961 Jennifer Dawson, The Ha-Ha 1961 M. K. Ashby, Joseph Ashby of Tysoe (Joseph Ashby)
1962 Ronald Hardy, Act of Destruction 1962 Meriol Trevor, Newman: The Pillar and the Cloud and Newman: Light in Winter (John Henry Newman)
1963 Gerda Charles, A Slanting Light 1963 Georgina Battiscombe, John Keble: A Study in Limitations (John Keble)
1964 Frank Tuohy, The Ice Saints 1964 Elizabeth Longford, Victoria R.I. (Queen Victoria)
1965 Muriel Spark, The Mandelbaum Gate 1965 Mary Moorman, William Wordsworth: The Later Years 1803-1850 (William Wordsworth)
1966 Christine Brooke-Rose, Such, and Aidan Higgins, Langrishe, Go Down 1966 Geoffrey Keynes, The Life of William Harvey (William Harvey)
1967 Margaret Drabble, Jerusalem The Golden 1967 Winifred Gérin, Charlotte Brontë: The Evolution of Genius (Charlotte Brontë)
1968 Maggie Ross, The Gasteropod 1968 Gordon Haight, George Eliot (George Eliot)
1969 Elizabeth Bowen, Eva Trout 1969 Antonia Fraser, Mary, Queen of Scots (Mary, Queen of Scots)
1970 Lily Powell, The Bird of Paradise 1970 Jasper Ridley, Lord Palmerston (Henry Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston)
1971 Nadine Gordimer, A Guest of Honour 1971 Julia Namier, Lewis Namier (Lewis Namier)
1972 John Berger, G 1972 Quentin Bell, Virginia Woolf (Virginia Woolf)
1973 Iris Murdoch, The Black Prince 1973 Robin Lane Fox, Alexander the Great (Alexander the Great)
1974 Lawrence Durrell, Monsieur: or, The Prince of Darkness 1974 John Wain, Samuel Johnson (Samuel Johnson)
1975 Brian Moore, The Great Victorian Collection 1975 Karl Miller, Cockburn's Millennium (Henry Cockburn)
1976 John Banville, Doctor Copernicus 1976 Ronald Hingley, A New Life of Chekhov (Chekhov)
1977 John le Carré, The Honourable Schoolboy 1977 George Painter, Chateaubriand: Volume 1 - The Longed-For Tempests (François-René de Chateaubriand)
1978 Maurice Gee, Plumb 1978 Robert Gittings, The Older Hardy (Thomas Hardy)
1979 William Golding, Darkness Visible 1979 Brian Finney, Christopher Isherwood: A Critical Biography (Christopher Isherwood)
1980 J. M. Coetzee, Waiting for the Barbarians 1980 Robert B. Martin, Tennyson: The Unquiet Heart (Alfred Tennyson)
1981 Salman Rushdie, Midnight's Children, and Paul Theroux, The Mosquito Coast 1981 Victoria Glendinning, Edith Sitwell: Unicorn Among Lions (Edith Sitwell)
1982 Bruce Chatwin, On The Black Hill 1982 Richard Ellmann, James Joyce (James Joyce)
1983 Jonathan Keates, Allegro Postillions 1983 Alan Walker, Franz Liszt: The Virtuoso Years (Franz Liszt)
1984 J. G. Ballard, Empire of the Sun, and Angela Carter, Nights at the Circus 1984 Lyndall Gordon, Virginia Woolf: A Writer's Life (Virginia Woolf)
1985 Robert Edric, Winter Garden 1985 David Nokes, Jonathan Swift: A Hypocrite Reversed (Jonathan Swift)
1986 Jenny Joseph, Persephone 1986 Dame Felicitas Corrigan, Helen Waddell (Helen Waddell)
1987 George Mackay Brown, The Golden Bird: Two Orkney Stories 1987 Ruth Dudley Edwards, Victor Gollancz: A Biography (Victor Gollancz)
1988 Piers Paul Read, A Season in the West 1988 Brian McGuinness, Wittgenstein, A Life: Young Ludwig (1889-1921) (Ludwig Wittgenstein)
1989 James Kelman, A Disaffection 1989 Ian Gibson, Federico García Lorca: A Life (Federico García Lorca)
1990 William Boyd, Brazzaville Beach 1990 Claire Tomalin, The Invisible Woman: The Story of Nelly Ternan and Charles Dickens (Ellen Ternan and Charles Dickens)
1991 Iain Sinclair, Downriver 1991 Adrian Desmond and James Moore, Darwin (Charles Darwin)
1992 Rose Tremain, Sacred Country 1992 Charles Nicholl, The Reckoning: The Murder of Christopher Marlowe (Christopher Marlowe)
1993 Caryl Phillips, Crossing the River 1993 Richard Holmes, Dr Johnson and Mr Savage (Samuel Johnson)
1994 Alan Hollinghurst, The Folding Star 1994 Doris Lessing, Under My Skin
1995 Christopher Priest, The Prestige 1995 Gitta Sereny, Albert Speer: His Battle with Truth (Albert Speer)
1996 Graham Swift, Last Orders, and Alice Thompson, Justine 1996 Diarmaid MacCulloch, Thomas Cranmer: A Life (Thomas Cranmer)
1997 Andrew Miller, Ingenious Pain 1997 R. F. Foster, W. B. Yeats: A Life, Volume 1 - The Apprentice Mage 1965-1914 (W. B. Yeats)
1998 Beryl Bainbridge, Master Georgie 1998 Peter Ackroyd, The Life of Thomas More (Thomas More)
1999 Timothy Mo, Renegade, or Halo2 1999 Kathryn Hughes, George Eliot: The Last Victorian (George Eliot)
2000 Zadie Smith, White Teeth 2000 Martin Amis, Experience
2001 Sid Smith, Something Like a House 2001 Robert Skidelsky, John Maynard Keynes: Volume 3 - Fighting for Britain 1937-1946 (John Maynard Keynes)
2002 Jonathan Franzen, The Corrections 2002 Jenny Uglow, The Lunar Men: The Friends Who Made the Future 1730-1810 (Lunar Society of Birmingham)
2003 Andrew O'Hagan, Personality 2003 Janet Browne, Charles Darwin: Volume 2 - The Power of Place (Charles Darwin)
2004 David Peace, GB84 2004 Jonathan Bate, John Clare: A Biography (John Clare)
2005 Ian McEwan, Saturday 2005 Sue Prideaux, Edvard Munch: Behind the Scream (Edvard Munch)
2006 Cormac McCarthy, The Road 2006 Byron Rogers, The Man Who Went Into the West: The Life of R. S. Thomas (R. S. Thomas)
2007 Rosalind Belben, Our Horses in Egypt 2007 Rosemary Hill, God's Architect: Pugin and the Building of Romantic Britain (Augustus Pugin)
2008 Sebastian Barry, The Secret Scripture 2008 Michael Holroyd, A Strange Eventful History (The families of Ellen Terry and Henry Irving)
2009 A. S. Byatt, The Children's Book 2009 John Carey, William Golding: The Man Who Wrote Lord of the Flies (William Golding)
2010 Tatjana Soli, The Lotus Eaters 2010 Hilary Spurling, Burying the Bones: Pearl Buck in China (Pearl Buck)[8]
2011 Padgett Powell, You and I 2011 Fiona MacCarthy, The Last Pre-Raphaelite: Edward Burne-Jones and the Victorian Imagination (Edward Burne-Jones)

Best of the James Tait Black (2012)

In 2012, a special prize was given called the 'Best of the James Tait Black' (in addition to the normal prize for that year).[9][10][11] The award celebrated the fiction winners over the past 93 years, as part of the University's 250th English Literature anniversary. A shortlist of six previous winners competed for the title of Best. A judging panel of celebrity alumni and writers decided on the winner announced on 6 December 2012 as Angela Carter's Nights at the Circus.[12]

Shortlist [10][11]

Notes

  1. ^ "Video report of the James Tait Black Prize ceremony, August 2007". University of Edinburgh. August 27, 2007.
  2. ^ "University boosts James Tait Black Prizes". University of Edinburgh. November 28, 2005.
  3. ^ Pauli, Michelle (May 2, 2006). "Ali Smith hits the shortlists again". London: The Guardian. Retrieved May 5, 2010.
  4. ^ "James Tait Black Memorial Prize Ceremony". The University of Edinburgh. June 8, 2007.
  5. ^ Scholarly revision of Buchan's earlier "The Marquis of Montrose" (1913)
  6. ^ Biography of the explorer John Talbot Clifton (1868-1928), father of Harry Clifton (Henry Talbot de Vere Clifton, dedicatee of W.B. Yeats' poem Lapis Lazuli)
  7. ^ Includes studies of antiquaries including Elias Ashmole, William Dugdale, Thomas Hearne, George Hickes, Thomas Madox, John Nalson, Edward Thwaites and Humfrey Wanley
  8. ^ "Dazzling tale of Ms Saigon takes top award". The Scotsman. August 20, 2011.
  9. ^ "Best of the James Tait Black". October 2012. Retrieved October 2012. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  10. ^ a b Russell Leadbetter (21 October 2012). "Book prize names six of the best in search for winner". Herald Scotland. Retrieved 21 October 2012.
  11. ^ a b "Authors in running for 'best of best' James Tait Black award". BBC News. 21 October 2012. Retrieved 21 October 2012.
  12. ^ a b Alison Flood (6 December 2012). "Angela Carter named best ever winner of James Tait Black award". The Guardian. Retrieved December 06, 2012. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=James_Tait_Black_Memorial_Prize&oldid=555454682"