National Book Awards - 1978
BIOGRAPHY AND AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Winner:
W. Jackson Bate, Samuel Johnson
Finalists:
James Atlas - Delmore Schwartz
Will D. Campbell - Brother to a Dragonfly
Will Durant & Ariel Durant - A Dual Autobiography
Frank E. Vandiver - Black Jack
CHILDREN'S LITERATURE
Winner:
Judith Kohl & Herbert Kohl, The View From the Oak
Finalists:
Betty Sue Cummings - Hew Against the Grain
Ilse Koehn - Michling, Second Degree
David McCord - One at a Time
William Steig - Caleb & Kate
CONTEMPORARY THOUGHT
Winner:
Gloria Emerson, Winners & Losers
Finalists:
Kai T. Erikson - Everything in Its Path
Michael Harrington - The Vast Majority
Louise Kapp Howe - Pink Collar Workers
Julian Jaynes - The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind
FICTION
Winner:
Mary Lee Settle, Blood Tie
> Appreciations on Best of National Book Awards Fiction Blog
Finalists:
Robert Coover - The Public Burning
- “Contenders” Fiction Finalists Exhibition Page >Peter De Vries - Madder Music
- “Contenders” Fiction Finalists Exhibition Page >James Alan McPherson - Elbow Room
- “Contenders” Fiction Finalists Exhibition Page >John Sayles - Union Dues
- “Contenders” Fiction Finalists Exhibition Page >
HISTORY
Winner:
David McCullough, The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal 1870-1914
Finalists:
Henry Steele Commager - The Empire of Reason
Robert J. Donovan - Conflict and Crisis
Joseph Kastner - A Species of Eternity
Fritz Stern - Gold and Iron
POETRY
Winner:
Howard Nemerov , The Collected Poems of Howard Nemerov
> Read His Acceptance Speech
> NBA Poetry Blog Essay and Archival Material for Nemerov
Finalists:
Marvin Bell - Stars Which See, Stars Which Do Not See
Michael S. Harper - Images of Kin
Barbara Howes - A Private Signal
Charles Simic - Charon's Cosmology
TRANSLATION
Winner:
Howard Nemerov, Uwe George's In the Deserts of This Earth
Finalists:
Richard Winston & Clara Winston - Uwe George’s In the Deserts of this Earth
Robert M. Adams - Machiavelli’s The Prince
David Lapeza – Voinovich’s The Ivankiad
Burton Watson – Ryokan’s Zen Monk-Poet of Japan
William Weaver - Elsa Morante’s History: A Novel