Los Angeles Times Names Book Prizes Winners

Posted on May 14, 1999

John Sanford was awarded the Los Angeles Times Book Prizes' prestigious Robert Kirsch Award last night at this year's Times Book Prizes ceremony. Sanford, 95, has written 24 works of fiction, history, memoir, poetry and collected letters over the past 60 years.

For 19 years, the Los Angeles Times Book Prizes have honored the literary achievements of the world's greatest authors. The Book Prizes, which were first awarded in 1980, presented prizes in eight categories, including the Young Adult Fiction category, which debuted this year. Complete details on all prizes can be found on the Los Angeles Times website.

The Robert Kirsch Award is presented each year to a living author who resided in the West or whose work focuses on the region and whose contribution to American letters deserves recognition. The Kirsch Award is named after The Times' late book critic, who died in 1980 following a 25-year career as a novelist, editor and teacher as well as one of the nation's foremost reviewers.

The 1998 Book Prize winners are:

The Robert Kirsch Award: John Sanford

Biography: Lindbergh, by A. Scott Berg (G.P. Putnam's Sons)

Current Interest: We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families: Stories from Rwanda, by Philip Gourevitch (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

Fiction: The Rings of Saturn, by W.G. Sebald (Michael Hulse, Translator) (New Directions)

History: The Greatest Benefit to Mankind: A Medical History of Humanity, by Roy S. Porter (W.W. Norton)

Poetry: Mysteries of Small Houses, by Alice Notley (Penguin Books)

Science and Technology: Blood: An Epic History of Medicine and Commerce, by Douglas Starr (Alfred A. Knopf)

Young Adult Fiction: Rules of the Road, by Joan Bauer (G.P. Putnam's Sons)

The Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction: Kalimantaan, by C.S. Godshalk (Henry Holt)