Booker makes up for lost year
Source: Agencies |
February 2, 2010, Tuesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
MORE than three decades after Iris Murdoch won Britain's top literary award, and a decade after her death, she has a chance to win again.
The author is up against 21 other writers who published novels in English in 1970 for the "lost" Booker Prize.
The books were never considered for the prize at the time. The Booker was originally awarded for any book published in the previous year, but in 1971 it became a prize for the best novel published that year. That meant a raft of books published in 1970 were left out in the cold, and the Lost Man Booker Prize is an attempt to remedy that.
"Our long list demonstrates that 1970 was a remarkable year for fiction written in English," said Ion Trewin, the prizes' literary director.
Murdoch's "A Fairly Honourable Defeat" is up against 21 other works, including Margaret Laurence's "The Fire Dwellers," Len Deighton's "Bomber," Ruth Rendell's "A Guilty Thing Surprised," and Reginald Hill's "A Clubbable Woman." All the books on the list are still in print today.
Murdoch won in 1978 for "The Sea, The Sea."
A shortlist for the prize will be announced in March. The winner is to be decided by a public vote on the Man Booker Prize Website and will be announced in May.
The Lost Man Booker Prize is the third special prize to be created by the organization. To mark the 25th anniversary, a "Booker of Bookers" was created, and in 2008, the 40th anniversary, there was a "Best of the Booker" award. Salman Rushdie won both prizes with "Midnight's Children."
The author is up against 21 other writers who published novels in English in 1970 for the "lost" Booker Prize.
The books were never considered for the prize at the time. The Booker was originally awarded for any book published in the previous year, but in 1971 it became a prize for the best novel published that year. That meant a raft of books published in 1970 were left out in the cold, and the Lost Man Booker Prize is an attempt to remedy that.
"Our long list demonstrates that 1970 was a remarkable year for fiction written in English," said Ion Trewin, the prizes' literary director.
Murdoch's "A Fairly Honourable Defeat" is up against 21 other works, including Margaret Laurence's "The Fire Dwellers," Len Deighton's "Bomber," Ruth Rendell's "A Guilty Thing Surprised," and Reginald Hill's "A Clubbable Woman." All the books on the list are still in print today.
Murdoch won in 1978 for "The Sea, The Sea."
A shortlist for the prize will be announced in March. The winner is to be decided by a public vote on the Man Booker Prize Website and will be announced in May.
The Lost Man Booker Prize is the third special prize to be created by the organization. To mark the 25th anniversary, a "Booker of Bookers" was created, and in 2008, the 40th anniversary, there was a "Best of the Booker" award. Salman Rushdie won both prizes with "Midnight's Children."
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