Man Booker Prize

For the related biennial prize given to an author of any nationality, see Man Booker International Prize.
Man Booker Prize
Awarded for Best original novel, written in the English language, and published in the UK
Location Guildhall, London, England
Presented by Man Group
First awarded 1969
Official website www.themanbookerprize.com

The Man Booker Prize for Fiction (formerly known as the Booker-McConnell Prize and commonly known simply as the Booker Prize) is a literary prize awarded each year for the best original novel, written in the English language, and published in the UK. The winner of the Man Booker Prize is generally assured of international renown and success; therefore, the prize is of great significance for the book trade.[1] From its inception, only Commonwealth, Irish, and Zimbabwean citizens were eligible to receive the prize; in 2013, however, this eligibility was widened to any English language novel.

The Booker Prize is greeted with great anticipation and fanfare.[2] It is also a mark of distinction for authors to be selected for inclusion in the shortlist or even to be nominated for the "longlist".

History and administration

The prize was originally known as the Booker-McConnell Prize, after the company Booker-McConnell began sponsoring the event in 1968;[3] it became commonly known as the "Booker Prize" or simply "the Booker." When administration of the prize was transferred to the Booker Prize Foundation in 2002, the title sponsor became the investment company Man Group, which opted to retain "Booker" as part of the official title of the prize. The foundation is an independent registered charity funded by the entire profits of Booker Prize Trading Ltd, of which it is the sole shareholder.[4] The prize money awarded with the Booker Prize was originally £21,000, and was subsequently raised to £50,000 in 2002 under the sponsorship of the Man Group, making it one of the world's richest literary prizes.

In 1970, Bernice Rubens became the first woman to win the Booker Prize, for The Elected Member.[5] The rules of the Booker changed in 1971; previously, it had been awarded retrospectively to books published prior to the year in which the award was given. In 1971 the year of eligibility was changed to the same as the year of the award; in effect, this meant that books published in 1970 were not considered for the Booker in either year. The Booker Prize Foundation announced in January 2010 the creation of a special award called the "Lost Man Booker Prize," with the winner chosen from a longlist of 22 novels published in 1970.[6]

Alice Munro has a unique place in Booker Prize history; The Beggar Maid is the only short story collection to have been shortlisted. (It was shortlisted in 1980.)[7]

Before 2001, each year's longlist of nominees was not publicly revealed.[8]

John Sutherland, who was a judge for the 1999 prize, has said,

There is a well-established London literary community. Rushdie doesn't get shortlisted now because he has attacked that community. That is not a good game plan if you want to win the Booker. Norman Mailer has found the same thing in the US – you have to 'be a citizen' if you want to win prizes. The real scandal is that [Martin] Amis has never won the prize. In fact, he has only been shortlisted once and that was for Time's Arrow, which was not one of his strongest books. That really is suspicious. He pissed people off with Dead Babies and that gets lodged in the culture. There is also the feeling that he has always looked towards America.[9]

In 1972, the winning writer John Berger, known for his Marxist worldview, protested during his acceptance speech against Booker McConnell. He blamed Booker's 130 years of sugar production in the Caribbean for the region's modern poverty.[10][11] Berger donated half of his £5,000 prize to the British Black Panther movement, because they had a socialist and revolutionary perspective in agreement with his own.[3][10][12]

In 1980, Anthony Burgess, writer of Earthly Powers, refused to attend the ceremony unless it was confirmed to him in advance whether he had won.[3] His was one of two books considered likely to win, the other being Rites of Passage by William Golding. The judges decided only 30 minutes before the ceremony, giving the prize to Golding. Both novels had been seen as favourites to win leading up to the prize, and the dramatic "literary battle" between two senior writers made front page news.[3][13]

1983's judging produced a draw between J. M. Coetzee's Life & Times of Michael K and Salman Rushdie's Shame, leaving chair of judges Fay Weldon to choose between the two. According to Stephen Moss in The Guardian, "Her arm was bent and she chose Rushdie" only to change her mind as the result was being phoned through.[9]

In 1993, two of the judges threatened to walk out when Trainspotting appeared on the longlist; Irvine Welsh's novel was pulled from the shortlist to satisfy them. The novel would later receive critical acclaim, and is now considered Welsh's masterpiece.[14]

The award has been criticised for the types of books it covers. In 1981, nominee John Banville wrote a letter to The Guardian requesting that the prize be given to him so that he could use the money to buy every copy of the longlisted books in Ireland and donate them to libraries, "thus ensuring that the books not only are bought but also read — surely a unique occurrence."[3][15]

In 1994, journalist Richard Gott described the prize as "a significant and dangerous iceberg in the sea of British culture that serves as a symbol of its current malaise."[3][16]

In 1997, the decision to award Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things proved controversial. Carmen Callil, chair of the previous year's Booker judges, called it an "execrable" book and said on television that it shouldn't even have been on the shortlist. Booker Prize chairman Martyn Goff said Roy won because nobody objected, following the rejection by the judges of Bernard MacLaverty's shortlisted book due to their dismissal of him as "a wonderful short-story writer and that Grace Notes was three short stories strung together."[17]

In 2001, A. L. Kennedy, who was a judge in 1996, called the prize "a pile of crooked nonsense" with the winner determined by "who knows who, who's sleeping with who, who's selling drugs to who, who's married to who, whose turn it is".[9]

Between 2005 and 2008, the Booker Prize alternated between writers from Ireland and India. "Outsider" John Banville began this trend in 2005 when his novel The Sea was selected as a surprise winner:[18] Boyd Tonkin, literary editor of The Independent, famously condemned it as "possibly the most perverse decision in the history of the award" and rival novelist Tibor Fischer poured scorn on Banville's victory.[19] Kiran Desai of India won in 2006. Anne Enright's 2007 victory came about due to a jury badly split over Ian McEwan's novel On Chesil Beach. The following year it was India's turn again, with Aravind Adiga narrowly defeating Enright's fellow Irishman Sebastian Barry.[20]

Historically, the winner of the Man Booker Prize had been required to be a citizen of the Commonwealth of Nations, the Republic of Ireland, or Zimbabwe. On 18 September 2013, the media announced that future Man Booker Prize awards would consider authors from anywhere in the world, so long as their work was in English and published in the UK.[21] This change proved controversial in literary circles. Former winner A. S. Byatt and former judge John Mullan said the prize risked diluting its identity, whereas former judge A. L. Kennedy welcomed the change.[22]

Judging

The selection process for the winner of the prize commences with the formation of an advisory committee, which includes a writer, two publishers, a literary agent, a bookseller, a librarian, and a chairperson appointed by the Booker Prize Foundation. The advisory committee then selects the judging panel, the membership of which changes each year, although on rare occasions a judge may be selected a second time. Judges are selected from amongst leading literary critics, writers, academics and leading public figures.

The winner is usually announced at a ceremony in London's Guildhall, usually in early October.

Winners

In 1993 to mark the 25th anniversary it was decided to choose a Booker of Bookers Prize. Three previous judges of the award, Malcolm Bradbury, David Holloway and W. L. Webb, met and chose Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children (the 1981 winner) as "the best novel out of all the winners."[23]

A similar prize known as The Best of the Booker was awarded in 2008 to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the prize. A shortlist of six winners was chosen and the decision was left to a public vote. The winner was again Midnight's Children.[24][25]

Year Author Title Genre(s) Nationality
1969 P. H. Newby Something to Answer For Novel United Kingdom
1970 Bernice Rubens The Elected Member Novel United Kingdom
1970
(retrospective award[lower-alpha 1])		 J. G. Farrell Troubles Novel United Kingdom
Ireland
1971 V. S. Naipaul In a Free State Short story United Kingdom
Trinidad and Tobago
1972 John Berger G. Experimental novel United Kingdom
1973 J. G. Farrell The Siege of Krishnapur Novel United Kingdom
Ireland
1974 Nadine Gordimer The Conservationist Novel South Africa
Stanley Middleton Holiday Novel United Kingdom
1975 Ruth Prawer Jhabvala Heat and Dust Historical novel United Kingdom
Germany
1976 David Storey Saville Novel United Kingdom
1977 Paul Scott Staying On Novel United Kingdom
1978 Iris Murdoch The Sea, the Sea Philosophical novel Ireland
United Kingdom
1979 Penelope Fitzgerald Offshore Novel United Kingdom
1980 William Golding Rites of Passage Novel United Kingdom
1981 Salman Rushdie Midnight's Children Magic realism United Kingdom
1982 Thomas Keneally Schindler's Ark Biographical novel Australia
1983 J. M. Coetzee Life & Times of Michael K Novel South Africa
1984 Anita Brookner Hotel du Lac Novel United Kingdom
1985 Keri Hulme The Bone People Mystery novel New Zealand
1986 Kingsley Amis The Old Devils Comic novel United Kingdom
1987 Penelope Lively Moon Tiger Novel United Kingdom
1988 Peter Carey Oscar and Lucinda Historical novel Australia
1989 Kazuo Ishiguro The Remains of the Day Historical novel United Kingdom
1990 A. S. Byatt Possession Historical novel United Kingdom
1991 Ben Okri The Famished Road Magic realism Nigeria
1992 Michael Ondaatje The English Patient Historiographic metafiction Canada
Barry Unsworth Sacred Hunger Historical novel United Kingdom
1993 Roddy Doyle Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha Novel Ireland
1994 James Kelman How Late It Was, How Late Stream of consciousness United Kingdom
1995 Pat Barker The Ghost Road War novel United Kingdom
1996 Graham Swift Last Orders Novel United Kingdom
1997 Arundhati Roy The God of Small Things Novel India
1998 Ian McEwan Amsterdam Novel United Kingdom
1999 J. M. Coetzee Disgrace Novel South Africa
2000 Margaret Atwood The Blind Assassin Historical novel Canada
2001 Peter Carey True History of the Kelly Gang Historical novel Australia
2002 Yann Martel Life of Pi Fantasy and adventure novel Canada
2003 DBC Pierre Vernon God Little Black comedy Australia
2004 Alan Hollinghurst The Line of Beauty Historical novel United Kingdom
2005 John Banville The Sea Novel Ireland
2006 Kiran Desai The Inheritance of Loss Novel India
2007 Anne Enright The Gathering Novel Ireland
2008 Aravind Adiga The White Tiger Novel India
2009 Hilary Mantel Wolf Hall Historical novel United Kingdom
2010 Howard Jacobson The Finkler Question Comic novel United Kingdom
2011 Julian Barnes The Sense of an Ending Novel United Kingdom
2012 Hilary Mantel Bring Up the Bodies Historical novel United Kingdom
2013 Eleanor Catton The Luminaries Historical novel Canada
New Zealand
2014 Richard Flanagan The Narrow Road to the Deep North Historical novel Australia
  1. ↑ In 1971, the nature of the Prize was changed so that it was awarded to novels published in that year instead of in the previous year; therefore, no novel published in 1970 could win the Booker Prize. This was rectified in 2010 by the awarding of the "Lost Man Booker Prize" to J. G. Farrell's Troubles.[26]

Related awards

A separate prize for which any living writer in the world may qualify, the Man Booker International Prize, was inaugurated in 2005 and is awarded biennially. A Russian version of the Booker Prize was created in 1992 called the Booker-Open Russia Literary Prize, also known as the Russian Booker Prize. In 2007, Man Group plc established the Man Asian Literary Prize, an annual literary award given to the best novel by an Asian writer, either written in English or translated into English, and published in the previous calendar year.

As part of The Times' Literature Festival in Cheltenham, a Booker event is held on the last Saturday of the festival. Four guest speakers/judges debate a shortlist of four books from a given year from before the introduction of the Booker prize, and a winner is chosen. Unlike the real Man Booker, writers from outside the Commonwealth are also considered. In 2008, the winner for 1948 was Alan Paton's Cry, the Beloved Country, beating Norman Mailer's The Naked and the Dead, Graham Greene's The Heart of the Matter and Evelyn Waugh's The Loved One.

See also

References

  1. ↑ John Sutherland (9 October 2008). "The Booker's Big Bang". New Statesman. Retrieved 3 September 2009.
  2. ↑ Hoover, Bob (10 February 2008). "'Gathering' storm clears for prize winner Enright". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved 10 February 2008. In America, literary prizes are greeted with the same enthusiasm as a low Steelers draft choice. Not so in the British Isles, where the $98,000 Man Booker Fiction Prize can even push Amy Winehouse off the front page – at least for a day. The atmosphere around the award approaches sports-championship proportions, with London bookies posting the ever-changing odds on the nominees. Then, in October when the winner is announced live on the BBC TV evening news, somebody always gets ticked off.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 "Man Booker Prize: a history of controversy, criticism and literary greats". The Guardian. 18 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2011.
  4. ↑ "Booker Prize: legal information". bookerprize.com. Retrieved 3 September 2009.
  5. ↑ James Kidd, "A Brief History of The Man Booker Prize", South China Morning Post, 5 March 2006.
  6. ↑ "The Lost Man Booker Prize announced". bookerprize.com. Retrieved 31 January 2010.
  7. ↑ "Dear Life: Stories by Alice Munro (Chatto & Windus, November)". The Guardian. 13 July 2012. Retrieved 13 July 2012. As the only writer to sneak on to the Booker shortlist for a collection of short stories (with The Beggar Maid in 1980), Alice Munro easily deserves to end our list of the year's best fiction.
  8. ↑ Yates, Emma (15 August 2001). "Booker Prize longlist announced for first time". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 August 2001.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Moss, Stephen (18 September 2001). "Is the Booker fixed?". The Guardian. Retrieved 18 September 2001.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 White, Michael (25 November 1972). "Berger's black bread". The Guardian. p. 11.
  11. ↑ "John Berger on the Booker Prize (1972)", YouTube.
  12. ↑ Speech by John Berger on accepting the Booker Prize for Fiction at the Café Royal in London on 23 November 1972.
  13. ↑ "Lord of the novel wins the Booker prize". The Guardian. 22 October 1980. p. 1.
  14. ↑ Bissett, Alan (27 July 2012). "The unnoticed bias of the Booker prize". The Guardian. Retrieved 27 July 2012.
  15. ↑ "A novel way of striking a 12,000 Booker Prize bargain", The Guardian, 14 October 1981, p. 14.
  16. ↑ "Novel way to run a lottery". The Guardian. 5 September 1994. p. 22.
  17. ↑ Glaister, Dan (14 October 1997). "Popularity pays off for Roy". The Guardian.
  18. ↑ Ezard, John (11 October 2005). "Irish stylist springs Booker surprise". The Guardian. Retrieved 11 October 2005.
  19. ↑ Crown, Sarah (10 October 2005). "Banville scoops the Booker". The Guardian. Retrieved 10 October 2005.
  20. ↑ Higgins, Charlotte (28 January 2009). "How Adam Foulds was a breath away from the Costa book of the year award". The Guardian. Retrieved 28 January 2009.
  21. ↑ Will Gompertz, "Global expansion for Booker Prize", BBC News, 18 September 2013.
  22. ↑ "'A surprise and a risk': Reaction to Booker Prize upheaval". BBC News. 18 September 2013. Retrieved 19 September 2013.
  23. ↑ Mullan, John (12 July 2008). "Lives & letters, Where are they now?". The Guardian. Retrieved 11 September 2011.
  24. ↑ Pauli, Michelle (21 February 2008). "Best of the Booker". The Guardian. Retrieved 3 September 2009.
  25. ↑ "Rushdie wins Best of Booker prize". BBC News. 10 July 2008. Retrieved 3 September 2009.
  26. ↑ Melvern, Jack (20 May 2010). "J G Farrell wins Booker prize for 1970, 30-year after his death". The Times. Retrieved 23 December 2010.

Further reading

External links

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