Former Montrealer sets up $75,000 prize for history writing
Last Updated: Friday, April 18, 2008 | 10:12 AM ET
CBC News
A former Montrealer has established a lucrative new literary honour designed to shine a light on the genre of non-fiction history writing.
London-based investment manager Peter Cundill, a graduate of McGill University, has unveiled the $75,000 US Cundill International Prize in History.
McGill officials and the Cundill Foundation officially announced the new prize in Montreal on Thursday, with the inaugural winner to be named at a reception on Nov. 25. A short list will be revealed in October.
The new award "highlights the importance of looking to the past so that we may chart the best course for the future," Heather Munroe-Blum, McGill's principal and vide-chancellor, said in a statement.
Cundill, who graduated from McGill in 1960 and has lived in London for three decades, described a link between the world of finance and the study of history.
"Both study the past to understand the present and predict the future," he said.
In addition to presenting one author with $75,000 US for publishing a historical book (published in English or French) deemed "to have a profound literary, social and academic impact," the prize will also offer two "recognition of excellence" awards of $10,000 US each.
An independent jury will select each year's winners, with the first panel to include Beaverbrook Canadian Foundation president Timothy Aitken, Canadian writer Denise Chong, Canadian Senator Serge Joyal, professors Angela Shottenhammer (Munich), Roger Chartier (Paris) and Natalie Zemon Davis (Toronto).
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