James Shapiro has won the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction Winner of Winners Award for his 2005 book, A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare: 1599.
The special award was given in honor of the 25th anniversary of the Baillie Gifford Prize, the British literary award that recognizes excellence in nonfiction books.
Shapiro’s book, published in the U.K. as 1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare, tells the story of the year when the legendary playwright penned Henry V, Julius Caesar, As You Like It, and Hamlet. In a starred review, a critic for Kirkus wrote, “open-minded readers will be stimulated and enriched by Shapiro’s contextual approach.”
The book beat out five other finalists for the special award: Patrick Radden Keefe for Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty (2021); Barbara Demick for Nothing To Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea (2010); Craig Brown for 150 Glimpses of the Beatles (2020); Wade Davis for Into the Silence: The Great War, Mallory and the Conquest of Everest (2011); and Margaret Macmillan for Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed The World (2002). Each of the six finalists had previously won the Baillie Gifford Prize.
Jason Cowley, the chair of judges for the special award, praised Shapiro’s book as “remarkable and compelling.”
“Erudite, accessible and formally bold, it will appeal to anyone interested in history, politics, literature and good writing,” Cowley said.
Michael Schaub, a journalist and regular contributor to NPR, lives near Austin, Texas.
