Pulitzer Prize-winning author Ron Chernow will receive the 2016 Empire State Archives and History Award from the New York State Archives Partnership Trust at a public program on Wednesday, November 2 at 7 pm.
Chernow is the author of Alexander Hamilton, the 2004 biography adapted by Lin-Manuel Miranda for the hit Broadway musical Hamilton.
The public is invited to hear Chernow speak about his career as an author, biographer and historian with prominent Lincoln scholar Harold Holzer.
Tickets go on sale Thursday, September 1 for $20 ($15 for Archives Partnership Trust members) and can be purchased by phone at (518) 486-9349 or online.
The program will be held at historic Chancellors Hall located at the State Education Building at 89 Washington Avenue in Albany (entrance to Chancellors Hall is at the corner of Washington Avenue and Hawk Street).
The Empire State Archives and History Award acknowledges the outstanding contributions by a national figure to advance the understanding and uses of history within our society. Previous honorees include historians Doris Kearns Goodwin, Michael Beschloss, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., James McPherson, Robert Caro and David McCullough; documentarian Ken Burns; and actors Sam Waterson and Richard Dreyfuss.
Chernow’s debut book, The House of Morgan, earned the National Book Award and was selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best nonfiction books published in the 20th Century. His next book, The Warburgs, won the George S. Eccles Prize for the best business book of 1993. Titan, his 1993 biography of John D. Rockefeller, was named one of the best books of the year by the New York Times.
Chernow’s Hamilton biography won the first George Washington Book Prize for the best volume on the founding era. After spending three months on the New York Times best-seller list when first published, Alexander Hamilton returned to the list 11 years later following the debut of the sellout musical, Hamilton. Chernow’s most recent book, the 2011 Washington: A Life, won the Pulitzer for best biography as well as the New-York Historical Society’s American History Book Prize. He is at work now on a biography of Ulysses S. Grant.
Photo of Ron Chernow provided.
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