Image: Orlando Myxx
Edward Wilson-Lee, who was awarded the 2019 PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize for THE CATALOGUE OF SHIPWRECKED BOOKS, joined his fellow past prize winners in celebration as the Prize marked its 25th and final ceremony. The prize, funded by and in memory of the late Marjorie Hessell-Tiltman, recognised exceptional works of historical non-fiction, of such literary merit that reached beyond the academic market to connect with all readers.
Image: Orlando Myxx
The event on 16 July at Foyles Charing Cross included Edward and other previous winners Anita Anand, Kojo Koram, Keith Lowe, Diarmaid MacCulloch, Margaret Macmillan, David Olusoga, Richard Overy, David Reynolds, Avi Shlaim, Stephen A Smith, Francesca Stavrakopoulou, Jenny Uglow, and Rebecca Wragg Sykes in conversation to consider the past, present, and future of historical non-fiction. The night culminated with Margaret Macmillan being crowned the ‘Winner of Winners’.
THE CATEGORY OF SHIPWRECKED BOOKS, Edward’s 2019 winner, told the story of Christopher Columbus' illegitimate son Hernando, who sought to equal and surpass his father's achievements by creating a universal library to harness the vast powers of the new printing presses to assemble the world’s knowledge in one place. ‘THE CATEGORY OF SHIPWRECKED BOOKS was a unanimous choice,’ said the 2019 judges Dr Kate Wiles and Stephanie Merritt. ‘We felt it stood out for its combination of compelling original research with elegant writing and a gripping narrative, bringing together histories of exploration, scholarship and personal and national identity. Through the life of Hernando Colón, Edward Wilson-Lee captures a turbulent world in the grip of unprecedented change, geographically and intellectually, and considers what lessons we might take for our own age of rapidly expanding information.’
THE CATALOGUE OF SHIPWRECKED BOOKS was published by William Collins in the UK in 2018 and by Scribner in the US in 2019. Rights have been sold in ten translation markets so far: Bulgaria (Colibri), China (Guangxi Normal University Press), France (Editions Paulsen), Italy (Bollati Boringhieri), Japan (Kashiwashobo), Netherlands (Meulenhoff), Romania (ART), Portugal (Bertrand Editora), Saudi Arabia (Madarek) and Spain (Ariel, Planeta). THE CATALOGUE OF SHIPWRECKED BOOKS was also shortlisted for the James Tait Black Prize for Biography in 2019.
About Edward Wilson-Lee
Edward Wilson-Lee is 1596 Fellow in English at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, where he teaches Renaissance Literature. After growing up in the US, Kenya, and Switzerland, he studied in London, New York, Oxford and Cambridge and lived in Zimbabwe, Mexico and the United States in between. He lives in Cambridge with his wife and two sons.
He has been awarded numerous Fellowships to support his work, including from the British Academy and the Leverhulme Foundation, and most recently a Guggenheim Fellowship. His first book was SHAKESPEARE IN SWAHILILAND and THE GRAMMAR OF ANGELS his most recent. In addition to English-language publications in the UK and the US, his work has been translated into another 15 languages and he is regularly invited to festivals abroad.
Praise for THE CATALOGUE OF SHIPWRECKED BOOKS
‘Perfectly pitched poetic drama – the closest thing documented history can get to magic realism…THE CATALOGUE OF SHIPWRECKED BOOKS is a wonderful book, not least in the literal sense of an epic unfolding in a nonstop procession of marvels, ordeals and apparitions… A simile-studded prose that is seldom less than elegant and often quite beautiful… THE CATALOGUE OF SHIPWRECKED BOOKS is most compelling as a meditation on the response to an explosive expansion of knowledge.’ – Simon Schama, Financial Times
'Wilson-Lee’s main subject… is an intellectual hunger at once dazzling and monstrous: Hernando Colon’s insatiable urge to know and to possess… For lovers of history, Wilson-Lee offers a thrill on almost every page… THE CATALOGUE OF SHIPWRECKED BOOKS is an intellectual biography, but its beating heart is the tangled love of a son for his father... Edward Wilson-Lee’s magnificent book helps us understand [Hernando’s] obsessive desire to gather and preserve, even in the face of chaos.' – Irina Dumitrescu, New York Times
'Superb biography... THE CATALOGUE OF SHIPWRECKED BOOKS affords an intriguing glimpse into the Renaissance mind and its rage for order, as well as a beguiling preview of the modern library and, very possibly, what lies beyond.' – Ernest Hilbert, Wall Street Journal
‘An elegantly written, absorbing portrait of a visionary man and his age.’ – Kirkus Reviews (Starred review)
'A gripping study of heroic endeavour and family rivalry; it's a tour de force of sifting through dusty fragments and of vivid biographical storytelling, as well as a delicious, Borgesian dream for all bookworms and lovers of libraries and print ephemera.' – Marina Warner, New Statesman
‘Edward Wilson-Lee’s THE CATALOGUE OF SHIPWRECKED BOOKS is an utter joy, the story of the first internationally important library and the man whose vision it was. It will remind everyone who reads of it of how wonderful libraries and the people who work in them are.’ – Joseph O’Connor, Irish Times
Praise for Edward Wilson-Lee
‘Wilson-Lee combines literary flair with deep historical insight.’ – Paul Lay, The Times
‘Wilson-Lee has the rare knack of re-visiting even the most familiar places as if they were being discovered for the first time. His prose is rich, fluent, absorbing. He guides his readers through a kaleidoscope of detail, interrelating various themes with consummate skill.’ – Fernando Cervantes
‘Autodidact catnip. He’s a gifted chronicler of the odd, the interesting and the esoteric. Think non-fiction Umberto Eco.’ – Ian Sansom, The Spectator
