Book Awards Honor Proulx

Gore Vidal didn’t show up to accept his National Book Award, but that didn’t dull the enthusiasm of the more than 500 people who gathered for one of the premier events in American literature.

They applauded wildly Wednesday evening when E. Annie Proulx of Vershire, Vt., won the fiction award for her second novel, “The Shipping News.”

They clapped hard, too, when A.R. Ammons, who had won before, took the honors in poetry for a collection titled “Garbage.”

And they cheered long-distance for Vidal, home in Ravello, Italy, as he won the nonfiction award for “United States: Essays 1952-1992.”

But it was Proulx, the only one of the three who hadn’t been on the finalists’ platform before, who seemed the most deeply moved. She told the crowd she was “speechless.”

“There’s a point in your life when you quit expecting wonderful and delightful things to happen to you, and I passed that point a long time ago,” said Proulx, 58. “Then, this year, some kind of cog slipped in the machinery of events.”

Her winning book traces a third-rate newspaper journalist who ends up reporting from Newfoundland and discovering himself.

A black-tie audience, including authors Stephen King and John Grisham, enjoyed cocktails and dinner at the glitzy Plaza Hotel.

The National Book Foundation’s 15 finalists survived a judging process that whittled a field of 609. American citizens whose works were published since Dec. 1, 1992., were eligible for the awards, which each carry a $10,000 prize.

Vidal, 68, a two-time finalist, won after a prolific career spanning decades.

He joked with the crowd through a statement read by his publisher, Harold Evans, president of Random House’s adult trade division.

“I am delighted that you’ve encouraged Random House to continue publishing 3 1/2-pound books by elderly writers,” Vidal said.

His winning entry comprised 114 essays on subjects including French fiction, the Kennedys and American attitudes toward sex.

Ammons, who won the prize in 1973, was on the finalists’ podium for the fourth time. His entry “Garbage” begins with a pile of trash he found alongside a Florida highway but ends up a discussion of life itself.

“It’s very satisfying at my age, I’m 67, and it’s nice to feel you’re still in the game,” he said.

Following the three awards, Clifton Fadiman was given the 1993 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters.

Fadiman, an author and editor, is a member of the board of editors of Encyclopedia Britannica. He is a past editor-in-chief of Simon & Schuster and was a book critic for The New Yorker.