Elmore Leonard to be honoured by National Book Foundation (original) (raw)

Elmore Leonard's "outstanding achievement in fiction writing" is set to be honoured by the National Book Foundation, which will present him with the medal for distinguished contribution to American letters in November.

Won in the past by major American literary voices including Toni Morrison, John Updike, Gore Vidal, Norman Mailer - and, somewhat controversially, Stephen King – the medal will be presented to Leonard by Martin Amis at a dinner in New York on 14 November. In a statement, the National Book Foundation said that "for over five decades, Leonard's westerns, crime novels, serialised novels, and stories have enthralled generations of readers".

The influence the author of Get Shorty and Out of Sight has had on US fiction will also be marked with a three-volume edition of his crime novels from the Library of America. "For a half-century, Elmore Leonard has produced vibrant literary work with an inimitable writing style," said National Book Foundation executive director Harold Augenbraum. "We are particularly pleased that as we at the National Book Foundation recognise his achievement, the Library of America – which publishes, and keeps permanently in print, authoritative editions of America's best and most significant writing – has announced that Leonard will join other great American authors in its literary pantheon."

Leonard, 86, started his career in the 1950s, writing western stories on the side while working for an advertising agency. By the early 1960s, he had penned more than 30 stories – including 3:10 to Yuma and The Tall T – as well as five western novels, and in 1969 he turned to crime with The Big Bounce. Numerous films have been made of his stories, including Quentin Tarantino's Jackie Brown, based on his novel Rum Punch, Steven Soderbergh's Out of Sight and the film Get Shorty.

The National Book Foundation medal is not the only lifetime achievement prize to have gone to the New Orleans-born writer, who now lives in Michigan: he has received similar awards from Pen USA, the Mystery Writers of America, the Crime Writers' Association and the Western Writers of America, which presented him with a bronze buffalo for his lifetime contribution to the genre.

Leonard's 45th novel, Raylan, was published this year. It was inspired by Justified, the television series based on his own novella Fire in the Hole, and takes its name from the show's protagonist. Parts of the novel have been incorporated into the television show's storyline.