The NCR Book Award for Non-Fiction, established in 1987 and sponsored by NCR Corporation, was for a time the UK's major award for non-fiction.[1] Closing in 1997 after a period of decline and scandal, it is best remembered as the forerunner of the Samuel Johnson Prize.
History
The award was founded at a time when there were no major non-fiction awards in Britain comparable to the highly successful Booker Prize for fiction.[2] It was part of a new "golden age" of non-fiction that started in the 1980s, according to Antony Beevor.[2] In the early 1990s, NCR was acquired by AT&T and the award became rudderless and dated; one critic said the "NCR spoke volumes of the Thatcherised values of contemporary English culture – a winner-takes-all triumphalism, a boastful indifference to good writing, a corresponding obsession with design and presentation".[1] In 1997, the award experienced an existential scandal when it was revealed the judges had used "professional readers", summaries and book reviews instead of reading all of the entries.[1][3][4] In response, one of the previous winners, Peter Hennessy, approached Penguin with the idea for a new award, and an anonymous benefactor was found who funded the establishment of the Samuel Johnson Prize (1999).[2] Facing bad publicity and a tarnished reputation, the NCR Award closed out with A People's Tragedy in 1997.[1]
