The story of William Shakespeare's life and a pivotal year for English history and literature has won the Bailey Gifford Award, Britain's highest honor for non-fiction.
James Shapiro's book "1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare" beat five other shortlisted works to be awarded £20.000 ($31.000) yesterday.
Shapiro was born in New York and is a professor of English and comparative literature at Columbia University.
The Bailey Gifford Award has been awarded since 1999, and until 2015 it bore the name of Samuel Johnson, an 18th-century essayist and lexicographer.
The prize is open to books in English from all countries, in the fields of current affairs, history, politics, science, sports, travel, biography, autobiography and art.
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