Academic Affairs

Awards

Curators' Award for Scholarly Excellence

For Books Published by the University of Missouri Press

Purpose

The Board of Curators for the University of Missouri System recognizes scholarly excellence among Missouri faculty for a book published by the University of Missouri Press.

Award Amount

The award is for $2,500.

Eligibility

All books published by the press in a given year and written by regular University of Missouri faculty members are considered for the award.

Nomination Format

A Curators' Award Subcommittee (composed of three members of the Faculty Press Committee) recommends the year's winner after reviewing all eligible books. Eligibility is determined on the basis of the originality and scholarly merit of the books under consideration. Edited collections of the work of others (essays, letters, anthologies, etc.) are not considered eligible for the award. Translations, annotated bibliographies and similar "created" works are considered eligible candidates. Priority is given, though, to full-length studies written by a single author.

This Year's Winner

2007 Tom Quirk, Professor of English, UM-Columbia, "Mark Twain and Human Nature"

Quirk's book is a meditation on Twain's understanding of human nature and how it evolved and deepened, as well as the social and scientific context that shaped Twain's thinking. An editor of other books about Mark Twain called Quirk's book "essential reading to any student or scholar" and "one of the most important books attempting to come to terms with the evolution of Twain's 'gospel of man' — especially his preoccupation with human nature — to be written." ISBN 9780826217585.

Previous Winners