Tycoon stories and Darwin books get National Book Award nominations

Tycoon tales and Darwin get award nominations

NEW YORK — Tycoons, evolution and the environment were among the subjects of this year’s National Book Award nominees.

Marcel Theroux’s global warming novel, “Far North,” and T.J. Stiles’ “The First Tycoon,” a biography of Cornelius Vanderbilt, were some of the finalists announced Wednesday. Two books about evolution, including a story for young people about Charles Darwin, were also nominated.

Winners in the four competitive categories, each of whom will receive $10,000, will be announced at a Nov. 18 ceremony in New York. Humorist Andy Borowitz will host and honorary medals will be presented to Gore Vidal and Dave Eggers.

Bypassing such high-profile releases as Lorrie Moore’s “A Gate at the Stairs” and Richard Powers’ “Generosity,” fiction judges picked Colum McCann’s “Let the Great World Spin,” Daniyal Mueenuddin’s “In Other Rooms, Other Wonders,” Jayne Anne Phillips’ “Lark & Termite” and Bonnie Jo Campbell’s “American Salvage.”

Stiles’ “The First Tycoon” and Greg Grandin’s “Fordlandia,” about Henry Ford’s ill-fated effort to set up a colony in Brazil, were nominees, along with Sean B. Carroll’s Remarkable Creatures: Epic Adventures in the Search for the Origin of Species” and David M. Carroll’s journal of New England wildlife “Following the Water,”

The fifth nonfiction finalist was Adrienne Mayor’s “The Poison King,” a biography of the Greco-Persian ruler Mithradates.

Numerous books about Darwin, born 200 years ago, came out in 2009, including Young People’s Literature finalist “Charles and Emma: The Darwins’ Leap of Faith,” by Deborah Seligman. Other nominees were Phillip Hoose’s “Claudette Colvin,” David Small’s “Stitches,” Laini Taylor’s “Lips Touch” and Rita Williams-Garcia’s “Jumped.”