Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Kati Marton honored

New York, N.Y. (April 4, 2004) -- Author and educator Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and journalist and human rights advocate Kati Marton have been honored with the 9th annual Edith Wharton Women of Achievement Awards. The awards were presented by Edith Wharton Restoration, the non-profit organization responsible for the continuing restoration of The Mount, the author’s 1902 estate and gardens in Lenox, Mass.

Veteran broadcast journalist and CNN commentator Garrick Utley was master of ceremonies at the awards dinner, which was held at a private club on April 7.

Created in 1996, The Edith Wharton Awards recognize women who have achieved in areas in which the author herself excelled. As part of the awards program, The Henry James Award was established in 1998 to honor men who have advanced the cause of women of achievement.

Henry Louis Gates, Jr. -- Henry James Award

Honored with the Henry James Award, Henry Louis “Skip” Gates is an influential author and educator who has dedicated his life to bringing African-American literature into the mainstream of American culture. The award particularly recognizes his efforts to rediscover and promote lost or forgotten women writers. These include his rediscovery in 1981 of the first novel published in the U.S. by an African-American, Our Nig, by Harriet E. Wilson (1859); his reassessment of 18th-century poet Phillis Wheatley, who was acclaimed by such luminaries as George Washington and Benjamin Franklin; and his recent discovery and publication of Hannah Crafts’ The Bondwoman’s Narrative, which dates from the 1850s and is probably the first novel written by a former slave.

Gates is W.E.B. Du Bois Professor of Humanities and Director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for Afro-American Research at Harvard. He serves on a number of boards including The Brookings Institution, The Pulitzer Prize Committee, and the Whitney Museum.

Kati Marton -- Edith Wharton Award for Journalism

Honored with the Edith Wharton Award for Journalism, Kati Marton has successfully combined a career as an internationally acclaimed journalist and reporter with a tireless advocacy for human rights, women’s health and journalistic freedom. Her accomplishments reflect two important elements of Wharton’s life that are little known today: Wharton’s influential reporting from the front lines in the early years of World War I, and her extensive relief work among refugees in France during that time.

Currently at work on her sixth book, Marton also is Chairman of the International Women’s Health Coalition and serves on the boards of directors of the Committee to Protect Journalists, the Freedom Forum’s Media Studies Center, the International Rescue Committee, and the New America Foundation.

The Edith Wharton Women of Achievement Awards underscore the importance of restoring The Mount and highlight the fact that Wharton’s talents were many and varied. The author of more than 40 books in 40 years, including classic novels such as The Age of Innocence, The House of Mirth and Ethan Frome, Wharton was the first woman awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Her first book, The Decoration of Houses, is credited with establishing interior design as a profession in this country. And, during World War I, her reporting and relief work were influential in shaping American views toward the war. Past honorees of the Awards include Brooke Astor, Louis Auchincloss, Jill Ker Conway, Ladybird Johnson, David McCullough, Alice Munro, Martin Scorsese and Eudora Welty.