Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison and prolific crime writer James Patterson received Distinguished Service Awards last night at the 25th annual Authors Guild gala in New York.
The 86-year-old Morrison, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in in 1993, was cited by longtime editor Robert Gottlieb for literary achievements in such novels as “Beloved” and “Song of Solomon.”
Patterson, who is 70, was honoured not only for his extraordinary commercial success with more than 300 million books sold worldwide, but also for donating millions of dollars to librarians, booksellers and schools.
Patterson sometimes turns out bestsellers on a monthly basis.