Andrea Wulf makes shortlist for $75,000 Cundill Prize

Andrea Wulf is one of three authors to make the shortlist for the $75,000 (£60, 685) Cundill Prize, the world’s "most lucrative" award for historical non-fiction writing.

The shortlist for the international prize - given annually to an individual who has published a book that has made "a profound literary, social, and academic impact in the area of history" - was announced last night (6th October) at the 2016 Cundill Lecture in Montreal.

Historian Wulf is shortlisted for The Invention of Nature: Alexander Von Humboldt’s New World (John Murray Publishers), about an explorer and naturalist who inspired the likes of Darwin. The title also recently won the Royal Society Insight Investment Science Book Prize in September.

Joining Wulf on the shortlist are Thomas W Laqueur for The Work of the Dead: A Cultural History of Mortal Remains (Princeton University Press) and David Wootton for The Invention of Science: A New History of the Scientific Revolution (HarperCollins).

Antonia Maioni, dean of McGill University’s faculty of arts and chair of the Cundill Prize, said: "With this year's finalists for the Cundill Prize in History, the jury has identified three books that combine tremendous erudition, insight and élan. These are books that engage and hold their readers' attention from the first page to the last.” 

Each author shortlisted can expect to walk away with $10,000 (£8,091) minimum, since in addition to the grand prize of $75,000 are two "Recognition of Excellence" prizes for the runners-up.

The winner of the grand prize will be announced at a gala awards ceremony in Toronto on Thursday 17th November at the Shangri-La Hotel.