Since it was launched in 1950, the National Book Awards have gone through several incarnations, including an effort to turn the ceremony into an Emmy-type event for the publishing industry. But those attempts—renaming the NBA the American Book Awards; holding the ceremony in venues such as Carnegie Hall with prizes given in 34 categories—were unsuccessful, and in the late 1980s the program was on the verge of collapse. To keep the NBA alive, industry leaders such as Dick Snyder, Alberto Vitale, Al Silverman and Larry Hughes, banded together to create the National Book Foundation, which was given the mandate to administer the awards and to do community outreach.

"We had no money and no infrastructure when we began," recalled Neil Baldwin, the executive director of the National Book Foundation since it was created in 1989. "But we had ideas." The primary objective was to put the NBA on sound financial footing, raise the profile of the awards and take NBA winners out into the community. "We didn't want to do what other organizations were already doing," such as book donations or teaching literacy, Baldwin said, "so we decided to bring the NBA authors to meet the disenfranchised and people off the beaten path." Baldwin estimated that about 165 NBA winners and nominees have participated in various events in 46 states.

Baldwin believes the NBF's Summer Writing Camp, launched in 1994, epitomizes what the foundation is all about. "People come from all around the country to discuss literature," Baldwin explained. The camp, held in Bennington, Vt., each summer, joins NBA writers-in-residence with 48 aspiring writers in a 10-day workshop. "It's a terrific project that looks to nurture talent," Baldwin said. Every other year the works of the writing campers are published, and the next book, The Electric Fire, is due out early next year from Black Classic Press, whose founder, Paul Coates, is an NBF director.

Among other NBF ongoing programs is the American Voices program. Started in 1993, it brings writers to Native American reservations to work with students and adults. The Family Literacy Project features NBA authors working with at-risk students and their parents in various New York City schools and agencies. The Settlement House Program also brings authors and at-risk children and adults together. The NBF's longest running program is Pleasures of Reading, a year-round event in which NBA authors engage in weeklong residences in rural and inner-city communities that are not on the usual author tours.

Pleasures of Reading is funded by the Borders Group and is an example of the different ways industry members can support various NBF programs, Baldwin said. Earlier this year, the Perseus Group distributed 15,000 copies of Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience to community organizations identified by NBF. Random House, through its Modern Library imprint, has recently published The Book That Changed My Life, interviews with authors about books that had a dramatic impact on their lives. More than 20,000 copies of the title are in print, with all proceeds going to the NBF.

In addition to support from the publishing industry, NBF receives funding from corporations, individuals, foundations and the government. For the third year in a row, Bloomberg will provide a grant of $100,000 to back the Gold Medal Tour, which will take the 2003 NBA winners to bookstores and other institutions in five different cities. Among other regular benefactors are the Lannan and Ford Foundations. The financial support of organizations outside of publishing is crucial because only about one-third of the NBF's annual $1.5 million budget is raised by the awards dinner. While Baldwin is grateful that the dinner has become a reliable source of funds, he is not sure the industry understands that out of the $1,000 dinner ticket, $850 goes toward running the NBF. "We're a nonprofit organization. [By buying a ticket] publishers are making a charitable donation," Baldwin said.

The growing ability of an NBA prize to help boost sales of nominees and winners is, Baldwin thinks, something of a mixed blessing. "Every year I hear the ecstatic words of the winners and acerbic words of companies that have been left out. I wish publishers would take the long view," Baldwin said, observing that all the NBF's efforts "are about outreach and building an awareness of great literature."