Honoring Biography: The Evans Tradition Continues

For more than two decades, Utah State University’s Mountain West Center for Regional Studies has coordinated the presentation of a major book award — the Evans Biography Award. That award, along with the Evans Handcart Award, recognizes authors and outstanding work in the field of biography writing.

Two books and three authors were honored at an award presentation Friday, Oct. 2, on the USU campus. Representatives of the Evans family were on hand to honor the recipients for books published in 2008.

The Evans Biography Award was presented to Janet Chapman and Karen Barrie for their book Kenneth Milton Chapman: A Life Dedicated to Indian Arts and Artists, University of New Mexico Press. The Evans Handcart Award went to William B. Smart for Mormonism’s Last Colonizer: The Life and Times of William H. Smart, Utah State University Press.

The Evans Biography Award comes with a $10,000 prize, and the Handcart prize is $2,500.

USU President Stan Albrecht and First Lady Joyce Albrecht joined the award recipients and Evans family members in a pre-award luncheon. President Albrecht welcomed the guests to Utah State University.

“We at USU are honored to host these awards as they recognize the best in biography writing about the American West,” Albrecht said. “Our association with the Evans family has been a rewarding one, and I am pleased to see many of them here today.”

Albrecht commented on the award-winning books, their subjects and their authors.

“Both books are worthy additions to the Evans pantheon,” he said.

Those attending the award ceremony were welcomed by Yolanda Flores Niemann, dean of USU’s College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences.

“The Mountain West Center and the College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences have been hosting these awards for more than two decades, and we value the association we have with the Evans family and the outstanding authors of the winning biographies,” she said. “Over these past 26 years, the vision of David and Beatrice Evans has been realized in that the awards they endowed have encouraged outstanding research and writing about the people of the Interior West. The list of winning books includes some of the finest books in this genre, and all have contributed to our body of knowledge about this part of the world.”

The Evans Biography and Handcart awards were endowed by the family of David Woolley Evans and Beatrice Cannon Evans, both born in 1894. Mr. Evans was a writer, editor and founder of a large advertising and public relations firm that bore his name. Beatrice was a historian and family genealogist and edited the Cannon Family Historical Treasury, a six-generation history of her father’s family. She was also the genealogist and historian for her mother’s large Bennion family.

Biographies eligible for the Evans awards must focus on individuals who lived a significant portion of his or her life in the Interior West — in the words of the awards’ founders, “Mormon Country” — the region historically influenced by Mormon institutions and social practices. Neither the biography’s subject nor author need to belong to the Mormon faith.

“It was important to David and Beatrice that the biography have both literary and historical merit, and that the primary award be judged on a national level and that writing by both established and emerging authors be encouraged,” said Elaine Thatcher, program coordinator for the Mountain West Center for Regional Studies.

All books submitted for the Evans awards are first screened by a regional jury. The top three submissions determined by that jury are then forwarded to the national jury for final selection of the Biography Award. The regional jury determines the Handcart Award winner.

The regional jury includes Jennifer Attebery, director, American Studies Program, Idaho State University; Martha S. Bradley, professor, College of Architecture and Planning, University of Utah; Joan Nay, used book manager, Sam Weller’s Zion Bookstore, Inc., Salt Lake City; Richard Sadler, dean, College of Social Science, Weber State University; and Phillip Snyder, associate professor, American literature faculty, Brigham Young University.

The national jury includes Claudia Bushman, historian, Claremont Graduate University; Virginia Kerns, professor, Anthropology Department, College of William and Mary; and Paul Starrs, professor, Sociology and Public Affairs, University of Nevada, Reno.

The Evans Biography and Handcart awards will next be presented in 2011. For information on the awards, contact Thatcher, (435) 797-0299.

Related links: