ARLINGTON, Va. – Oct. 7, 2024 – “Humphrey and Me” [Santa Monica Press], a novel by Stuart H. Brody, has won the 2024 Grateful American Book Prize, according to co-founder David Bruce Smith.

Andrea Barrett, the National Book Award-winning author of “Ship Fever,” praised Brody’s book—about his relationship with the vice-president—for being ” …a heartfelt account of a crucial period in American history … that sometimes seems lost today,” while Kirkus Reviews, said it illuminated “An important chapter in American History told with clarity and honesty.”

Honorable Mentions will go to Lea Lyon’s “The Double V Campaign: African Americans Fighting for Freedom at Home and Abroad” [Rowman & Littlefield Publishers], a powerful story of fighting for change and equality, —and—to the artfully written-illustrated “Plague-Busters!: Medicine’s Battles with History’s Deadliest Diseases” [Bloomsbury] by Lindsey Fitzharris and Adrian Teal.

Smith believes “if you give a student a good read, he or she will become curious, and—perhaps—start investigating the history of the nation, and grow into a productive, civically-minded citizen.”

An author and an education advocate, Smith co-founded the Grateful American Book Prize in 2015 with the late Dr. Bruce Cole, the longest-serving chair [2001 through 2009] of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

The annual book prize comes with $13,000 to commemorate the original 13 Colonies; a lifetime membership to the New-York Historical Society, and a medallion created by Smith’s mother, the renowned artist, Clarice Smith.

It is given for high quality—7th through 9th grade level—historical fiction, non-fiction, and biographies, that depict the events and personalities which have influenced the United States since its founding.

The Honorable Mention recipients receive $500 each, and the medallion.