Carlo D’Este has been selected to receive the 2011 Pritzker Military Library Literature Award for Lifetime Achievement in Military Writing. The $100,000 honorarium, citation and medallion, sponsored by the Chicago-based Tawani Foundation, will be presented on October 22, 2011.
The Pritzker Military Library Literature Award recognizes a living author for a body of work that has profoundly enriched the public understanding of American military history.
“Carlo D’Este has made a tremendous collective contribution to the literary community at large,” said Colonel (IL) J.N. Pritzker, IL ARNG (Retired), founder of the Pritzker Military Library and Tawani Foundation. “He has spent as much time in the field, with his boots on the ground, as he has seeing to it that scholars of the next generation are carefully mentored while progressing along their own paths.”
D'Este’s first book, Decision in Normandy (1983), offered a fresh perspective on the leadership of Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery and the Allied landings after D-Day. His books Bitter Victory (1988) and Fatal Decision (1991), covered the battles for Sicily and Rome respectively.
A retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel with service in Vietnam, D'Este has received the Legion of Merit, Bronze Star with Oak Leaf cluster, Meritorious Service Medal, and Commendation Medal for his military service.
