by Patricia Krider
The Independent Publishers Book Award bronze medal for biography was awarded to the biography of First Lady Ida McKinley.
Ida McKinley: The Turn-of-the-Century First Lady Through War, Assassination, and Secret Disability, by Carl Sferrazza Anthony (The Kent State University Press/Published in cooperation with The National First Ladies Ladies’ Library), was recently awarded a bronze medal in the Biography category of the 2014 IPPY Awards, during the annual American Booksellers Association convention.
I was honored to attend the award ceremony on May 28th in New York City and to accept this prestigious award on behalf of Carl, the National First Ladies’ Library and Kent State University Press.
NFLL Executive Director Pat Krider at the Independent Publisher Book Awards, June 2014.
The Independent Publisher Book Awards, also known as the IPPY Awards, is an annual book awards contest conducted to honor the year’s best independently published titles. The awards are open to independent authors and publishers worldwide who produce intended for an English-speaking market. The Independent Publisher Book Awards are intended to bring increased recognition to the thousands of exemplary independent, university and self-published each year. Since the inaugural contest in 1996, over 5,000 books have received IPPY Awards. The Independent Publisher Book Award is considered one of the highest honors for books published by independent publishers.
Mary Regula, founder and president of the NFLL at a Congressional Club event.
Ida McKinley, the first full-length biography of the wife of William McKinley who served as U.S. President from 1897 to 1901, was an original idea by the NFLL Founder and President Mary Regula.
In 2006, the organization commissioned NFLL Historian Carl Sferrazza Anthony to execute the project, and underwrote the costs of the research, writing and editing of the book. It was published in November of 2013.
The Saxton-McKinley House (NFLL)
The Saxton-McKinley House, a property of the National First Ladies Historic Site, is now fully restored and was the home of Ida McKinley and her family, perhaps the only residence inherited through four generations of women. It also served as the longest place of residence to William McKinley.