Newswise — Prize-winning author, essayist and commentator Ron Chernow, whose recent biography Alexander Hamilton was hailed as one of the best books of 2004, will deliver the Commencement address at the University of Delaware's 157th Commencement.
The ceremony will be held at 9 a.m., Saturday, May 27, in Delaware Stadium, rain or shine.
"Ron Chernow is widely respected, both as a speaker and a writer," Sharon Dorr, director of alumni and University relations, said in announcing Chernow's selection. "His exacting research and masterful writing about some of the most influential and interesting figures in American history have brought him national recognition and honors. Mr. Chernow also is a popular commentator on network television and radio, and all that promises a compelling and thought-provoking program for our graduates and their families at Commencement this year."
Chernow, who holds honors degrees in English literature from Yale College and Cambridge University, began his career as a magazine writer in 1973. Over the next decade, he published 60 articles in 20 national and regional publications and won the 1980 Jack London Award for his coverage of the labor movement.
From 1983-89, he served as a program officer at the 20th Century Fund, a New York think tank, where he supervised studies of American financial policy.
Chernow's first book, The House of Morgan, won the National Book Award as 1990's best nonfiction book and the Ambassador Award for the year's most notable volume about American culture. Listed among the top business books of the year, it was selected by Forbes magazine as one of the 20 best business books of the past 20 years.
His biography of John D. Rockefeller, Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller Sr., won lavish critical praise and landed on many lists of 1998's top books.
In 2004, Alexander Hamilton became the first recipient of the George Washington Book Prize, and The New York Times described it as "by far the best biography ever written about the man."
His other books include The Warburgs, which won the George S. Eccles Prize for excellence in economic writing, and The Death of the Banker, which included the Barbara Frum Memorial Lecture he delivered in Toronto in 1997 and other essays.
Chernow has spoken around the country, including at the National Archives, the Library of Congress, the U.S. Treasury Department and before hundreds of business, community, religious and literary groups. He has been a commentator on business, politics and finance for Morning Edition on National Public Radio, The Newshour with Jim Lehrer and for many shows on CNBC, CNN and the Fox News Channel. He also has appeared on all three nightly network news programs, The Today Show, This Morning on CBS and Face the Nation, as well as on The Charlie Rose Show, Booknotes and many others.
An active member of PEN American Center, the country's most prominent writers' organization, Chernow co-chairs its long-range planning committee.
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