TEMPTOS

The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt,” by T.J. Stiles, won the $10,000 National Book Award for Nonfiction on Wednesday night at a dinner at a restaurant on Wall Street.

Stiles, who worked in publishing before becoming a writer, began his speech by thanking the people behind the scenes who helped produce his book: the editorial assistants, production managers, indexers, publicists, receptionists, salespeople, mailroom staff, librarians and book reviewers — “Yes, even the book reviewers,” he said.

The black-tie ceremony was a benefit for the National Book Foundation, which promotes writing and literacy. The host was comedian and author Andy Borowitz, who bemoaned the lack of an award for his own latest book, “Who Moved My Soap? The CEO’s Guide to Surviving Prison: The Bernie Madoff Edition.”

The fiction prize went to Irish-born writer Colum McCann for “Let the Great World Spin,” a novel about New York in the 1970s.

“As someone who’s come from Ireland, I am extraordinarily honored,” McCann said. “It seems to me that American literature is able to embrace the other.”

The award for Young People’s Literature went to Phillip Hoose for “Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice,” the true story of an African American teenager who challenged segregation in 1950s Alabama. Colvin accompanied her biographer to the podium.

“My job in this book was to pull someone who was about to disappear under history’s rug out from there,” Hoose said. “She did what Rosa Parks did a year before Rosa Parks did it.”