Sikeston author wins book award

~ The book was chosen from dozens of contenders across the United States and Canada.

Awards weren't on the mind of Edward "Ned" Matthews III when he wrote the book "Matthews: The Historic Adventures of a Pioneer Family."

Matthews, of Sikeston, just wanted to create a history of his family and Southeast Missouri. But this week Matthews' book, published last December by the Southeast Missouri State University Press, did earn an award.

The Pioneer America Society chose the historical nonfiction work as the winner of its 2005 Fred Kniffen Award. The award goes to the best-authored book in the field of North American material culture.

Founded in 1967, the society is an organization of scholars, historians, geographers and others interested in landscape and material culture studies. Kniffen was a scholar at Louisiana State University recognized for his work in cultural geography and local pioneer architecture (known as vernacular architecture).

"I was very happy and surprised and just pretty much overwhelmed by it," said Matthews, who received a $300 cash prize with the award. "It's the first book I'd ever written, and I had no idea what the response would be to it. It's just been fantastic."

Matthews' book was chosen from a list of more than 36 contenders for the prize. Competition came from the United States and Canada, with books published by prestigious universities like Harvard, Cornell and MIT.

A three-member review committee chose the award winner.

"There's a lot of top-quality research being done in the field of material culture and cultural geography, and Ned Matthews' book was on the top of all our lists," said Delilah Tayloe, committee member and administrator at the Sikeston Depot museum.

Tayloe's geographical closeness to the subject matter gave Matthews' book a higher standing with her, but the other committee members agreed that it was a well-written and important historic document.

"First of all, it's done from family records, which is very important, and it's a 200-year story. It's not just a casual 50-year situation," said committee member Cathy Ambler, who lives in Oklahoma. "And it's a story about a family that represents an element of settlers that moved west in the 'settling up' of our nation."

The award is the fifth for a Southeast press book, said press director Dr. Susan Swartwout. But this one is the biggest because the award covers both Canada and the United States. Other awards were either local, state or national.

The press was founded in 2001.

As for Matthews, his first foray into book authoring may have inspired him to create another work. He said he might try his hand at historical fiction.

msanders@semissourian.com

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