Journalist Mary Hamilton 71, has been awarded the "Best Journalism/Mass Communication History Book of 2007" for   "Rising from the Wilderness," a history of the independent U.S. newspaper, "The York Gazette and Daily." The book is a biography of J.W. Gitt, the newspaper’s publisher.

"Mary Hamilton’s biography of J.W. Gitt is an outstanding contribution to the history of progressive American press," says Peter Schumacher, retired journalist-photographer, author and former European Correspondent for "The Guardian." Schumacher added:"With no less determination than his somewhat better-known contemporaries like Izzy Stone and George Seldes, J.W. Gitt wrote hundreds of enlightening editorials in his Pennsylvania-based Gazette and Daily."

The American Journalism Historians Association chose Hamilton’s book among 14 others under consideration.

"I’m flummoxed," said Mary excitedly when notified she had been given the award. Jaquematepress published an exclusive interview with Hamilton on February 3, 2008.