Ron Chernow in the context of National Book Award for Nonfiction

Hamilton: An American Musical is a sung-and-rapped-through biographical musical with music, lyrics, and a book by Lin-Manuel Miranda. Based on the 2004 biography Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow, the musical covers the life of American Founding Father Alexander Hamilton and his involvement in the American Revolution and the political history of the early United States. Composed from 2008 to 2015, the music draws heavily from hip hop, as well as R&B, pop, soul, and traditional-style show tunes. It casts non-white actors as the Founding Fathers of the United States and other historical figures. Miranda described Hamilton as about "America then, as told by America now".

From its opening, Hamilton received near-universal acclaim. It premiered off-Broadway on February 17, 2015, at the Public Theater in Lower Manhattan, with Miranda playing the role of Alexander Hamilton, where its several-month engagement was sold out. The musical won eight Drama Desk Awards, including Outstanding Musical. It then transferred to the Richard Rodgers Theatre on Broadway, opening on August 6, 2015, where it received uniformly positive reviews and high box office sales. At the 70th Tony Awards, Hamilton received a record-breaking 16 nominations and won 11 awards, including Best Musical. It received the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. In 2020, a filmed version of the Broadway production was released on Disney+, followed by a theatrical release in 2025 by Walt Disney Pictures.

Alexander Hamilton is a 2004 biography of American statesman Alexander Hamilton, written by biographer Ron Chernow. Hamilton, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, was an instrumental promoter of the U.S. Constitution, founder of the nation's financial system, and its first Secretary of the Treasury.

The book, which was met with mostly positive acclaim, went on to win the inaugural George Washington Book Prize for early American history and was a nominee for the 2005 National Book Critics Circle Award in biography. In 2015, the book was adapted into the musical Hamilton by playwright Lin-Manuel Miranda. The stage production went on to win numerous accolades, including 11 Tony Awards.

Hamilton is a 2020 American musical historical drama film consisting of a live stage recording of the Broadway musical, which was inspired by the 2004 biography Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow. Co-produced by Walt Disney Pictures, 5000 Broadway Productions, RadicalMedia, Nevis Productions, and Old 320 Sycamore Pictures, it was filmed over three performances in 2016, directed by Thomas Kail, who co-produced it with Jeffrey Seller and Lin-Manuel Miranda. Miranda, who wrote the music, lyrics, and book, stars as Treasury Secretary/Founding Father Alexander Hamilton, along with the musical's original Broadway cast, including Leslie Odom Jr., Phillipa Soo, Christopher Jackson, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Daveed Diggs, Anthony Ramos, Jasmine Cephas Jones, Okieriete Onaodowan, and Jonathan Groff.

Originally planned for theatrical release on October 15, 2021, Hamilton was impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and was instead released worldwide by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures to stream on Disney+ on July 3, 2020. Acclaimed by critics for its visuals, performances, and direction, it became one of the most-streamed films of 2020. The film was named as one of the best films of 2020 by the American Film Institute, and was nominated for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy and Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy (Miranda) at the 78th Golden Globe Awards, while Daveed Diggs was nominated for SAG Award for Outstanding Male Actor in a Limited Series or Television Movie. Hamilton was also nominated for 12 Primetime Emmy Awards, winning 2, including Outstanding Variety Special. The film was theatrically released on September 5, 2025 to celebrate the musical's tenth anniversary.

The PEN/Saul Bellow Award for Achievement in American Fiction was awarded by PEN America (formerly PEN American Center) "to a distinguished living American author of fiction whose body of work in English possesses qualities of excellence, ambition, and scale of achievement over a sustained career which place him or her in the highest rank of American literature." Initially carrying a stipend of US$40,000, the award was created with the cooperation of the Saul Bellow estate and through a grant from Evelyn Stefansson Nef. Announcing the first recipient of the award (Bellow's close friend Philip Roth), PEN president Ron Chernow said the award honors "one of America’s greatest writers...whose work over a forty-year career exemplified the capacity of fiction to encompass the totality of human experience. We are confident that this Award will help to recognize and perpetuate the qualities so evident in Saul Bellow’s writings."

The award was first given in 2007 and remained until 2018.