It is with great pleasure that we salute author Tim O’Brien, who was born in Austin in 1946, on winning the Pritzker Military Library Literature Award.

The lifetime achievement is fitting for O’Brien, who has spent decades writing fiction about the Vietnam War and is perhaps best known for his groundbreaking 1990 novel “The Things They Carried.”

O’Brien has long been a favorite Austin son, though he and his family moved out of the area when he was 12 years old. He was honored as the second Austin Page Turners author in 2003, and millions of people around the world, from high school and college students to book lovers and military enthusiasts, have discovered pieces of Austin and southern Minnesota within his works.

That work was rewarded by the Pritzker Military Library this year. A Chicago-based military history research center, Pritzker officials began to give lifetime achievement awards in 2007, which makes O’Brien the first fiction writer to be honored by Pritzker.

O’Brien is a worthy recipient, as his work continues to exert huge influence on fiction. We congratulate O’Brien and wish him continued success.