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Oviedo, Spain (dpa) - US author Paul Auster, 59, was Wednesday awarded Spain's Prince of Asturias Prize, regarded as the Spanish equivalent of the Nobel prize, in the category of literature.
The jury said Auster had innovated literature by "combining the best of the North American and European traditions" and by incorporating cinematographic elements.
Auster had attracted young readers with his "aesthetically very valuable testimony on the individual and collective problems of our time," the jury added.
Born in the US state of New Jersey, Auster studied literature at Columbia University. He lived in France from 1971 to 1974, translating French writers.
After returning to the United States, he began publishing works of his own, the best-known of which include The New York Trilogy (1987) and Leviathan (1992).
Auster has also written movie scripts, co-directed Blue in the Face (1995) and directed Lulu on the bridge (1998).
Auster was the fourth Anglo-Saxon author to win the Prince of Asturias Prize after Doris Lessing, Arthur Miller and Susan Sontag.
Spain's Crown Prince Felipe traditionally presents the award, worth 50,000 euros (64,000 dollars), in Oviedo, capital of the northern region of Asturias.
Copyright 2006 dpa Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH
