Carlo D’Este is the recipient of the 2011 Pritzker Military Library Literature Award for Lifetime Achievement in Military Writing. His first book, Decision in Normandy (1983), offered a fresh perspective on the leadership of Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery and the Allied landings after D-Day. With Bitter Victory (1988) and Fatal Decision (1991), covering the battles for Sicily and Rome respectively, D’Este further established himself as an authoritative voice in the field of World War II scholarship. More recently, D’Este has turned his attention to the lives of major World War II leaders, delivering the acclaimed biographies Patton: A Genius for War (1995); Eisenhower: A Soldier's Life, 1890-1945 (2002); and Warlord: A Life of Winston Churchill at War, 1874-1945 (2008).

Since the publication of Warlord, D’Este has delivered a series of lectures on Winston Churchill at the Pritzker Military Library, the Lemnitzer Lecture at the Association of the U.S. Army, the General Raymond E. Mason, Jr. Distinguished Lecture Series on World War II at the National World War II Museum, New Orleans, and the 2010 Crosby Kemper Lectureship at the Winston Churchill Memorial and Library at Westminster College, Fulton, Missouri. He also serves as Consulting Historian and Advisory Board Member for Armchair General magazine.

A retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel with service in Vietnam, D'Este has received the Legion of Merit, Bronze Star with Oak Leaf cluster, Meritorious Service Medal, and Commendation Medal for his military service. He is a co-founder of the William E. Colby Military Writers’ Symposium, based at Norwich University, and currently serves as its executive director. D’Este is also a long-time elected trustee of the Mashpee, Massachusetts Public Library and the former president of the Friends of the Kreitzberg Library at Norwich University. He lives in Massachusetts with his wife, Shirley.

The Pritzker Military Library Literature Award for Lifetime Achievement in Military Writing was established in 2007. The recipient’s contributions may be academic, non-fiction, fiction, or a combination of any of the three, and his or her work should embody the values of the Pritzker Military Library.