Sarmientos Travels in the United States in 1847 (Princeton University Press, 1970) was chosen  by Book World (Washington Post) as one of the Fifty Best Books of the Year.

The novel, A Bliss Case, was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year (CoffeeHouse Press, 1989)

A co-written book, Looking for America on the New Jersey Turnpike (Rutgers University Press, 1989), was named by the New Jersey State Library as One of the Ten Best Books Ever Written on New Jersey Or By a New Jerseyan.

Two books, Snowshoeing Through Sewers and The George Washington Bridge: Poetry in Steel, have won the prize of the New Jersey Studies Alliance, the only time to date that an author has twice won this prize.

Two magazine stories of his, published in New Jersey Monthly, won first prize in feature journalism from the National Association of Journalists