List of winners of the National Book Award

These authors and books have won the annual National Book Awards, awarded to American authors by the National Book Foundation based in the United States.

History of categories

The National Book Awards were first awarded to four 1935 publications in May 1936. Contrary to that historical fact, the National Book Foundation currently recognizes only a history of purely literary awards that begins in 1950. The pre-war awards and the 1980 to 1983 graphics awards are covered below following the main list of current award categories.

There have been four award categories since 1996, Fiction, Non-fiction, Poetry, and Young People's Literature. The main list below is organized by the current award categories and by year.

The four categories' winners are selected from hundreds of preliminary nominees. For example, in the 2010 cycle the preliminary phase nominees ranged from 148 in the Poetry category to 435 in the Nonfiction category. In the 2013 cycle, the long−list phase nominees totaled 40 in September, 10 finalists for each of the four categories, with the year's 4 winners announced in November. Lists of five finalists were announced October 16

Repeat winners and split awards are covered at the bottom of the page.

Current award categories

This section covers awards starting in 1950 in the four current categories as defined by their names. Some awards in "previous categories" may have been equivalent except in name.

Fiction

General fiction for adult readers is a National Book Award category that has been continuous since 1950, with multiple awards for a few years beginning 1980. From 1935 to 1941, there were six annual awards for novels or general fiction and the "Bookseller Discovery", the "Most Original Book"; both awards were sometimes given to a novel.

National Book Award for Fiction winners, 1950 to 1979
Year Author Title Ref.
1950 Nelson Algren The Man with the Golden Arm
1951 William Faulkner The Collected Stories of William Faulkner
1952 James Jones From Here to Eternity
1953 Ralph Ellison Invisible Man
1954 Saul Bellow The Adventures of Augie March
1955 William Faulkner A Fable
1956 John O'Hara Ten North Frederick
1957 Wright Morris The Field of Vision
1958 John Cheever The Wapshot Chronicle
1959 Bernard Malamud The Magic Barrel
1960 Philip Roth Goodbye, Columbus
1961 Conrad Richter The Waters of Kronos
1962 Walker Percy The Moviegoer
1963 J. F. Powers Morte d'Urban
1964 John Updike The Centaur
1965 Saul Bellow Herzog
1966 Katherine Anne Porter The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter
1967 Bernard Malamud The Fixer
1968 Thornton Wilder The Eighth Day
1969 Jerzy Kosinski Steps
1970 Joyce Carol Oates them
1971 Saul Bellow Mr. Sammler's Planet
1972 Flannery O'Connor The Complete Stories
1973 John Barth Chimera
John Edward Williams Augustus
1974 Thomas Pynchon Gravity's Rainbow
Isaac Bashevis Singer A Crown of Feathers and Other Stories
1975 Robert Stone Dog Soldiers
Thomas Williams The Hair of Harold Roux
1976 William Gaddis J R
1977 Wallace Stegner The Spectator Bird
1978 Mary Lee Settle Blood Tie
1979 Tim O'Brien Going After Cacciato

Dozens of new categories were introduced in 1980, including "General fiction", hardcover and paperback, which are both listed here. The comprehensive "Fiction" genre and hard-or-soft format were both restored three years later.

National Book Award for Fiction winners, 1980–1983
Year Category Author Title Ref.
1980 Hardcover William Styron Sophie's Choice
Paperback John Irving The World According to Garp
1981 Hardcover Wright Morris Plains Song: For Female Voices
Paperback John Cheever The Stories of John Cheever
1982 Hardcover John Updike Rabbit is Rich
Paperback William Maxwell So Long, See You Tomorrow
1983 Hardcover Alice Walker The Color Purple
Paperback Eudora Welty The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty

The comprehensive "Fiction" category returned in 1984.

National Book Award for Fiction winners, 1984 to present
Year Author Title Ref
1984 Ellen Gilchrist Victory Over Japan: A Book of Stories
1985 Don DeLillo White Noise
1986 E.L. Doctorow World's Fair
1987 Larry Heinemann Paco's Story
1988 Pete Dexter Paris Trout
1989 John Casey Spartina
1990 Charles Johnson Middle Passage
1991 Norman Rush Mating
1992 Cormac McCarthy All the Pretty Horses
1993 E. Annie Proulx The Shipping News
1994 William Gaddis A Frolic of His Own
1995 Philip Roth Sabbath's Theater
1996 Andrea Barrett Ship Fever and Other Stories
1997 Charles Frazier Cold Mountain
1998 Alice McDermott Charming Billy
1999 Ha Jin Waiting
2000 Susan Sontag In America
2001 Jonathan Franzen The Corrections
2002 Julia Glass Three Junes
2003 Shirley Hazzard The Great Fire
2004 Lily Tuck The News from Paraguay
2005 William T. Vollmann Europe Central
2006 Richard Powers The Echo Maker
2007 Denis Johnson Tree of Smoke
2008 Peter Matthiessen Shadow Country
2009 Colum McCann Let the Great World Spin
2010 Jaimy Gordon Lord of Misrule
2011 Jesmyn Ward Salvage the Bones
2012 Louise Erdrich The Round House
2013 James McBride The Good Lord Bird
2014 Phil Klay Redeployment
2015 Adam Johnson Fortune Smiles
2016 Colson Whitehead The Underground Railroad
2017 Jesmyn Ward Sing, Unburied, Sing
2018 Sigrid Nunez The Friend
2019 Susan Choi Trust Exercise
2020 Charles Yu Interior Chinatown
2021 Jason Mott Hell of a Book
2022 Tess Gunty The Rabbit Hutch
2023 Justin Torres Blackouts

Nonfiction

General nonfiction for adult readers is a National Book Award category continuous only from 1984, when the general award was restored after two decades of awards in several nonfiction categories. From 1935 to 1941 there were six annual awards for general nonfiction, two for biography, and the Bookseller Discovery or Most Original Book was sometimes nonfiction.

National Book Award for Nonfiction winners, 1950–1959
Year Author Title Result Ref.
1950 Ralph L. Rusk The Life of Ralph Waldo Emerson Winner
1951 Newton Arvin Herman Melville Winner
1952 Rachel Carson The Sea Around Us Winner
1953 Bernard De Voto, The Course of Empire Winner
1954 Bruce Catton A Stillness at Appomattox Winner
1955 Joseph Wood Krutch The Measure of Man Winner
1956 Herbert Kubly An American in Italy Winner
1957 George F. Kennan Russia Leaves the War Winner
1958 Catherine Drinker Bowen The Lion and the Throne Winner
1959 J. Christopher Herold Mistress to an Age: A Life of Madame de Staël Winner

Multiple nonfiction categories were introduced in 1964, initially Arts and Letters; History and (Auto)Biography; and Science, Philosophy and Religion. See also Contemporary and General Nonfiction. The comprehensive "Nonfiction" genre was restored twenty years later.

National Book Award for Nonfiction winners, 1984 to present
Year Author Title Result Ref.
1984 Robert V. Remini Andrew Jackson and the Course of American Democracy, 1833–1845 Winner
1985 J. Anthony Lukas Common Ground: A Turbulent Decade in the Lives of Three American Families Winner
1986 Barry Lopez Arctic Dreams: Imagination and Desire in a Northern Landscape Winner
1987 Richard Rhodes The Making of the Atomic Bomb Winner
1988 Neil Sheehan A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam Winner
1989 Thomas L. Friedman From Beirut to Jerusalem Winner
1990 Ron Chernow The House of Morgan: An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance Winner
1991 Orlando Patterson Freedom, Vol. 1: Freedom in the Making of Western Culture Winner
1992 Paul Monette Becoming a Man: Half a Life Story Winner
1993 Gore Vidal United States: Essays 1952–1992 Winner
1994 Sherwin B. Nuland How We Die: Reflections on Life's Final Chapter Winner
1995 Tina Rosenberg The Haunted Land: Facing Europe's Ghosts After Communism Winner
1996 James Carroll An American Requiem: God, My Father, and the War that Came Between Us Winner
1997 Joseph J. Ellis American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson Finalist
1998 Edward Ball Slaves in the Family Winner
1999 John W. Dower Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II Winner
2000 Nathaniel Philbrick In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex Winner
2001 Andrew Solomon The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression Winner
2002 Robert A. Caro Master of the Senate: The Years of Lyndon Johnson Winner
2003 Carlos Eire Waiting for Snow in Havana: Confessions of a Cuban Boy Winner
2004 Kevin Boyle Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age Winner
2005 Joan Didion The Year of Magical Thinking Winner
2006 Timothy Egan The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl Winner
2007 Tim Weiner Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA Winner
2008 Annette Gordon-Reed The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family Winner
2009 T. J. Stiles The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt Winner
2010 Patti Smith Just Kids Winner
2011 Stephen Greenblatt The Swerve: How the World Became Modern Winner
2012 Katherine Boo Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity Winner
2013 George Packer The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America Winner
2014 Evan Osnos Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China Winner
2015 Ta-Nehisi Coates Between the World and Me Winner
2016 Ibram X. Kendi Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America Winner
2017 Masha Gessen The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia Winner
2018 Jeffrey C. Stewart The New Negro: The Life of Alain Locke Winner
2019 Sarah M. Broom The Yellow House Winner
2020 Les Payne and Tamara Payne The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X Winner
2021 Tiya Miles All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, a Black Family Keepsake Winner
2022 Imani Perry South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon To Understand the Soul of a Nation Winner
2023 Ned Blackhawk The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the unmaking of US history Winner

Poetry

National Book Award for Poetry winners, 1950 to 1983
Year Author Title
1950 William Carlos Williams Paterson: Book Three and Selected Poems
1951 Wallace Stevens The Auroras of Autumn
1952 Marianne Moore Collected Poems
1953 Archibald MacLeish Collected Poems, 1917–1952
1954 Conrad Aiken Collected Poems
1955 Wallace Stevens The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens
1956 W. H. Auden The Shield of Achilles
1957 Richard Wilbur Things of This World
1958 Robert Penn Warren Promises: Poems, 1954–1956
1959 Theodore Roethke Words for the Wind
1960 Robert Lowell Life Studies
1961 Randall Jarrell The Woman at the Washington Zoo
1962 Alan Dugan Poems
1963 William Stafford Traveling Through the Dark
1964 John Crowe Ransom Selected Poems
1965 Theodore Roethke The Far Field
1966 James Dickey Buckdancer's Choice
1967 James Merrill Nights and Days
1968 Robert Bly The Light Around the Body
1969 John Berryman His Toy, His Dream, His Rest
1970 Elizabeth Bishop The Complete Poems
1971 Mona Van Duyn To See, To Take
1972 Howard Moss Selected Poems
Frank O'Hara The Collected Works of Frank O'Hara
1973 A. R. Ammons Collected Poems, 1951–1971
1974 Allen Ginsberg The Fall of America: Poems of these States, 1965–1971
Adrienne Rich Diving into the Wreck: Poems 1971–1972
1975 Marilyn Hacker Presentation Piece
1976 John Ashbery Self-portrait in a Convex Mirror
1977 Richard Eberhart Collected Poems, 1930–1976
1978 Howard Nemerov The Collected Poems of Howard Nemerov
1979 James Merrill Mirabell: Book of Numbers
1980 Philip Levine Ashes: Poems New and Old
1981 Lisel Mueller The Need to Hold Still
1982 William Bronk Life Supports: New and Collected Poems
1983 Galway Kinnell Selected Poems
Charles Wright Country Music: Selected Early Poems

Major reorganization in 1984 eliminated the 30-year-old Poetry award along with dozens of younger ones. Poetry alone was restored seven years later.

National Book Award for Poetry winners, 1991 to present
Year Author Title Ref.
1991 Philip Levine What Work Is
1992 Mary Oliver New and Selected Poems
1993 A. R. Ammons Garbage
1994 James Tate A Worshipful Company of Fletchers
1995 Stanley Kunitz Passing Through: The Later Poems
1996 Hayden Carruth Scrambled Eggs and Whiskey
1997 William Meredith Effort at Speech: New and Selected Poems
1998 Gerald Stern This Time: New and Selected Poems
1999 Ai Vice: New and Selected Poems
2000 Lucille Clifton Blessing the Boats: New and Selected Poems 1988–2000
2001 Alan Dugan Poems Seven: New and Complete Poetry
2002 Ruth Stone In the Next Galaxy
2003 C. K. Williams The Singing
2004 Jean Valentine Door in the Mountain: New and Collected Poems, 1965–2003
2005 W. S. Merwin Migration: New and Selected Poems
2006 Nathaniel Mackey Splay Anthem
2007 Robert Hass Time and Materials: Poems, 1997–2005
2008 Mark Doty Fire to Fire: New and Collected Poems
2009 Keith Waldrop Transcendental Studies: A Trilogy
2010 Terrance Hayes Lighthead
2011 Nikky Finney Head Off & Split
2012 David Ferry Bewilderment: New Poems and Translations
2013 Mary Szybist Incarnadine
2014 Louise Glück Faithful and Virtuous Night
2015 Robin Coste Lewis Voyage of the Sable Venus
2016 Daniel Borzutzky The Performance of Becoming Human
2017 Frank Bidart Half-light: Collected Poems 1965–2016
2018 Justin Phillip Reed Indecency
2019 Arthur Sze Sight Lines
2020 Don Mee Choi DMZ Colony
2021 Martín Espada Floaters
2022 John Keene Punks: New & Selected Poems
2023 Craig Santos Perez from unincorporated territory [åmot]

Young People's Literature

See also the "Children's" award categories, immediately below.
National Book Award for Young People's Literature winners, 1996 to present
Year Author Title Ref.
1996 Victor Martinez Parrott in the Oven: MiVida
1997 Han Nolan Dancing on the Edge
1998 Louis Sachar Holes
1999 Kimberly Willis Holt When Zachary Beaver Came to Town
2000 Gloria Whelan Homeless Bird
2001 Virginia Euwer Wolff True Believer
2002 Nancy Farmer The House of the Scorpion
2003 Polly Horvath The Canning Season
2004 Pete Hautman Godless
2005 Jeanne Birdsall The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy
2006 M.T. Anderson The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Vol. I
2007 Sherman Alexie The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
2008 Judy Blundell What I Saw and How I Lied
2009 Phillip Hoose Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice
2010 Kathryn Erskine Mockingbird
2011 Thanhha Lai Inside Out and Back Again
2012 William Alexander Goblin Secrets
2013 Cynthia Kadohata The Thing About Luck
2014 Jacqueline Woodson Brown Girl Dreaming
2015 Neal Shusterman Challenger Deep
2016 John Lewis, Nate Powell, and Andrew Aydin March: Book Three
2017 Robin Benway Far from the Tree
2018 Elizabeth Acevedo The Poet X
2019 Martin W. Sandler 1919 The Year That Changed America
2020 Kacen Callender King and the Dragonflies
2021 Malinda Lo Last Night at the Telegraph Club
2022 Sabaa Tahir All My Rage
2023 Dan Santat A First Time for Everything

Award for Translated Literature

The first translation award ran from 1968 to 1983 and was for fiction only, the translated author could be living or dead (e.g. Virgil won in 1973).

National Book Award for Translated Literature winners, 1967 to 1983
Year Author Title
1967 Gregory Rabassa Julio Cortázar's Hopscotch
Willard Trask Casanova's History of My Life
1968 Howard Hong and Edna Hong Søren Kierkegaard's Journals and Papers
1969 William Weaver Italo Calvino's Cosmicomics
1970 Ralph Manheim Céline's Castle to Castle
1971 Frank Jones Bertolt Brecht's Saint Joan of the Stockyards
Edward G. Seidensticker Yasunari Kawabata's The Sound of the Mountain
1972 Austryn Wainhouse Jacques Monod's Chance and Necessity
1973 Allen Mandelbaum The Aeneid of Virgil
1974 Karen Brazell The Confessions of Lady Nijo
Helen R. Lane Octavio Paz's Alternating Current
Jackson Matthews Paul Valéry's Monsieur Teste
1975 Anthony Kerrigan Miguel de Unamuno's The Agony of Christianity and Essays on Faith
1977 Li-Li Ch'en Master Tung's Western Chamber Romance
1978 Richard and Clara Winston Uwe George's In the Deserts of This Earth
1979 Clayton Eshleman and José Rubia Barcia César Vallejo's The Complete Posthumous Poetry
1980 William Arrowsmith Cesare Pavese's Hard Labor
Jane Gary Harris and Constance Link Osip E. Mandelstam's Complete Critical Prose and Letters
1981 Francis Steegmuller The Letters of Gustave Flaubert
John E Woods Arno Schmidt's Evening Edged in Gold
1982 Ian Hideo Levy Higuchi Ichiyō's In the Shade of Spring Leaves
Robert Lyons Danly The Ten Thousand Leaves: A Translation of The Man'Yoshu, Japan's Premier Anthology of Classical Poetry
1983 Richard Howard Charles Baudelaire's Les Fleurs du mal

The National Book Award for Translated Literature was inaugurated in 2018 for fiction or non-fiction, where both author and translator were alive at the beginning of the awards cycle.

National Book Award for Translated Literature winners, 2018 to present
Year Author Title
2018 Margaret Mitsutani Tawada Yoko's The Emissary
2019 Ottilie Mulzet László Krasznahorkai's Baron Wenckheim's Homecoming
2020 Morgan Giles Miri Yu's Tokyo Ueno Station
2021 Aneesa Abbass Higgins Elisa Shua Dusapin's Winter in Sokcho
2022 Megan McDowell Samanta Schweblin's Seven Empty Houses
2023 Bruna Dantas Lobarto Stênio Gardel's The Words That Remain

Children's books

National Book Award for Children's Literature winners, 1969–1979
Year Category Author Title
1969 Literature Meindert DeJong Journey from Peppermint Street
1970 Literature Isaac Bashevis Singer A Day of Pleasure: Stories of a Boy Growing up in Warsaw
1971 Literature Lloyd Alexander The Marvelous Misadventures of Sebastian
1972 Literature Donald Barthelme The Slightly Irregular Fire Engine or The Hithering Thithering Djinn
1973 Literature Ursula K. Le Guin The Farthest Shore
1974 Literature Eleanor Cameron The Court of the Stone Children
1975 Literature Virginia Hamilton M. C. Higgins the Great
1976 Literature Walter D. Edmonds Bert Breen's Barn
1977 Literature Katherine Paterson The Master Puppeteer
1978 Literature Judith Kohl and Herbert R. Kohl The View From the Oak: The Private Worlds of Other Creatures
1979 Literature Katherine Paterson The Great Gilly Hopkins
1980 Fiction (hardcover) Joan Blos A Gathering of Days: A New England Girl's Journal
Fiction (paperback) Madeleine L'Engle A Swiftly Tilting Planet
1981 Fiction (hardcover) Betsy Byars The Night Swimmers
Fiction (paperback) Beverly Cleary Ramona and Her Mother
Nonfiction (hardcover) Alison Cragin Herzig and Jane Lawrence Mali Oh, Boy! Babies
1982 Fiction (hardcover) Lloyd Alexander Westmark
Fiction (paperback) Ouida Sebestyen Words by Heart
Nonfiction Susan Bonners A Penguin Year
Picture Books (hardcover) Maurice Sendak Outside Over There
Picture Books (paperback) Peter Spier Noah's Ark
1983 Fiction (hardcover) Jean Fritz Homesick: My Own Story
Fiction (paperback) Paula Fox A Place Apart
Joyce Carol Thomas Marked by Fire
Nonfiction James Cross Giblin Chimney Sweeps
Picture Books (hardcover) Barbara Cooney Miss Rumphius
William Steig Doctor De Soto
Picture Books (paperback) Mary Ann Hoberman with
Betty Fraser (illus.)
A House is a House for Me

Nonfiction subcategories 1964 to 1983

This section covers awards from 1964 to 1983 in categories that differ from the "current categories" in name. Some of them were substantially equivalent to current categories.

Arts and Letters

National Book Award for Nonfiction: Arts and Letters winners, 1964–1976
Year Author Title
1964 Aileen Ward John Keats: The Making of a Poet
1965 Eleanor Clark The Oysters of Locmariaquer
1966 Janet Flanner Paris Journal, 1944–1965
1967 Justin Kaplan Mr. Clemens and Mark Twain: A Biography
1968 William Troy Selected Essays
1969 Norman Mailer The Armies of the Night: History as a Novel, The Novel as History
1970 Lillian Hellman An Unfinished Woman: A Memoir
1971 Francis Steegmuller Cocteau: A Biography
1972 Charles Rosen The Classical Style: Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven
1973 Arthur M. Wilson Diderot
1974 Pauline Kael Deeper into Movies
1975 Roger Shattuck Marcel Proust
Lewis Thomas The Lives of a Cell: Notes of a Biology Watcher
1976 Paul Fussell The Great War and Modern Memory

History and (Auto)biography

National Book Award for Nonfiction: History and (Auto)biography winners, 1964–1983
Year Category Author Title
1964 History and Biography William H. McNeill The Rise of the West: A History of the Human Community
1965 History and Biography Louis Fischer The Life of Lenin
1966 History and Biography Arthur Schlesinger A Thousand Days: John F. Kennedy in the White House
1967 History and Biography Peter Gay The Enlightenment: The Rise of Modern Paganism
1968 History and Biography George F. Kennan Memoirs: 1925–1950
1969 History and Biography Winthrop D. Jordan White over Black: American Attitudes Toward the Negro, 1550–1812
1970 History and Biography T. Harry Williams Huey Long
1971 History and Biography James MacGregor Burns Roosevelt: The Soldier of Freedom
1972 Biography Joseph P. Lash Eleanor and Franklin: The Story of Their Relationship, Based on Eleanor Roosevelt's Private Papers
History Allan Nevins The Organized War
1973 Biography James Thomas Flexner George Washington, Vol. IV: Anguish and Farewell, 1793–1799
History Robert Manson Myers The Children of Pride: A True Story of Georgia and the Civil War
Isaiah Trunk Judenrat: The Jewish Councils in Eastern Europe under Nazi Occupation
1974 Biography John Clive Thomas Babington Macaulay: The Shaping of the Historian
Douglas Day Malcolm Lowry: A Biography
History John Clive Thomas Babington Macaulay: The Shaping of the Historian
1975 Biography Richard B. Sewall The Life of Emily Dickinson
History Bernard Bailyn The Ordeal of Thomas Hutchinson
1976 History and Biography David Brion Davis The Problem of Slavery in the Age of Revolution, 1770–1823
1977 Biography and Autobiography W. A. Swanberg Norman Thomas: The Last Idealist
History Irving Howe World of Our Fathers: The Journey of the East European Jews to America and the Life They Found and Made
1978 Biography and Autobiography W. Jackson Bate Samuel Johnson
History David McCullough The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal 1870–1914
1979 Biography and Autobiography Arthur Schlesinger Robert Kennedy and His Times
History Richard Beale Davis Intellectual Life in the Colonial South, 1585–1763
1980 Autobiography (hardcover) Lauren Bacall Lauren Bacall by Myself
Autobiography (paperback) Malcolm Cowley And I Worked at the Writer's Trade: Chapters of Literary History 1918–1978
Biography (hardcover) Edmund Morris The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt
Biography (paperback) A. Scott Berg Max Perkins: Editor of Genius
History (hardcover) Henry A. Kissinger The White House Years
History (paperback) Barbara W. Tuchman A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century
1981 (Auto)biography (hardcover) Justin Kaplan Walt Whitman: A Life
(Auto)biography (paperback) Deirdre Bair Samuel Beckett: A Biography
History (hardcover) John Boswell Christianity, Social Tolerance and Homosexuality
History (paperback) Leon F. Litwack Been in the Storm So Long: The Aftermath of Slavery
1982 (Auto)biography (hardcover) David McCullough Mornings on Horseback
(Auto)biography (paperback) Ronald Steel Walter Lippmann and the American Century
History (hardcover) Peter J. Powell People of the Sacred Mountain: A History of the Northern Cheyenne Chiefs and Warrior Societies, 1830–1879
History (paperback) Robert Wohl The Generation of 1914
1983 (Auto)biography (hardcover) Judith Thurman Isak Dinesen: The Life of a Storyteller
(Auto)biography (paperback) James R. Mellow Nathaniel Hawthorne in His Times
History (hardcover) Alan Brinkley Voices of Protest: Huey Long, Father Coughlin and the Great Depression
History (paperback) Frank E. Manuel and Fritzie P. Manuel Utopia in the Western World

Science, Philosophy and Religion

National Book Award for Nonfiction: Science, Philosophy, and Religion winners, 1964–1983
Year Category Author Title
1964 Science, Philosophy and Religion Christopher Tunnard and Boris Pushkarev Man-made America: Chaos or Control?
1965 Science, Philosophy and Religion Norbert Wiener God and Golem, Inc: A Comment on Certain Points where Cybernetics Impinges on Religion
1966 Science, Philosophy and Religion No Award (four finalists, none selected)
1967 Science, Philosophy and Religion Oscar Lewis La Vida: A Puerto Rican Family in the Culture of Poverty—San Juan and New York
1968 Science, Philosophy and Religion Jonathan Kozol Death at an Early Age
1969 The Sciences Robert Jay Lifton Death in Life: Survivors of Hiroshima
1970 Philosophy and Religion Erik H. Erikson Gandhi's Truth: On the Origins of Militant Nonviolence
1971 The Sciences Raymond Phineas Stearns Science in the British Colonies of America
1972 Philosophy and Religion Martin E. Marty Righteous Empire: The Protestant Experience in America
The Sciences George L. Small The Blue Whale
1973 Philosophy and Religion S. E. Ahlstrom A Religious History of the American People
The Sciences George B. Schaller The Serengeti Lion: A Study of Predator-Prey Relations
1974 Philosophy and Religion Maurice Natanson Edmund Husserl: Philosopher of Infinite Tasks
The Sciences S. E. Luria Life: The Unfinished Experiment
1975 Philosophy and Religion Robert Nozick Anarchy, State, and Utopia
The Sciences Silvano Arieti Interpretation of Schizophrenia
Lewis Thomas The Lives of a Cell: Notes of a Biology Watcher
1980 Religion/Inspiration (hardcover) Elaine Pagels The Gnostic Gospels
Religion/Inspiration (paperback) Sheldon Vanauken A Severe Mercy
Science (hardcover) Douglas Hofstadter Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid
Science (paperback) Gary Zukav The Dancing Wu Li Masters: An Overview of the New Physics
1981 Science (hardcover) Stephen Jay Gould The Panda's Thumb: More Reflections on Natural History
Science (paperback) Lewis Thomas The Medusa and the Snail: More Notes of a Biology Watcher
1982 Science (hardcover) Donald C. Johanson and Maitland A. Edey Lucy: The Beginnings of Humankind
Science (paperback) Fred Alan Wolf Taking the Quantum Leap: The New Physics for Nonscientists
1983 Science (hardcover) Abraham Pais " Subtle is the Lord...": The Science and Life of Albert Einstein
Science (paperback) Philip J. Davis and Reuben Hersh The Mathematical Experience

Contemporary

National Book Award for Nonfiction: Contemporary winners, 1972–1980
Category Year Author Title
Contemporary Affairs 1972 Stewart Brand (ed.) The Last Whole Earth Catalog
1973 Frances FitzGerald Fire in the Lake: The Vietnamese and the Americans in Vietnam
1974 Murray Kempton The Briar Patch: The People of the State of New York versus Lumumba Shakur, et al.
1975 Theodore Rosengarten All God's Dangers: The Life of Nate Shaw
1976 Michael J. Arlen Passage to Ararat
Contemporary Thought 1977 Bruno Bettelheim The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales
1978 Gloria Emerson Winners and Losers
1979 Peter Matthiessen The Snow Leopard
Current Interest (hardcover) 1980 Julia Child Julia Child and More Company
Current Interest (paperback) Christopher Lasch The Culture of Narcissism: American Life in an Age of Diminishing Expectations

General Nonfiction

National Book Award for Nonfiction: General Nonfiction winners, 1980–1983
Year Category Author Title
1980 Hardcover Tom Wolfe The Right Stuff
Paperback Peter Matthiessen The Snow Leopard
1981 Hardcover Maxine Hong Kingston China Men
Paperback Jane Kramer The Last Cowboy: Europeans and The Politics of Memory
1982 Hardcover Tracy Kidder The Soul of a New Machine
Paperback Victor S. Navasky Naming Names
1983 Hardcover Fox Butterfield China: Alive in the Bitter Sea
Paperback James Fallows National Defense

Other Fiction 1980 to 1985

National Book Award for Fiction Subcategory winners, 1980–1983
Year Category Author Title
1980 First Novel William Wharton Birdy
Mystery (hardcover) John D. MacDonald The Green Ripper
Mystery (paperback) William F. Buckley Stained Glass
Science Fiction (hardcover) Frederik Pohl Jem
Science Fiction (paperback) Walter Wangerin The Book of the Dun Cow
Western Louis L'Amour Bendigo Shafter
1981 First Novel Ann Arensberg Sister Wolf
1982 First Novel Robb Forman Dew Dale Loves Sophie to Death
1983 First Novel Gloria Naylor The Women of Brewster Place
1984 First Work of Fiction Harriet Doerr Stones for Ibarra
1985 First Work of Fiction Bob Shacochis Easy in the Islands

Miscellaneous

National Book Award for Miscellaneous winners, 1980,1983
Year Category Author Title
1980 General Reference Books (hardcover) Elder Witt (ed.) The Complete Directory
General Reference Books (paperback) Tim Brooks and Earle Marsh The Complete Directory of Prime Time Network TV Shows: 1946–Present
1983 Original Paperback Lisa Goldstein The Red Magician

1935 to 1941

The first National Book Awards were presented in May 1936 at the annual convention of the American Booksellers Association to four 1935 books selected by its members. Subsequently, the awards were announced mid-February to March 1 and presented at the convention. For 1937 books there were ballots from 319 stores, about three times as many as for 1935. There had been 600 ABA members in 1936.

The "Most Distinguished" Nonfiction, Biography, and Novel (for 1935 and 1936) were reduced to two and termed "Favorite" Nonfiction and Fiction beginning 1937. Master of ceremonies Clifton Fadiman declined to consider the Pulitzer Prizes (not yet announced in February 1938) as potential ratifications. "Unlike the Pulitzer Prize committee, the booksellers merely vote for their favorite books. They do not say it is the best book or the one that will elevate the standard of manhood or womanhood. Twenty years from now we can decide which are the masterpieces. This year we can only decide which books we enjoyed reading the most."

The Bookseller Discovery officially recognized "outstanding merit which failed to receive adequate sales and recognition" The award stood alone for 1941 and the New York Times frankly called it "a sort of consolation prize that the booksellers hope will draw attention to his work".

Authors and publishers outside the United States were eligible and there were several winners by non-U.S. authors (at least Lofts, Curie, de Saint-Exupéry, Du Maurier, and Llewellyn). The Bookseller Discovery and the general awards for fiction and non-fiction were conferred six times in seven years, the Most Original Book five times, and the biography award in the first two years only.

Dates are years of publication.

National Book Award winners, 1935–1941
Year Category Author Title
1935 Biography Vincent Sheean Personal History
Most Original Book Charles G. Finney The Circus of Dr. Lao
Nonfiction Anne Morrow Lindbergh North to the Orient
Novel Rachel Field Time Out of Mind
1936 Biography Victor Heiser An American Doctor's Odyssey: Adventures in Forty-Five Countries
Bookseller Discovery Norah Lofts I Met a Gypsy
Most Original Book Della T. Lutes The Country Kitchen
Nonfiction Van Wyck Brooks The Flowering of New England: 1815–1865
1937 Bookseller Discovery Lawrence Watkin On Borrowed Time
Fiction A. J. Cronin The Citadel
Most Original Book Carl Crow Four Hundred Million Customers: The Experiences—Some Happy, Some Sad, of an American Living in China, and What They Taught Him
Nonfiction Ève Curie Madame Curie
1938 Bookseller Discovery David Fairchild The World Was My Garden: Travels of a Plant Explorer
Fiction Daphne Du Maurier Rebecca
Most Original Book Margaret Halsey With Malice Toward Some
Nonfiction Anne Morrow Lindbergh Listen! The Wind
1939 Bookseller Discovery Elgin Groseclose Ararat
Fiction John Steinbeck The Grapes of Wrath
Most Original Book Dalton Trumbo Johnny Got His Gun
Nonfiction Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Wind, Sand and Stars
1940 Bookseller Discovery Perry Burgess Who Walk Alone (1942 subtitle, Life of a Leper)
Fiction Richard Llewellyn How Green Was My Valley
Nonfiction Hans Zinsser As I Remember Him: The Biography of R.S.
1941 Bookseller Discovery George Sessions Perry Hold Autumn in Your Hand

Graphics awards

The "Academy Awards model" (Oscars) was introduced in 1980 under the name TABA, The American Book Awards. The program expanded from seven literary awards to 28 literary and 6 graphics awards. After 1983, with 19 literary and 8 graphics awards, the Awards practically went out of business, to be restored in 1984 with a program of three literary awards.

Since 1988 the Awards have been under the care of the National Book Foundation which does not recognize the graphics awards.

1980 Art/Illustrated collection (hardcover) Drawings and Digressions by Larry Rivers with Carol Brightman; Herman Strobuck, designer (Clarkson N. Potter)
Art/Illustrated original art (hard) The Birthday of the Infanta by Oscar Wilde (1888 original), illustrated by Leonard Lubin (Viking Press)
Art/Illustrated (paperback) Anatomy Illustrated by Emily Blair Chewning; designed by Dana Levy (Fireside/ Simon & Schuster)
Book Design (hc & ppb) The Architect's Eye by Debora Nevins and Robert A. M. Stern (Pantheon Books)
Cover Design (paper) Famous Potatoes by Joe Cottonwood (orig. 1978); David Myers, designer (Delta/ Seymour Lawrence)
Jacket Design  (hard) Birdy by William Wharton; Fred Marcellino, designer (Alfred A. Knopf)
1981 Book Design, pictorial In China, photographed by Eve Arnold, designer R. D. Scudellari (The Brooklyn Museum)[1]
Book Design, typographical Saul Bellow, Drumlin Woodchuck by Mark Harris, designed by Richard Hendel (University of Georgia Press)
Book Illustration, collected or adapted The Lost Museum: glimpses of vanished originals by Robert M. Adams, designed by Michael Shroyer (Viking Press)
Cover Design, paperback Fiorucci: The Book, designed by Quist-Couratin(?) (Milan: Harlin Quist Books, distributed by Dial/ Delacorte)
Jacket Design, hardcover In China, photographed by Eve Arnold, designer R. D. Scudellari (The Brooklyn Museum)
1982
1983 Pictorial Design Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, designer/illustrator Barry Moser, art director Steve Renick (University of California Press)
Typographical Design A Constructed Roman Alphabet, designer/illustrator David Lance Goines, art director William F. Luckey (David R. Godine)
Illustration Collected Art John Singer Sargent by Carter Ratcliff, designer Howard Morris, editor Nancy Grubb, production manager Dana Cole (Abbeville Press)
Illustration Original Art Porcupine Stew by Beverly Major, illustrator Erick Ingraham, designer/art director Cynthia Basil (William Morrow Junior Books)
Illustration Photographs Alfred Stieglitz: Photographs and Writings by Sarah Greenough and Juan Hamilton, designer Eleanor Morris Caponigro (National Gallery of Art/Callaway Editions)
Cover Design Bogmail by Patrick McGinley, illustrator Doris Ettlinger, designer/art director Neil Stuart (Penguin Books)
Jacket Design Souls on Fire by Elie Wiesel, designer Fred Marcellino, art director Frank Metz (Summit Books/ Simon & Schuster)

Herbert Mitgang's report on the inaugural TABA begins thus: "Thirty-four hardcover and paperback books, many of which nobody had heard of before, were named winners during a generally ragged presentation of the first American Book Awards in a ceremony at the Seventh Regiment Armory last night. The event was designed to resemble Hollywood's Oscars, but instead there was little glamour. All the winners were barred from accepting their awards, and most did not attend."

Repeat winners

Books

At least three books have won two National Book Awards.
Dates are award years.

  • John Clive, Thomas Babington Macaulay: The Shaping of the Historian
1974 Biography; 1974 History
1979 Contemporary Thought; 1980 General Nonfiction, Paperback
1975 Arts and Letters; 1975 Science

Authors

At least three authors have won three awards: Saul Bellow with three Fiction awards; Peter Matthiessen with two awards for The Snow Leopard (above) and the 2008 Fiction award for Shadow Country; Lewis Thomas with two awards for The Lives of a Cell (above) and the 1981 Science paperback award for The Medusa and the Snail.

These three authors and numerous others have written two award-winning books.

Dates are award years.

"Children's" and "Young People's" categories

  • Lloyd Alexander, 1971, 1982
  • Katherine Paterson, 1977, 1979

"Fiction"

  • Saul Bellow (3), 1954, 1965, 1971
  • John Cheever, 1958, 1981
  • William Faulkner, 1951, 1955
  • William Gaddis, 1976, 1994
  • Bernard Malamud, 1959, 1967
  • Wright Morris, 1957, 1981
  • Philip Roth, 1960, 1995
  • John Updike, 1964, 1982
  • Jesmyn Ward, 2011, 2017

"Fiction" and another category

  • Peter Mathiessen, 2008 and The Snow Leopard, two nonfiction categories 1979 and 1980
  • Isaac Bashevis Singer, 1974 and A Day of Pleasure: Stories of a Boy Growing up in Warsaw, Children's Literature 1970

"Nonfiction" and nonfiction subcategories

  • Justin Kaplan, 1961, 1981 (Arts and Letters, Biography/Autobiography)
  • George F. Kennan, 1957, 1968 (Nonfiction, History and Biography)
  • Anne Morrow Lindbergh, 1936, 1939 (Non-Fiction, Non-Fiction)
  • David McCullough, 1978, 1982 (History, Autobiography/Biography)
  • Arthur Schlesinger, 1966, 1979 (History and Biography, Biography and Autobiography)
  • Frances Steegmuller, 1971, 1981 (Arts and Letters, Translation)
  • Lewis Thomas, 1975, 1981 (Arts and Letters and Science, Science)

"Poetry"

  • A. R. Ammons, 1973, 1993
  • Alan Dugan, 1962, 2001
  • Philip Levine, 1980, 1991
  • James Merrill, 1967, 1979
  • Theodore Roethke, 1959, 1965
  • Wallace Stevens, 1951, 1955

Split awards

The Translation award was split six times during its 1967 to 1983 history, once split three ways. Twelve other awards were split, all during that period.

  • 1967 Translation
  • 1971 Translation
  • 1972 Poetry
  • 1973 Fiction, History
  • 1974 Fiction, Poetry, Biography, Translation (3)
  • 1975 Fiction, Arts & Letters, The Sciences
  • 1980 Translation
  • 1981 Translation
  • 1982 Translation
  • 1983 Poetry, Children's Fiction paper, Children's Picture hard

Four of the ten awards were split in 1974, including the three-way split in Translation. That year the Awards practically went out of business. In 1975 there was no sponsor. A temporary administrator, the Committee on Awards Policy, "begged" judges not to split awards, yet three of ten awards were split. William Cole explained this in a New York Times column pessimistically entitled "The Last of the National Book Awards" but the Awards were "saved" by the National Institute of Arts and Letters in 1976.

Split awards returned with a 1980 reorganization on Academy Awards lines (under the ambiguous name "American Book Awards" for a few years). From 1980 to 1983 there were not only split awards but more than twenty award categories annually; there were graphics awards (or "non-literary awards") and dual awards for hardcover and paperback books, both unique to the period.

In 1983 the awards again went out of business, and they were not saved for 1983 publications (January to October). The 1984 reorganization prohibited split awards as it trimmed the award categories from 27 to three.


This page was last updated at 2023-12-27 05:33 UTC. Update now. View original page.

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