Pulitzer Prize for Biography

The Pulitzer Prize for Biography is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes annually awarded for Letters, Drama, and Music. The award honors "a distinguished and appropriately documented biography by an American author." Award winners receive US$15,000.

From 1917 to 2022, this prize was known as the Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography and was awarded to a distinguished biography, autobiography or memoir by an American author or co-authors, published during the preceding calendar year. It is one of the original Pulitzers. The program was inaugurated in 1917 with seven prizes, four of which were awarded that year.

Recipients In its first 97 years to 2013, the Biography Pulitzer was awarded 97 times. Two were given in 1938, and none in 1962.

1910s–1940s +Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography winners, 1917–1949YearAuthorTitleRef.1917 and Maud Howe Elliott, assisted by Florence Howe HallJulia Ward Howe1918Benjamin Franklin, Self-Revealed1919†1920, 4 vols.1921192219231924From Immigrant to Inventor1925Barrett Wendell and His Letters1926, 2 vols.1927Whitman1928192919301931Charles W. Eliot, President of Harvard University, 1869–19011932Theodore Roosevelt: A Biography1933Grover Cleveland: A Study in Courage1934John Hay1935R. E. Lee19361937Hamilton Fish1938The Life of Andrew Jackson, 2 vols.Pedlar's Progress: The Life of Bronson Alcott1939Benjamin Franklin1940Woodrow Wilson, Life and Letters. Vols. VII and VIII1941Jonathan Edwards, 1703–1758: A Biography1942Crusader in Crinoline: The Life of Harriet Beecher Stowe1943Admiral of the Ocean Sea1944The American Leonardo: The Life of Samuel F. B. Morse1945George Bancroft: Brahmin Rebel1946Son of the Wilderness: The Life of John Muir1947†The Autobiography of William Allen White1948Forgotten First Citizen: John Bigelow1949Roosevelt and Hopkins

1950s–1970s +Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography winners, 1950–1979YearAuthorTitleRef.1950John Quincy Adams and the Foundations of American Foreign Policy1951John C. Calhoun: American Portrait1952Charles Evans Hughes1953Edmund Pendleton 1721–1803195419551956Benjamin Henry Latrobe1957Profiles in Courage1958† with John Alexander Carroll and Mary Wells AshworthGeorge Washington, vols. I-VII1959Woodrow Wilson1960John Paul Jones1961Charles Sumner and the Coming of the Civil War1962No award presentedIn 1962 the Pulitzer board awarded the prize to W.A. Swanberg for Citizen Hearst. The trustees of Columbia University, who administer the prize, overturned the award, refusing to honor a book that took a critical look at William Randolph Hearst. 1963Henry James1964John Keats1965Henry Adams, 3 vols.19661967Mr. Clemens and Mark Twain1968Memoirs19691970Huey Long1971Robert Frost: The Years of Triumph, 1915–19381972Eleanor and Franklin1973Luce and His Empire1974O'Neill, Son and Artist19751976Edith Wharton: A Biography19771978Samuel Johnson1979Days of Sorrow and Pain: Leo Baeck and the Berlin Jews

1980s Entries from this point on include the finalists listed after the winner for each year.

+Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography winners and finalists, 1980–1989YearAuthorTitleResultRef.1980WinnerBernard Berenson, The Making of a ConnoisseurFinalistBeing Bernard BerensonFinalistFinalist1981Peter the Great: His Life and WorldWinnerWalt Whitman: A LifeFinalistWalter Lippmann and the American CenturyFinalist1982Grant: A BiographyWinnerWaldo EmersonFinalistMornings on HorsebackFinalist1983Growing UpWinnerChurchill: Young Man in a Hurry, 1874–1915FinalistThomas E. Dewey and His TimesFinalist1984Booker T. Washington: The Wizard of Tuskegee, 1901–1915WinnerThomas Carlyle: A BiographyFinalistBlack Apollo of Science: The Life of Ernest Everett JustFinalist1985WinnerBecoming William JamesFinalistFinalist1986Louise Bogan: A PortraitWinnerGeorge Washington Williams: A BiographyFinalistFinalist1987Bearing The Cross: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership ConferenceWinnerDostoevsky: The Stir of Liberation, 1860–1865FinalistFinalistMurrow: His Life and TimesFinalist1988Look Homeward: A Life of Thomas WolfeWinnerHemingwayFinalistGeorge Santayana: A BiographyFinalist1989†Oscar WildeWinnerFreud: A Life for Our TimeFinalistFinalistFinalist

1990s +Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography winners and finalists, 1990–1999YearAuthor(s)TitleResultRef.1990Machiavelli in HellWinnerFinalistClear Pictures: First Loves, First GuidesFinalistFinalist1991 and Gregory White SmithJackson Pollock: An American SagaWinnerFinalistAlfred I. Du Pont: The Man and His FamilyFinalist1992Fortunate Son: The Autobiography of Lewis B. Puller Jr.WinnerFrederick DouglassFinalistOrwell: The Authorized BiographyFinalist1993TrumanWinnerGenius: The Life and Science of Richard FeynmanFinalistKissinger: A BiographyFinalist1994W. E. B. Du Bois: Biography of a Race, 1868–1919WinnerIn Extremis: The Life of Laura RidingFinalistGenet: A BiographyFinalist1995Harriet Beecher Stowe: A LifeWinnerHugo Black: A BiographyFinalistSaint-Exupery: A BiographyFinalist1996God: A BiographyWinnerJohn Sloan: Painter and RebelFinalistMozart: A LifeFinalist1997Angela's Ashes: A MemoirWinnerIn the Wilderness: Coming of Age in Unknown CountryFinalistHerman Melville: A Biography, Volume 1, 1819–1851Finalist1998Personal HistoryWinnerAlfred C. Kinsey: A Public-Private LifeFinalistWhittaker Chambers: A BiographyFinalist1999LindberghWinnerAt Home with the Marquis de Sade: A LifeFinalistFinalist

2000s +Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography winners and finalists, 2000–2009YearAuthor(s)TitleResult2000Vera, Mrs. Vladimir NabokovWinnerClear Springs: A MemoirFinalistGalileo's Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith, and LoveFinalist2001W. E. B. Du Bois: The Fight for Equality and the American Century 1919-1963WinnerFinalistJohann Sebastian Bach: The Learned MusicianFinalist2002John AdamsWinnerFinalistGrantFinalist2003Master of the Senate: The Years of Lyndon JohnsonWinnerFinalistBeethoven: The Music and the LifeFinalist2004Khrushchev: The Man and His EraWinnerIsaac NewtonFinalistArshile Gorky: His Life and WorkFinalist2005 and Annalyn Swande Kooning: An American MasterWinnerWill in the World: How Shakespeare Became ShakespeareFinalistUnder a Wild Sky: John James Audubon and the Making of The Birds of AmericaFinalist2006 and Martin J. SherwinAmerican Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert OppenheimerWinnerFinalistFinalist2007WinnerJohn Wilkes: The Scandalous Father of Civil LibertyFinalistAndrew CarnegieFinalist2008Eden's Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her FatherWinnerFinalistFinalist2009American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White HouseWinnerTraitor to His Class: The Privileged Life and Radical Presidency of Franklin Delano RooseveltFinalistFinalist

2010s +Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography winners and finalists, 2010–2019YearAuthor(s)TitleResultRef.2010 WinnerCheever: A LifeFinalistWoodrow Wilson: A BiographyFinalist2011 Washington: A LifeWinnerFinalistMrs. Adams in Winter: A Journey in the Last Days of NapoleonFinalist2012 George F. Kennan: An American LifeWinnerLove and Capital: Karl and Jenny Marx and the Birth of a RevolutionFinalistMalcolm X: A Life of ReinventionFinalist2013 WinnerPortrait of a Novel: Henry James and the Making of an American MasterpieceFinalistFinalist2014 Margaret Fuller: A New American LifeWinnerJonathan Swift: His Life and His WorldFinalistKarl Marx: A Nineteenth-Century LifeFinalist2015 WinnerLouis Armstrong: Master of ModernismFinalistStalin: Paradoxes of Power, 1878–1928Finalist2016 Barbarian Days: A Surfing LifeWinnerFinalistCuster's Trials: A Life on the Frontier of a New AmericaFinalist2017 WinnerIn the DarkroomFinalistWhen Breath Becomes AirFinalist2018 Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls WilderWinnerRichard Nixon: The LifeFinalistRobert Lowell, Setting the River on Fire: A Study of Genius, Mania, and CharacterFinalist2019 WinnerFinalistProust's Duchess: How Three Celebrated Women Captured the Imagination of Fin-de-Siècle ParisFinalist

2020s +Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography winners and finalists, 2020–presentYearAuthor(s)WorkResultRef2020Sontag: Her Life and WorkWinnerOur Man: Richard Holbrooke and the End of the American CenturyFinalistParisian Lives: Samuel Beckett, Simone de Beauvoir, and MeFinalist2021† and Tamara PayneWinnerRed Comet: The Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia PlathFinalistStranger in the Shogun's City: A Japanese Woman and Her WorldFinalist2022† and Erin I. KellyChasing Me to My Grave: An Artist's Memoir of the Jim Crow SouthWinnerPessoa: A BiographyFinalistFinalist2023G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American CenturyWinnerMr. B: George Balanchine's 20th CenturyFinalist and Toluse OlorunnipaHis Name Is George Floyd: One Man's Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice Finalist2024 King: A LifeWinnerMaster Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to FreedomWinnerLarry McMurtry: A LifeFinalist2025Every Living Thing: The Great and Deadly Race to Know All LifeWinner John Lewis: A LifeFinalistThe World She Edited: Katharine S. White at The New YorkerFinalist2026Pride and Pleasure: The Schuyler Sisters in an Age of RevolutionWinnerThe Life and Poetry of Frank StanfordFinalistTrue Nature: The Pilgrimage of Peter MatthiessenFinalist

Repeat winners

Ten people have won the Pulitzer for Biography or Autobiography twice: Burton J. Hendrick, 1923, 1929 Allan Nevins, 1933, 1937 Marquis James, 1930, 1938 Douglas S. Freeman, 1935, 1958 Samuel Eliot Morison, 1943, 1960 Walter Jackson Bate, 1964, 1978 David Herbert Donald, 1961, 1988 David Levering Lewis, 1994, 2001 David McCullough, 1993, 2002 Robert Caro, 1975, 2003

W. A. Swanberg was selected by the Pulitzer board in 1962 and 1973; however, the trustees of Columbia University (then responsible for conferral of the awards) overturned the proposed 1962 prize for Citizen Hearst.

Notes

See also

Pulitzer Prize for History

References

External links