National Book Award for Nonfiction
The National Book Award for Nonfiction is one of four annual National Book Awards, which are given by the National Book Foundation to recognize outstanding literary work by U.S. citizens. They are awards "by writers to writers".[1] The panelists are five "writers who are known to be doing great work in their genre or field".[2]
The original National Book Awards recognized the "Most Distinguished" biography and nonfiction books (two) of 1935 and 1936, and the "Favorite" nonfiction books of 1937 to 1940. The "Bookseller Discovery" and the "Most Original Book" sometimes recognized nonfiction. (See below.)
The general "Nonfiction" award was one of three when the National Book Awards were re-established in 1950 for 1949 publications, which the National Book Foundation considers the origin of its current Awards series.[3] From 1964 to 1983, under different administrators, there were multiple nonfiction categories.[3]
The current Nonfiction award recognizes one book written by a US citizen and published in the US from December 1 to November 30. The National Book Foundation accepts nominations from publishers until June 15, requires mailing nominated books to the panelists by August 1, and announces five finalists in October. The winner is announced on the day of the final ceremony in November. The award is $10,000 and a bronze sculpture; other finalists get $1000, a medal, and a citation written by the panel.[4] The sculpture by Louise Nevelson dates from the 1980 awards.[5] The $10,000 and $1000 cash prizes and autumn recognition for current-year publications date from 1984.[6][7][lower-alpha 1]
About 200 books were nominated for the 1984 award, when the single award for general nonfiction was restored.[7]
There were 435 books nominated for the 2010 award.[8]
Current rendition
The longlist for 2016 will be announced in September 2016.
Finalists
Nonfiction, date to 1984
The winner is listed first followed by the four other finalists (from 1987) or other runners up.[lower-alpha 1]
2015:[9][10] Ta-Nehisi Coates, Between the World and Me
- Sally Mann, Hold Still: A Memoir with Photographs
- Sy Montgomery, The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness
- Carla Power, If the Oceans Were Ink: An Unlikely Friendship and a Journey to the Heart of the Quran
- Tracy K. Smith, Ordinary Light: A Memoir
2014:[11] Evan Osnos, Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China[12]
- Roz Chast, Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant?
- Anand Gopal, No Good Men Among The Living
- John Lahr, Tennessee Williams
- E.O. Wilson, The Meaning of Human Existence
2013:[13][14] George Packer, The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America [15]
- Jill Lepore, Book of Ages: The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin
- Wendy Lower, Hitler’s Furies: German Women in the Nazi Killing Fields
- Alan Taylor, The Internal Enemy: Slavery and War in Virginia, 1772-1832
- Lawrence Wright, Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief
2012:[16][17] Katherine Boo, Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity[18][19]
- Anne Applebaum, Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe, 1945–1956
- Robert A. Caro, The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson
- Domingo Martinez, The Boy Kings of Texas
- Anthony Shadid, House of Stone: A Memoir of Home, Family, and a Lost Middle East
2011:[16] Stephen Greenblatt, The Swerve: How the World Became Modern
- Deborah Baker, The Convert: A Tale of Exile and Extremism [bio: Maryam Jameelah]
- Mary Gabriel, Love and Capital: Karl and Jenny Marx and the Birth of a Revolution [bio: Karl Marx and Jenny von Westphalen]
- Manning Marable, Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention [bio: Malcolm X]
- Lauren Redniss, Radioactive: Marie & Pierre Curie, A Tale of Love & Fallout [bio: Marie & Pierre Curie]
2010:[16] Patti Smith, Just Kids [memoir]
- Barbara Demick, Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea
- John W. Dower, Cultures of War: Pearl Harbor, Hiroshima, 9-11, Iraq
- Justin Spring, Secret Historian: The Life and Times of Samuel Steward, Professor, Tattoo Artist, and Sexual Renegade [bio: Samuel Steward]
- Megan K. Stack, Every Man in This Village Is a Liar: An Education in War
2009:[20] T.J. Stiles, The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt [bio: Cornelius Vanderbilt]
- David M. Carroll, Following the Water: A Hydromancer's Notebook
- Sean B. Carroll, Remarkable Creatures: Epic Adventures in the Search for the Origins of Species
- Greg Grandin, Fordlândia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle City [about: Fordlândia]
- Adrienne Mayor, The Poison King: The Life and Legend of Mithradates, Rome's Deadliest Enemy [bio: Mithradates]
2008:[20] Annette Gordon-Reed, The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family
- Drew Gilpin Faust, This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War
- Jane Mayer, The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals
- Jim Sheeler, Final Salute: A Story of Unfinished Lives
- Joan Wickersham, The Suicide Index: Putting My Father’s Death in Order
2007:[20] Tim Weiner, Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA
- Edwidge Danticat, Brother, I'm Dying
- Christopher Hitchens, God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything
- Woody Holton, Unruly Americans and the Origins of the Constitution
- Arnold Rampersad, Ralph Ellison: A Biography [bio: Ralph Ellison]
2006:[20] Timothy Egan, The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl
- Taylor Branch, At Canaan's Edge: America in the King Years, 1965-68
- Rajiv Chandrasekaran, Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq’s Green Zone
- Peter Hessler, Oracle Bones: A Journey Between China's Past and Present
- Lawrence Wright, The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11
2005:[20] Joan Didion, The Year of Magical Thinking[memoir]
- Alan Burdick, Out of Eden: An Odyssey of Ecological Invasion
- Leo Damrosch, Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Restless Genius [bio: Jean-Jacques Rousseau]
- Jim Dwyer and Kevin Flynn, 102 Minutes: The Untold Story of the Fight to Survive Inside the Twin Towers
- Adam Hochschild, Bury the Chains: Prophets and Rebels in the Fight to Free an Empire’s Slaves
2004:[20] Kevin Boyle, Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age
- David Hackett Fischer, Washington's Crossing
- Jennifer Gonnerman, Life on the Outside: The Prison Odyssey of Elaine Bartlett
- Stephen Greenblatt, Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare
- The 9/11 Commission, The 9/11 Commission Report: Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States- Authorized Edition
2003:[20] Carlos Eire, Waiting for Snow in Havana: Confessions of a Cuban Boy
- Anne Applebaum, Gulag: A History
- George Howe Colt, The Big House: A Century in the Life of an American Summer Home [memoir]
- John D'Emilio, Lost Prophet: The Life and Times of Bayard Rustin [bio: Bayard Rustin]
- Erik Larson, The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America
2002:[20] Robert A. Caro, Master of the Senate: The Years of Lyndon Johnson[bio: Lyndon Johnson]
- Devra Davis, When Smoke Ran Like Water: Tales of Environmental Deception and the Battle Against Pollution [about: Donora Smog of 1948]
- Atul Gawande, Complications: A Surgeon’s Notes on an Imperfect Science
- Elizabeth Gilbert, The Last American Man
- Steve Olson, Mapping Human History: Discovering the Past through Our Genes
2001:[20] Andrew Solomon, The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression
- Marie Arana, American Chica: Two Worlds, One Childhood
- Nina Bernstein, The Lost Children of Wilder: The Epic Struggle to Change Foster Care
- David James Duncan, My Story as Told by Water
- Jan T. Gross, Neighbors: The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland
2000:[20] Nathaniel Philbrick, In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex
- Jacques Barzun, From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life, 1500 to the Present
- Alice Kaplan, The Collaborator: The Trial and Execution of Robert Brasillach [about: Robert Brasillach]
- David Levering Lewis, W.E.B. Du Bois: The Fight for Equality and the American Century, 1919–1963 [bio: W.E.B. Du Bois, vol.2]
- Patrick Tierney, Darkness in El Dorado: How Scientists and Journalists Devastated the Amazon
1999:[23] John W. Dower, Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II
- Natalie Angier, Woman: An Intimate Geography
- Mark Bowden, Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War
- John Phillip Santos, Places Left Unfinished at the Time of Creation [memoir]
- Judith Thurman, Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette [bio: Colette]
1998:[23] Edward Ball, Slaves in the Family
- Harold Bloom, Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human
- Yaffa Eliach, There Once Was a World: A 900-Year Chronicle of the Shtetl of Eishyshok [about: Jewish Eishyshok]
- Beth Kephart, A Slant of Sun: One Child's Courage
- Henry Mayer, All on Fire: William Lloyd Garrison and the Abolition of Slavery [about: William Lloyd Garrison]
1997:[23] Joseph J. Ellis, American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson
- David I. Kertzer, The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara [about: Edgardo Mortara]
- Jamaica Kincaid, My Brother
- Thomas Lynch, The Undertaking: Life Studies from the Dismal Trade [about: Funeral directors]
- Sam Tanenhaus, Whittaker Chambers: A Biography [bio: Whittaker Chambers]
1996:[23] James P. Carroll, An American Requiem: God, My Father, and the War that Came Between Us
- Melissa Fay Greene, The Temple Bombing
- Paul Hendrickson, The Living and the Dead: Robert McNamara and Five Lives of a Lost War [about: Robert McNamara]
- Cary Reich, The Life of Nelson A. Rockefeller: Worlds to Conquer, 1908–1958 [bio: Nelson Rockefeller]
- Anne Roiphe, Fruitful: A Real Mother in the Modern World
1995:[23] Tina Rosenberg, The Haunted Land: Facing Europe's Ghosts After Communism
- Dennis Covington, Salvation on Sand Mountain: Snake Handling and Redemption in Southern Appalachia
- Daniel C. Dennett, Darwin's Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meaning of Life
- Jonathan Harr, A Civil Action [about: Anderson v. Cryovac]
- Maryanne Vollers, Ghosts of Mississippi
1994:[23] Sherwin B. Nuland, How We Die: Reflections on Life's Final Chapter
- John Demos, The Unredeemed Captive: A Family Story from Early America
- Jane Mayer and Jill Abramson, Strange Justice: The Selling of Clarence Thomas [about: Clarence Thomas]
- John Edgar Wideman, Fatheralong: A Meditation on Fathers, Sons, Race and Society [memoir]
- Tobias Wolff, In Pharoah's Army: Memories of the Lost War [memoir]
1993:[23] Gore Vidal, United States: Essays 1952–1992
- William Leach, Land of Desire: Merchants, Power, and the Rise of a New American Culture
- David Levering Lewis, W.E.B. Du Bois: Biography of a Race, 1868–1919 [bio: W.E.B. Du Bois, vol.1]
- Richard Slotkin, Gunfighter Nation: The Myth of the Frontier in Twentieth-Century America
- Peter Svenson, Battlefield: Farming a Civil War Battleground
1992:[23] Paul Monette, Becoming a Man: Half a Life Story
- Edward L. Ayers, The Promise of the New South
- James Gleick, Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman [bio: Richard Feynman]
- David McCullough, Truman
- Garry Wills, Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remade America
1991:[23] Orlando Patterson, Freedom, Vol. 1: Freedom in the Making of Western Culture
- E.J. Dionne, Jr., Why Americans Hate Politics
- Melissa Fay Greene, Praying for Sheetrock
- R.W.B. Lewis, The Jameses: A Family Narrative [bio: Henry James and William James]
- Diane Wood Middlebrook, Anne Sexton: A Biography [bio: Anne Sexton]
1990:[23] Ron Chernow, The House of Morgan: An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance
- Samuel G. Freedman, Small Victories: The Real World of a Teacher, Her Students and Their High School
- Roger Morris, Richard Milhous Nixon: The Rise of an American Politician [bio: Richard Nixon]
- Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith, Jackson Pollock: An American Saga
- T.H. Watkins, Righteous Pilgrim: The Life and Times of Harold L. Ickes, 1847–1952 [bio: Harold L. Ickes]
1989:[24] Thomas L. Friedman, From Beirut to Jerusalem
- Taylor Branch, Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954–63
- McGeorge Bundy, Danger and Survival: Choices about the Bomb in the First Fifty Years
- William Pfaff, Barbarian Sentiments: How the American Century Ends
- Marilynne Robinson, Mother Country: Britain, the Welfare State and Nuclear Pollution
1988:[24] Neil Sheehan, A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam
- Eric Foner, Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863–1877
- Peter Gay, Freud: A Life for Our Time [bio: Sigmund Freud][lower-alpha 2]
- Brenda Maddox, Nora: The Real Life of Molly Bloom [bio: Molly Bloom]
- Jack McLaughlin, Jefferson and Monticello: The Biography of a Builder [about: Thomas Jefferson and Monticello]
1987:[24] Richard Rhodes, The Making of the Atomic Bomb
- David Herbert Donald, Look Homeward: The Life of Thomas Wolfe [bio: Thomas Wolfe]
- James Gleick, Chaos: Making a New Science
- Claudia Koonz, Mothers in the Fatherland
- Robert A.M. Stern, Gregory Gilmartin, and Thomas Mellins, New York 1930: Architecture and Urbanism Between the Two World Wars
1986:[24] Barry Lopez, Arctic Dreams: Imagination and Desire in a Northern Landscape
- John W. Dower, War Without Mercy: Race and Power in the Pacific War
- Richard Kluger, The Paper: The Life and Times of the New York Herald Tribune [about: New York Herald Tribune]
- Michael S. Reynolds, The Young Hemingway [bio: Ernest Hemingway]
- Theodore Rosengarten, Tombee: Portrait of a Cotton Planter
1985:[24] J. Anthony Lukas, Common Ground: A Turbulent Decade in the Lives of Three American Families
- Daniel J. Kevles, In the Name of Eugenics: Genetics and the Use of Human Heredity
- Walter A. McDougall, The Heavens and the Earth: A Political History of the Space Age
1984:[24] Robert V. Remini, Andrew Jackson and the Course of American Democracy, 1833–1845
- Howard M. Feinstein, Becoming William James [bio: William James]
- Richard Marius, Thomas More: A Biography [bio: Thomas More]
- Ernst Pawel, The Nightmare of Reason: A Life of Franz Kafka [bio: Franz Kafka]
- Eudora Welty, One Writer's Beginnings [autobiography]
Multiple nonfiction categories, 1964 to 1983
For the 1963/1964 cycle, three new award categories replaced "Nonfiction": Arts and Letters; History and Biography; Science, Philosophy and Religion. For the next twenty years there were at least three award categories for nonfiction books marketed to adult readers and the term "Nonfiction" was used only 1980 to 1983 ("General Nonfiction", hardcover and paperback).
timespan | of all awards | list of "Nonfiction" categories covered below |
---|---|---|
1964–1966 | 3 of 5 | Arts and Letters; History and Biography; Science, Philosophy and Religion |
1967–1968 | 3 of 6 | |
1969–1971 | 3 of 7 | Arts and Letters; History and Biography; "The Sciences" or "Philosophy and Religion" alternating |
1972–1975 | 6 of 10 | Arts and Letters; Biography; Contemporary Affairs; History; Philosophy and Religion; The Sciences |
1976 | 3 of 6 | Arts and Letters; Contemporary Affairs; History and Biography |
1977–1979 | 3 of 7 | Biography and Autobiography; Contemporary Thought; History |
1980 | 16 of 30+ | Autobiography; Biography; Current Interest; General Nonfiction; History; Religion/Inspiration; Science (each hardcover and paperback) |
1981–1983 | 8 of 20+ | Autobiography/Biography; General Nonfiction; History; Science (each hardcover and paperback) |
Year count | Award category | Winner and finalists |
---|---|---|
1964
|
Arts and Letters |
Aileen Ward, John Keats: The Making of a Poet [bio John Keats] Losing finalists for nonfiction awards are known only collectively.[27] |
History and Biography |
William H. McNeill, The Rise of the West: A History of the Human Community Losing finalists for nonfiction awards are known only collectively.[27] | |
Science, Philosophy and Religion |
Christopher Tunnard and Boris Pushkarev, Man-made America: Chaos or Control? Losing finalists for nonfiction awards are known only collectively.[27] | |
Losing finalists, 1964 nonfiction categories[27] |
David E. Lilienthal, Change, Hope and the Bomb | |
(probably Arts and Letters) Walter Jackson Bate, John Keats [bio John Keats] | ||
(probably History and Biography) Shelby Foote, The Civil War: A Narrative, Vol. II, Fredericksburg to Meridian (2nd of 3 vols) | ||
(probably Science, Philosophy and Religion) James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time | ||
1965
|
Arts and Letters |
Eleanor Clark, The Oysters of Locmariaquer |
History and Biography |
Louis Fischer, The Life of Lenin [bio Vladimir Lenin] | |
Science, Philosophy and Religion |
Norbert Wiener, God & Golem, Inc.: A Comment on Certain Points Where Cybernetics Impinges on Religion | |
1966
|
Arts and Letters |
Janet Flanner Paris Journal, 1944–1965 |
History and Biography |
Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., A Thousand Days: John F. Kennedy in the White House | |
Science, Philosophy and Religion |
No award given. Charles Frankel, "The Love of Anxiety" and Other Essays | |
1967
|
Arts and Letters |
Justin Kaplan, Mr. Clemens and Mark Twain: A Biography [bio Mark Twain] |
History and Biography |
Peter Gay, The Enlightenment, Vol. I: The Rise of Modern Paganism | |
Science, Philosophy and Religion |
Oscar Lewis, La Vida: A Puerto Rican Family in the Culture of Poverty—San Juan and New York [about culture of poverty] | |
1968
|
Arts and Letters |
William Troy, Selected Essays |
History and Biography |
George F. Kennan, Memoirs: 1925–1950 (first of 2 vols.) | |
Science, Philosophy and Religion |
Jonathan Kozol, Death at an Early Age | |
1969
|
Arts and Letters |
Norman Mailer, The Armies of the Night: History as a Novel, The Novel as History |
History and Biography |
Winthrop Jordan, White over Black: American Attitudes Toward the Negro, 1550–1812 | |
The Sciences |
Robert Jay Lifton, Death in Life: Survivors of Hiroshima | |
1970
|
Arts and Letters |
Lillian Hellman, An Unfinished Woman: A Memoir |
History and Biography |
T. Harry Williams, Huey Long [bio Huey Long] | |
Philosophy and Religion |
Erik Erikson, Gandhi's Truth: On the Origins of Militant Nonviolence | |
1971
|
Arts and Letters |
Francis Steegmuller, Cocteau: A Biography [bio Cocteau] |
History and Biography |
James MacGregor Burns, Roosevelt: The Soldier of Freedom [bio Franklin D. Roosevelt] | |
The Sciences |
Raymond Phineas Sterns, Science in the British Colonies of America | |
1972
|
Arts and Letters |
Charles Rosen, The Classical Style: Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven |
Biography |
Joseph P. Lash, Eleanor and Franklin: The Story of Their Relationship, Based on Eleanor Roosevelt's Private Papers [bio Eleanor Roosevelt] | |
Contemporary Affairs |
Stewart Brand, editor, The Last Whole Earth Catalogue No other finalists announced. | |
History |
Allan Nevins, The Organized War, 1863–1864 and The Organized War to Victory, 1864–1865 (Ordeal of the Union, vols. 7 & 8 of eight) No other finalists announced. | |
Philosophy and Religion |
Martin E. Marty, Righteous Empire: The Protestant Experience in America No other finalists announced. | |
The Sciences |
George L. Small, The Blue Whale No other finalists announced. | |
1973
|
Arts and Letters |
Arthur M. Wilson, Diderot (about Denis Diderot) |
Biography |
James Thomas Flexner, George Washington: Anguish and Farewell, 1793–1799 (last of 4 vols.) | |
Contemporary Affairs |
Frances FitzGerald, Fire in the Lake: The Vietnamese and the Americans in Vietnam (about the U.S. Vietnam War) | |
History |
Split award. | |
Philosophy and Religion |
S. E. Ahlstrom, A Religious History of the American People | |
The Sciences |
| |
1974
|
Arts and Letters |
Pauline Kael, Deeper Into Movies |
Biography |
Split award. | |
Contemporary Affairs |
Murray Kempton, The Briar Patch: The People of the State of New York versus Lumumba Shakur, et al. (about a Black Panthers trial) | |
History |
John Leonard Clive, Thomas Babington Macaulay: The Shaping of the Historian[lower-alpha 3] | |
Philosophy and Religion |
Maurice Natanson, Edmund Husserl: Philosopher of Infinite Tasks | |
The Sciences |
S. E. Luria, Life: The Unfinished Experiment | |
1975
|
Arts and Letters |
Split award. |
Biography |
Richard B. Sewall, The Life of Emily Dickinson | |
Contemporary Affairs |
Theodore Rosengarten, All God's Dangers: The Life of Nate Shaw (see Ned Cobb) | |
History |
Bernard Bailyn, The Ordeal of Thomas Hutchinson | |
Philosophy and Religion |
Robert Nozick, Anarchy, State, and Utopia | |
The Sciences |
Split award. | |
1976
|
Arts and Letters |
Paul Fussell, The Great War and Modern Memory |
Contemporary Affairs |
Michael J. Arlen, Passage to Ararat | |
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 |
Contemporary Thought |
Bruno Bettelheim, The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales | |
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 (about Samuel Johnson) |
Contemporary Thought |
Gloria Emerson, Winners and Losers | |
History |
David McCullough, The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal 1870–1914 | |
1979
|
Biography and Autobiography |
Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., Robert Kennedy and His Times |
Contemporary Thought |
Peter Matthiessen, The Snow Leopard | |
History |
Richard Beale Davis, Intellectual Life in the Colonial South, 1585–1763 | |
From 1980 to 1983 there were dual awards for hardcover (hc) and paperback (ppb) books in all nonfiction subcategories and some others. Most of the paperback award winners were second and later editions that had been previously eligible in their first editions. Here the first edition publication year is given parenthetically except the calendar year preceding the award is represented by "(new)".[lower-alpha 7]
Award category | Winner and other finalists |
---|---|
1980 (16 categories) | |
Autobiography (hc) |
Lauren Bacall, Lauren Bacall by Myself |
Autobiography (ppb) |
Malcolm Cowley, And I Worked at the Writer's Trade: Chapters of Literary History 1918–1978 (1978) No other finalists announced. |
Biography (hc) |
Edmund Morris, The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt |
Biography (ppb) |
A. Scott Berg, Max Perkins: Editor of Genius (1978) |
Current Interest (hc) |
Julia Child, Julia Child and More Company |
Current Interest (ppb) |
Christopher Lasch, The Culture of Narcissism: American Life in an Age of Diminishing Expectations (new) |
General Nonfiction (hc) |
Tom Wolfe, The Right Stuff |
General Nonfiction (ppb) |
Peter Matthiessen, The Snow Leopard (1978) |
General Reference (hardcover)[28] |
Elder Witt, editor, Congressional Quarterly's Guide to the U.S. Supreme Court |
General Reference (ppb) |
Tim Brooks and Earle Marsh, The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows 1946–Present (new) |
History (hc) |
Henry A. Kissinger, The White House Years (memoir, first of 3) |
History (ppb) |
Barbara W. Tuchman, A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century (1978) |
Religion/Inspiration (hc) |
Elaine Pagels, The Gnostic Gospels (about Gnostic Gospels) |
Religion/Inspiration (ppb) |
Sheldon Vanauken, A Severe Mercy (1977) |
Science (hc) |
Douglas Hofstadter, Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid |
Science (ppb) |
Gary Zukav, The Dancing Wu Li Masters: An Overview of the New Physics (new) |
1981 (8 categories) | |
Autobiography/ Biography (hc) |
Justin Kaplan, Walt Whitman: A Life |
Autobiography/ Biography (ppb) |
Deirdre Bair, Samuel Beckett: A Biography (1978) |
General Nonfiction (hc) |
Maxine Hong Kingston, China Men[lower-alpha 8] |
General Nonfiction (ppb) |
Jane Kramer, The Last Cowboy: Europeans and The Politics of Memory (1977) |
History (hc) |
John Boswell, Christianity, Social Tolerance and Homosexuality |
History (ppb) |
Leon F. Litwack, Been in the Storm So Long: The Aftermath of Slavery (1979) |
Science (hc) |
Stephen Jay Gould, The Panda's Thumb: More Reflections on Natural History |
Science (ppb) |
Lewis Thomas, The Medusa and the Snail: More Notes of a Biology Watcher (1979) |
1982 (8 categories) | |
Autobiography/ Biography (hc) |
David McCullough, Mornings on Horseback (about Theodore Roosevelt) |
Autobiography/ Biography (ppb) |
Ronald Steel, Walter Lippmann and the American Century (1980) |
General Nonfiction (hc) |
Tracy Kidder, The Soul of a New Machine |
General Nonfiction (ppb) |
Victor S. Navasky, Naming Names (1980) (see Hollywood blacklist) |
History (hc) |
Peter J. Powell, People of the Sacred Mountain: A History of the Northern Cheyenne Chiefs and Warrior Societies, 1830–1879 |
History (ppb) |
Robert Wohl, The Generation of 1914 (see Lost Generation) (1979) |
Science (hc) |
Donald C. Johanson and Maitland A. Edey, Lucy: The Beginnings of Humankind |
Science (ppb) |
Fred Alan Wolf, Taking the Quantum Leap: The New Physics for Nonscientists (new) |
1983 (8 categories) | |
Autobiography/ Biography (hc) |
Judith Thurman, Isak Dinesen: The Life of a Storyteller |
Autobiography/ Biography (ppb) |
James R. Mellow, Nathaniel Hawthorne in His Times (1980) |
General Nonfiction (hc) |
Fox Butterfield, China: Alive in the Bitter Sea |
General Nonfiction (ppb) |
James Fallows, National Defense (1981) |
History (hc) |
Alan Brinkley, Voices of Protest: Huey Long, Father Coughlin and the Great Depression |
History (ppb) |
Frank E. Manuel and Fritzie P. Manuel, Utopian Thought in the Western World (1979) |
Science (hc) |
Abraham Pais, "Subtle is the Lord ...": The Science and Life of Albert Einstein |
Science (ppb) |
Philip J. Davis and Reuben Hersh, The Mathematical Experience (1981) |
Nonfiction finalists, 1984 to date
1983/1984
1983 entries were published during 1982, the pattern established for 1949 books in 1950. Winners in 27 categories were announced April 13 and privately celebrated April 28, 1983.[6]
The awards practically went out of business that spring. Their salvation with a reduced program to be determined was announced in November. The revamp was completed only next summer, with an autumn program recognizing books published during the award year (initially, preceding November to current October). There were no awards for books published in 1983 before November.
By this time the awards were sponsored by the book publishers alone. From 1980 (for 1979 books) they were termed "American Book Awards", and the National Book Awards were considered to have been discontinued after 1979.[6]
1984 entries for the "revamped" awards in merely three categories were published November 1983 to October 1984; that is, approximately during the award year. Eleven finalists were announced October 17.[7] Winners were announced and celebrated November 15, 1984.[29]
Nonfiction, 1950 to 1963
1963: Leon Edel, Henry James, volumes II and III (biography of Henry James)
- 8 other finalists.[25]
1962: Lewis Mumford, The City in History: Its Origins, its Transformations and its Prospects
- 12 other finalists.[25]
1961: William L. Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich
- 11 other finalists.[25]
1960: Richard Ellmann, James Joyce (biography of James Joyce)
- 28 other finalists.[25]
1959: J. Christopher Herold, Mistress to an Age: A Life of Madame de Staël
- 12 other finalists.[30]
1958: Catherine Drinker Bowen, The Lion and the Throne (see Edward Coke)
- 13 other finalists.[30]
1957: George F. Kennan, Russia Leaves the War
- 17 other finalists.[30]
1956: Herbert Kubly, An American in Italy
- 12 other finalists.[30]
1955: Joseph Wood Krutch, The Measure of Man
- 11 other finalists.[30]
1954: Bruce Catton, A Stillness at Appomattox
- No runners up.[30]
1953: Bernard De Voto, The Course of Empire
- 20 other finalists.[30]
1952: Rachel Carson, The Sea Around Us
- 16 other finalists.[30]
1951: Newton Arvin, Herman Melville (biography of Herman Melville)
- No runners up.[30]
1950. The first awards in the current series were presented to the best books of 1949 at the annual convention dinner of the booksellers, book publishers, and book manufacturers in New York City, March 16, 1950. There were honorable mentions ("special citations") in the non-fiction category only.[31]
1950:[30] Ralph L. Rusk, The Life of Ralph Waldo Emerson (biography of Ralph Waldo Emerson)
- Lincoln Barnett, The Universe and Dr. Einstein
- Harry Allen Overstreet, The Mature Mind
- Eleanor Roosevelt, This I Remember (memoir)
- Lillian Smith, Killers of the Dream
- Kenneth P. Williams, Lincoln Finds a General [Volume 1]
Early awards won by nonfiction books
The National Book Awards for 1935 to 1940 annually recognized the "most distinguished" or "favorite" book of General Nonfiction or simply Nonfiction. In 1935 and 1936 there was distinct award to the most distinguished Biography; both winners were autobiographies. Meanwhile, four of the six general nonfiction winners were autobiographical and one more was a biography. Furthermore, all books were eligible for the "Bookseller Discovery" and "Most Original Book" (two awards); nonfiction winners are listed here. In 1937 and 1939 alone, the New York Times reported close seconds and runners up respectively.[32][33][34][35][36][37]
There was only one National Book Award for 1941, the Bookseller Discovery, which recognized a novel;[38] then none until their 1950 revival for 1949 books in three categories including general Nonfiction.
- Nonfiction
1935:[32] Anne Morrow Lindbergh, North to the Orient (flight memoir)
- Biography: Vincent Sheean, Personal History (autobiography)
1936:[33] Van Wyck Brooks, The Flowering of New England: 1815–1865
- Biography: Victor Heiser (see Leprosy), An American Doctor's Odyssey: Adventures in Forty-Five Countries[39][40] (autobiography)
1937:[34] Ève Curie, Madame Curie (biography of Marie Curie)
- Lin Yutang, The Importance of Living[lower-alpha 9]
1938:[35] Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Listen! The Wind (flight memoir)
1939:[36][41] Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Wind, Sand and Stars (flight memoir)
- Pierre van Paassen, Days of Our Years (autobiography)
1940:[37] Hans Zinsser, As I Remember Him: The Biography of R.S. (autobiography)
- Bookseller Discovery, 1936 to 1941
- Nonfiction books constituted two winners and no other known finalist (both were novels).
1936: see fiction
1937: see fiction
1938:[35] David Fairchild, The World Was My Garden: Travels of a Plant Explorer
1939: see fiction
1940:[37] Perry Burgess, Who Walk Alone[42] (1942 subtitle, Life of a Leper)[43]
1941: see fiction
- Most Original Book, 1935 to 1939
- Nonfiction books constituted three winners and no other known finalist (both were novels).
1935: see fiction
1936:[33] Della T. Lutes, The Country Kitchen[44] (autobiography & cookbook)
1937:[34] Carl Crow, Four Hundred Million Customers: The Experiences—Some Happy, Some Sad, of an American Living in China, and What They Taught Him (nonfiction)
- see fiction
1938:[35] Margaret Halsey, With Malice Toward Some[45] (humor, satire)
1939: see fiction
Repeat winners
Three books have won two literary National Book Awards (that is, excluding graphics), all in nonfiction subcategories of 1964 to 1983.
- John Clive, Thomas Babington Macaulay: The Shaping of the Historian
- 1974 Biography; 1974 History
- Peter Matthiessen, The Snow Leopard
- 1979 Contemporary Thought; 1980 General Nonfiction, Paperback
- Lewis Thomas, The Lives of a Cell: Notes of a Biology Watcher
- 1975 Arts and Letters; 1975 Science
Matthiessen and Thomas won three Awards (as did Saul Bellow, all fiction). Matthiessen won the 2008 fiction award. Thomas is one of several authors of two Award-winning books in nonfiction categories.
- 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)
See also
- List of winners of the National Book Award, winners only.
Notes
- 1 2 Beginning 2005, the official annual webpages (see References) provide more information: the panelists in each award category, the publisher of each finalist, some audio-visual interviews with authors, etc. For 1996 to date, annual webpages generally provide transcripts of acceptance speeches by winning authors.
- ↑ The National Book Foundation lists Peter Gay, The Enlightenment: An Interpretation. Gay won the 1967 Award in History and Biography for the first volume of that work, subtitled The Rise of Modern Paganism. The second and third volumes were published in 1969 (The Science of Freedom) and 1973 (A Comprehensive Anthology).
• "National Book Awards – 1967". NBF. Retrieved 2012-04-02.
• "National Book Awards – 1988". NBF. Retrieved 2012-04-02.
• The Enlightenment; Peter Gay - 1 2 In 1974 John Clive, Thomas Babington Macaulay, won both the History and Biography awards.
- ↑ Boorstin published the third and final volume of The Americans in 1973 (The Americans: The Democratic Experience).
- ↑ Freidel published the fourth and final folume of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1973 (ending 1934).
- 1 2 Lewis Thomas, The Lives of a Cell, won both the Arts & Letters and Science awards in 1975.
- ↑
"(new)" implies that the book was not previously eligible for a National Book Award. It does not imply a paperback original or first publication in simultaneous hard and paper editions. There may have been a first hardcover edition earlier and award-winning paperback edition later in the calendar year.
• No book was a finalist for hardcover and paperback awards in the same year. - ↑ Wikipedia puts the book in genres "short-story cycle; historical fiction" and calls it a novel in her biography.
- ↑ The other three of four runners-up listed in New York Times coverage of the awards for 1937 were works of fiction, and Nonfiction was one of four award categories, so it is appealing to call Lin Yutang, The Importance of Living runner up for the Nonfiction award.
• That is not certain, for it does not match the NYT order of listing and mis-classification is possible. NYT lists four "close seconds" in order Conrad Richter, Sea of Grass; Kenneth Roberts, Northwest Passage; Lin Yutang, The Importance of Living; [Leo Rosten], The Education of Hyman Kaplan. Meanwhile, the four winners are identified by award category and listed in order Fiction, Nonfiction, Bookseller Discovery, Most Original. Both Sea of Grass and Northwest Passage are historical novels, which does not fit the second-listed category Nonfiction. The Importance of Living is nonfiction and also consistent with the third-listed winner, Bookseller Discovery. Hyman Kaplan is fiction and also consistent with the fourth-listed winner, Most Original.
References
- ↑ "History of the National Book Awards". National Book Foundation (NBF): About Us. Retrieved 2012-01-05.
- ↑ "How the National Book Awards Work". NBF: Awards. Retrieved 2012-01-05.
- 1 2 "National Book Award Winners: 1950 – 2009". NBF: Awards. Retrieved 2012-01-05.
- ↑ "National Book Award Selection Process". NBF: Awards. Retrieved 2011-11-17.
- ↑ "'85 Award To DeLillo For Novel". Edwin McDowell. The New York Times 1985-11-22, page C33.
- 1 2 3 "American Book Awards Announced". Edwin McDowell. The New York Times 1983-04-14, page C30.
- 1 2 3 "11 Nominated for American Book Awards". By Edwin McDowell. The New York Times 1984-10-18, page C25.
- ↑ "Frequently Asked Questions". NBF: About Us. Retrieved 2012-01-05.
- ↑ "2015 National Book Awards". National Book Foundation. Retrieved 19 November 2015.
- ↑ Alter, Alexandra (19 November 2015). "Ta-Nehisi Coates Wins National Book Award". The New York Times. Retrieved 19 November 2015.
- ↑ Alex Shephard (October 15, 2014). "National Book Awards shortlists announced". Melville House Publishing. Retrieved October 15, 2014.
- ↑ Alexandra Alter (November 19, 2014). "National Book Award Goes to Phil Klay for His Short Story Collection". New York Times. Retrieved November 20, 2014.
- ↑ "2013 National Book Award Finalists Announced". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved 2013-10-21.
- ↑ "2013 National Book Awards". NBF. Retrieved 2013-10-21.
- ↑ Clare Swanson (November 20, 2013). "2013 National Book Awards Go to McBride, Packer, Szybist, Kadohata". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved December 3, 2013.
- 1 2 3 "National Book Awards – 2010". NBF. Retrieved 2012-01-24. (Select 2010 or a later year from the top left menu.)
- ↑ "National Book Award Finalists Announced Today". Library Journal. October 10, 2012. Retrieved 2012-11-15.
- ↑ "2012 National Book Awards Go to Erdrich, Boo, Ferry, Alexander". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved 2012-11-15.
- ↑ Leslie Kaufman (November 14, 2012). "Novel About Racial Injustice Wins National Book Award". New York Times. Retrieved 2012-11-15.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 "National Book Awards – 2000". NBF. Retrieved 2012-01-24. (Select 2000 to 2009 from the top left menu.)
- ↑ "Preliminary report: The major allegations against Napoleon Chagnon and James Neel presented in Darkness in El Dorado by Patrick Tierney appear to be deliberately fraudulent." (PDF).
- ↑ AAA Rescinds Acceptance of the El Dorado Report
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 "National Book Awards – 1990". NBF. Retrieved 2012-04-01. (Select 1990 to 1999 from the top left menu.)
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "National Book Awards – 1980". NBF. Retrieved 2012-04-01. (Select 1980 to 1989 from the top left menu.)
- 1 2 3 4 5 "National Book Awards – 1960". NBF. Retrieved 2012-02-06. (Select 1960 to 1969 from the top left menu.)
- ↑ "National Book Awards – 1970". NBF. Retrieved 2012-02-06. (Select 1970 to 1979 from the top left menu.)
- 1 2 3 4 "National Book Awards – 1964". NBF. Retrieved 2012-02-06.
- ↑ "Styron and Wolfe Lead Book-Award Winners /Miss Welty Wins National Medal /Counterceremonies on West Side", Herbert Mitgang, The New York Times, May 2, 1980, p. C25.
(The National Book Foundation online listing for this category is corrupt.) - ↑ "Three Writers Win Book Awards". The New York Times 1984-11-16, page C32.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 "National Book Awards – 1950". NBF. Retrieved 2012-02-06. (Select 1950 to 1959 from the top left menu.)
- ↑ "Book Publishers Make 3 Awards: Nelson Algren, Dr. Ralph L. Rusk and Dr. W. C. Williams Receive Gold Plaques", The New York Times 1950-03-17, page 21.
- 1 2 "Lewis is Scornful of Radio Culture: Nothing Ever Will Replace the Old-Fashioned Book, He Tells Booksellers", The New York Times 1936-05-12, page 25.
- 1 2 3 "5 Honors Awarded on the Year's Books: Authors of Preferred Volumes Hailed at Luncheon of Booksellers Group", The New York Times 1937-02-26, page 23.
- 1 2 3 "Booksellers Give Prize to 'Citadel': Cronin's Work About Doctors Their Favorite--'Mme. Curie' Gets Non-Fiction Award TWO OTHERS WIN HONORS Fadiman Is 'Not Interested' in What Pulitzer Committee Thinks of Selections", The New York Times 1938-03-02, page 14.
- 1 2 3 4 "Book About Plants Receives Award: Dr. Fairchild's 'Garden' Work Cited by Booksellers", The New York Times 1939-02-15, page 20.
- 1 2 "1939 Book Awards Given by Critics: Elgin Groseclose's 'Ararat' is Picked as Work Which Failed to Get Due Recognition", The New York Times 1940-02-14, page 25.
- 1 2 3 "Books and Authors", The New York Times 1941-02-16, page BR12.
- ↑ "Neglected Author Gets High Honor: 1941 Book Award Presented to George Perry for Hold Autumn In Your Hand", The New York Times 1942-02-11, page 18.
- ↑ An American Doctor's Odyssey: Adventures in Forty-Five Countries. Amazon.com product information, 1936 first edition with subtitle. Retrieved 2012-01-30.
- ↑ An American Doctor's Odyssey. Review by Mazÿck P. Ravenel. American Journal of Public Health and the Nation's Health. 1936 October; 26(10): 1045–47. Reprint at NIH.gov. Retrieved 2012-01-30.
- ↑ "French Flier Gets Book Prize for 1939: Antoine de St. Exupery Able at Last to Receive Award", The New York Times 1941-01-15, page 6.
- ↑ Who Walk Alone. Amazon.com product information with image of a Bookseller Discovery edition (37th printing). Retrieved 2012-01-30.
- ↑ Who Walk Alone: The Life of a Leper. Amazon.com production information with 1942 subtitle. Retrieved 2012-01-30.
- ↑ Book Review: The Country Kitchen by Della T. Lutes" (2009?). Organic Test Kitchen (blog by Theo). Retrieved 2012-01-30.
- ↑ "Margaret Halsey, 86, a Writer Who Lampooned the English", Dinitia Smith, The New York Times 1997-02-07. Retrieved 2012-01-30.