The W. H. Heinemann Award is an award established by

William Heinemann William Henry Heinemann (18 May 1863 – 5 October 1920) was an English publisher of Jewish descent and the founder of the Heinemann publishing house in London. Early life On 18 May 1863, Heinemann was born in Surbiton, Surrey, England. Heine ...

who bequeathed funds to the

Royal Society of Literature The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820, by King George IV, to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, the RSL has about 600 Fellows, ele ...

to establish a literary prize, given from 1945 to 2003.Directory of Grants in the Humanities The Heinemann Award is given primarily to reward those classes of literature which are less remunerative; namely, poetry, criticism, biography,

Awards list

*1945 ''A Prospect of Flowers'', botanical reminiscences by Andrew Young, poet and vicar of Stonegate in Sussex *1946 ''The Garden'' by

Vita Sackville-West Victoria Mary, Lady Nicolson, Order of the Companions of Honour, CH (Birth name, née Sackville-West; 9 March 1892 – 2 June 1962), usually known as Vita Sackville-West, was an English author and garden designer. Sackville-West was a su ...

*1947 ''Letters to Malaya'' by Martyn Skinner *1948 ''Selected Poems'' by

John Betjeman Sir John Betjeman (; 28 August 190619 May 1984) was an English poet, writer, and broadcaster. He was Poet Laureate from 1972 until his death. He was a founding member of The Victorian Society and a passionate defender of Victorian architecture ...

*1951 ''

Gormenghast Gormenghast may refer to: * ''Gormenghast'' (series), a trilogy of novels by Mervyn Peake ** ''Gormenghast'' (novel), second in the series * ''Gormenghast'' (opera), an opera based on the books * ''Gormenghast'' (TV serial), a BBC adaptatio ...

'' and ''The Glassblowers'' by

Mervyn Peake Mervyn Laurence Peake (9 July 1911 – 17 November 1968) was an English writer, artist, poet, and illustrator. He is best known for what are usually referred to as the '' Gormenghast'' books. The four works were part of what Peake conceived ...

*1952 '' The Cruel Sea'' by Nicholas Monsarrat *1953

Edwin Muir Edwin Muir CBE (15 May 1887 – 3 January 1959) was a Scottish poet, novelist and translator. Born on a farm in Deerness, a parish of Orkney, Scotland, he is remembered for his deeply felt and vivid poetry written in plain language and w ...

*1954 ''The Ermine: poems, 1942–1952'' by

Ruth Pitter Emma Thomas "Ruth" Pitter, CBE, FRSL (7 November 1897 – 29 February 1992) was a British poet. She was the first woman to receive the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry in 1955, and was appointed CBE in 1979 to honour her many contributions to Engli ...

(joint winner) *1954 ''

The Go-Between ''The Go-Between'' is a novel by L. P. Hartley published in 1953. His best-known work, it has been adapted several times for stage and screen. The book gives a critical view of society at the end of the Victorian era through the eyes of a naï ...

'' by L.P. Hartley (joint winner) *1955 ''Song at the Year's Turning'' by R. S. Thomas *1956 ''Roman Mornings'' by

James Lees-Milne (George) James Henry Lees-Milne (6 August 1908 – 28 December 1997) was an English writer and expert on country houses, who worked for the National Trust from 1936 to 1973. He was an architectural historian, novelist and biographer. His extensi ...

*1958 ''The Chequer'd Shade'' by

John Press John Bryant Press (11 January 1920 in Norwich – 26 February 2007 in Frome) was a poet, anthologist and critic who worked for the British Council for much of his life. Life The only child of Edward Press, who worked at Colman's in Norwich, John ...

*1959 '' The Devil's Advocate'' by

Morris West Morris Langlo West (26 April 19169 October 1999) was an Australian novelist and playwright, best known for his novels '' The Devil's Advocate'' (1959), '' The Shoes of the Fisherman'' (1963) and ''The Clowns of God'' (1981). His books were pub ...

*1960 ''Venice'' by

Jan Morris (Catharine) Jan MorrisJan Morris, Paul Clements, University of Wales Press, 2008, p. 7 (born James Humphry Morris; 2 October 192620 November 2020) was a Welsh historian, author and travel writer. She was known particularly for the ''Pax Brita ...

*1961 ''The Masks of Love'' by Vernon Scannell *1962 ''Curmantle'' by

Christopher Fry Christopher Fry (18 December 1907 – 30 June 2005) was an English poet and playwright. He is best known for his verse dramas, especially '' The Lady's Not for Burning'', which made him a major force in theatre in the 1940s and 1950s. Biograp ...

*1962 ''

The Destruction of Lord Raglan ''The Destruction of Lord Raglan: A tragedy of the Crimean War, 1854–55'' is a non-fiction historical work by Christopher Hibbert, originally published by Longman in 1961. The work is a portrait of Lord Raglan, commander-in-chief of British for ...

Christopher Hibbert Christopher Hibbert MC (born Arthur Raymond Hibbert; 5 March 1924 – 21 December 2008) was an English author, historian and biographer. He has been called "a pearl of biographers" (''New Statesman'') and "probably the most widely-read popular ...

*1963 ''Mrs. Browning: A Poet's Work and Its Setting'' by Alethea Hayter *1964 ''The Marsh Arabs'' by Wilfred Thesiger *1965 ''Journey from Obscurity: Wildred Owen, 1893-1919'' by Harold Owen *1966 '' Wide Sargasso Sea'' by Jean Rhys *1967 ''Charlotte Bronte: The Evolution of Genius'' by Winifred Gérin *1968 ''George Eliot: A Biography'' by Gordon S. Haight *1969 ''Sir William Hamilton: Envoy Extraordinary'' by Brian Fothergill *1969

V. S. Pritchett Sir Victor Sawdon Pritchett (also known as VSP; 16 December 1900 – 20 March 1997) was a British writer and literary critic. Pritchett was known particularly for his short stories, collated in a number of volumes. His non-fiction works incl ...

*1970 ''Britain and Her Army'' by

Corelli Barnett Correlli Douglas Barnett CBE FRHistS FRSL FRSA (28 June 1927 – 10 July 2022) was an English military historian, who also wrote works of economic history, particularly on the United Kingdom's post-war " industrial decline". Early life Barnett ...

*1971 ''Granite Island: Portrait of Corsica'' by

Dorothy Carrington Frederica Dorothy Violet Carrington, Lady Rose, MBE (6 June 1910 – 26 January 2002) was an expatriate British writer domiciled for over half her life in Corsica. She was one of the twentieth century's leading scholars on the island's culture an ...

*1972 ''Mercian Hymns'' by Geoffrey Hill *1973 '' The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith'' by

Thomas Keneally Thomas Michael Keneally, AO (born 7 October 1935) is an Australian novelist, playwright, essayist, and actor. He is best known for his non-fiction novel '' Schindler's Ark'', the story of Oskar Schindler's rescue of Jews during the Holocaust, ...

*1974 ''Mooncranker's Gift'' by

Barry Unsworth Barry Unsworth FRSL (10 August 19304 June 2012) was an English writer known for his historical fiction. He published 17 novels, and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize three times, winning once for the 1992 novel '' Sacred Hunger''. Biograph ...

*1974 ''Eclipse'' by Nicholas Wollaston *1975 ''William Wilberforce'' by Robin Furneaux *1976 ''Angels at the Ritz'' by

William Trevor William Trevor Cox (24 May 1928 – 20 November 2016), known by his pen name William Trevor, was an Irish novelist, playwright, and short story writer. One of the elder statesmen of the Irish literary world, he is widely regarded as one of th ...

*1978 ''The First Fabians'' by

Norman Ian MacKenzie Norman Ian MacKenzie (18 August 1921 – 18 June 2013) was a British journalist, academic and historian who helped in the founding of the Open University (OU) in the late 1960s. Early years MacKenzie was born in New Cross, south-east London in ...

and Jeanne MacKenzie *1979 ''Live Bait and Other Stories'' by

Frank Tuohy John Francis ("Frank") Tuohy, (2 May 1925 – 11 April 1999) was an English writer and academic. Born in Uckfield, Sussex, he attended Stowe School and went on to read Moral Sciences and English at King's College, Cambridge. On completion of h ...

*1979 ''Beckford of Fonthill'' by Brian Fothergill *1980 '' Moortown'' by

Ted Hughes Edward James "Ted" Hughes (17 August 1930 – 28 October 1998) was an English poet, translator, and children's writer. Critics frequently rank him as one of the best poets of his generation and one of the twentieth century's greatest wri ...

*1981 '' Old Glory: An American Voyage'' by Jonathan Raban *1983 ''Fortunate Traveller'' by

Derek Walcott Sir Derek Alton Walcott (23 January 1930 – 17 March 2017) was a Saint Lucian poet and playwright. He received the 1992 Nobel Prize in Literature. His works include the Homeric epic poem '' Omeros'' (1990), which many critics view "as Walcot ...

*1984 ''T.S. Eliot: A Life'' by

Peter Ackroyd Peter Ackroyd (born 5 October 1949) is an English biographer, novelist and critic with a specialist interest in the history and culture of London. For his novels about English history and culture and his biographies of, among others, William ...

(joint winner) *1984 ''Eleni'' by

Nicholas Gage Nicholas Gage (born Nikolaos Gatzoyiannis; el, Νικόλαος Γκατζογιάννης; July 23, 1939) is a Greek-born American author and investigative journalist. Early life Nicholas Gage (original name, Nikos Gatzoyiannis) was born in ...

(joint winner) *1985 ''Secrets of a Woman's Heart: Later Life of Ivy Compton-Burnett, 1920–69'' by Hilary Spurling *1986 '' The Blind Watchmaker'' by

Richard Dawkins Richard Dawkins (born 26 March 1941) is a British evolutionary biologist and author. He is an emeritus fellow of New College, Oxford and was Professor for Public Understanding of Science in the University of Oxford from 1995 to 2008. An ...

*1988 ''The Russian Album'' by

Michael Ignatieff Michael Grant Ignatieff (; born May 12, 1947) is a Canadian author, academic and former politician who served as the leader of the Liberal Party of Canada and Leader of the Official Opposition from 2008 until 2011. Known for his work as a histo ...

*1989 ''Elizabeth Barrett Browning: A Biography'' by Margaret Forster *1990 ''Short Afternoons'' by

Kit Wright Kit Wright (born 17 June 1944 in Crockham Hill, Kent) is the author of more than twenty-five books, for both adults and children, and the winner of awards including an Arts Council Writers' Award, the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize, the Hawthornd ...

*1991 ''Ford Maddox Ford'' by Alan Judd *1994 ''The Handless Maiden'' by Vicki Feaver *1995 ''Younghusband: The Last Great Imperial Adventurer'' by

Patrick French Patrick French (born 1966) is a British writer, historian and academician. He was educated at the University of Edinburgh where he studied English and American literature, and received a PhD in South Asian Studies. He was appointed as the inau ...

(joint winner) *1995 Paul Durcan (joint winner) *1996 ''The Shadow of Hiroshima and Other Film/Poems'' by

Tony Harrison Tony Harrison (born 30 April 1937) is an English poet, translator and playwright. He was born in Beeston, Leeds and he received his education in Classics from Leeds Grammar School and Leeds University. He is one of Britain's foremost verse w ...

*1997 ''Victor Hugo'' by Graham Robb *1998 ''Coleridge: Darker Reflections, 1804–1834'' by Richard Holmes *2001 ''Night of Stone: Death and Memory in Twentieth-Century Russia'' by Catherine Merridale *2002 ''Charles Darwin: The Power of Place'' by Janet Browne *2003 ''Primo Levi'' by Ian Thomson *2004 ''Power and Glory'' by Adam Nicolson

References

English literary awards Awards established in 1945 1945 establishments in England 2003 disestablishments in England British fiction awards British non-fiction literary awards {{lit-award-stub