The Pulitzer Prize for Biography is one of the seven American

Pulitzer Prizes The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made ...

that are annually awarded for Letters, Drama, and Music. It has been presented since 1917 for a distinguished biography, autobiography or memoir by an American author or co-authors, published during the preceding calendar year. Thus it is one of the original Pulitzers, for the program was inaugurated in 1917 with seven prizes, four of which were awarded that year.

Winners

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

1910s

1917 Events Below, the events of World War I have the "WWI" prefix. January * January 9 – WWI – Battle of Rafa: The last substantial Ottoman Army garrison on the Sinai Peninsula is captured by the Egyptian Expeditionary Fo ...

: ''

Julia Ward Howe Julia Ward Howe (; May 27, 1819 – October 17, 1910) was an American author and poet, known for writing the " Battle Hymn of the Republic" and the original 1870 pacifist Mother's Day Proclamation. She was also an advocate for abolitionism ...

'' by

Laura E. Richards Laura Elizabeth Howe Richards (February 27, 1850 – January 14, 1943) was an American writer. She wrote more than 90 books including biographies, poetry, and several for children. One well-known children's poem is her literary nonsense verse " ...

and

Maud Howe Elliott Maud Howe Elliott (November 9, 1854 – March 19, 1948) was an American novelist, most notable for her Pulitzer prize-winning collaboration with her sisters, Laura E. Richards and Florence Hall, on their mother's biography ''The Life of Julia Wa ...

, assisted by

Florence Howe Hall Florence Marion Howe Hall (August 25, 1845 – April 10, 1922) was an American writer, critic, and lecturer about women's suffrage in the United States. Along with her two sisters, Laura Elizabeth Richards and Maude Howe Elliott, Hall received t ...

* 1918: '' Benjamin Franklin, Self-Revealed'' by

William Cabell Bruce William Cabell Bruce (March 12, 1860May 9, 1946) was an American politician and Pulitzer Prize-winning writer who represented the State of Maryland in the United States Senate from 1923 to 1929. Background Bruce was born in Charlotte County, ...

1919 Events January * January 1 ** The Czechoslovak Legions occupy much of the self-proclaimed "free city" of Pressburg (now Bratislava), enforcing its incorporation into the new republic of Czechoslovakia. ** HMY ''Iolaire'' sinks off the ...

: ''

The Education of Henry Adams ''The Education of Henry Adams'' is an autobiography that records the struggle of Bostonian Henry Adams (1838–1918), in his later years, to come to terms with the dawning 20th century, so different from the world of his youth. It is also a sh ...

'' by

Henry Adams Henry Brooks Adams (February 16, 1838 – March 27, 1918) was an American historian and a member of the Adams political family, descended from two U.S. Presidents. As a young Harvard graduate, he served as secretary to his father, Charles Fr ...

1920s

* 1920: ''The Life of John Marshall'', 4 vols. by

Albert J. Beveridge Albert Jeremiah Beveridge (October 6, 1862 – April 27, 1927) was an American historian and US senator from Indiana. He was an intellectual leader of the Progressive Era and a biographer of Chief Justice John Marshall and President Abraham Linco ...

* 1921: ''The Americanization of Edward Bok: The Autobiography of a Dutch Boy Fifty Years After'' by

Edward Bok Edward William Bok (born Eduard Willem Gerard Cesar Hidde Bok) (October 9, 1863 – January 9, 1930) was a Dutch-born American editor and Pulitzer Prize-winning author. He was editor of the ''Ladies' Home Journal'' for 30 years (1889–1919). He ...

1922 Events January * January 7 – Dáil Éireann, the parliament of the Irish Republic, ratifies the Anglo-Irish Treaty by 64–57 votes. * January 10 – Arthur Griffith is elected President of Dáil Éireann, the day after Éamon de Valera ...

: ''A Daughter of the Middle Border'' by

Hamlin Garland Hannibal Hamlin Garland (September 14, 1860 – March 4, 1940) was an American novelist, poet, essayist, short story writer, Georgist, and psychical researcher. He is best known for his fiction involving hard-working Midwestern farmers. Biogra ...

1923 Events January–February * January 9 – Lithuania begins the Klaipėda Revolt to annex the Klaipėda Region (Memel Territory). * January 11 – Despite strong British protests, troops from France and Belgium occupy the Ruhr area, t ...

: ''The Life and Letters of Walter H. Page'' by Burton J. Hendrick *

1924 Events January * January 12 – Gopinath Saha shoots Ernest Day, whom he has mistaken for Sir Charles Tegart, the police commissioner of Calcutta, and is arrested soon after. * January 20– 30 – Kuomintang in China holds ...

: ''From Immigrant to Inventor'' by Michael I. Pupin *

1925 Events January * January 1 ** The Syrian Federation is officially dissolved, the State of Aleppo and the State of Damascus having been replaced by the State of Syria. * January 3 – Benito Mussolini makes a pivotal speech in the Itali ...

: ''Barrett Wendell and His Letters'' by M. A. Dewolfe Howe *

1926 Events January * January 3 – Theodoros Pangalos declares himself dictator in Greece. * January 8 **Abdul-Aziz ibn Saud is crowned King of Hejaz. ** Crown Prince Nguyễn Phúc Vĩnh Thuy ascends the throne, the last monarch of Viet ...

: ''The Life of Sir

William Osler Sir William Osler, 1st Baronet, (; July 12, 1849 – December 29, 1919) was a Canadian physician and one of the "Big Four" founding professors of Johns Hopkins Hospital. Osler created the first residency program for specialty training of phys ...

'', 2 vols. by

Harvey Cushing Harvey Williams Cushing (April 8, 1869 – October 7, 1939) was an American neurosurgeon, pathologist, writer, and draftsman. A pioneer of brain surgery, he was the first exclusive neurosurgeon and the first person to describe Cushing's disease. ...

1927 Events January * January 1 – The British Broadcasting ''Company'' becomes the British Broadcasting ''Corporation'', when its Royal Charter of incorporation takes effect. John Reith becomes the first Director-General. * January 7 ...

: ''Whitman'' by Emory Holloway *

1928 Events January * January – British bacteriologist Frederick Griffith reports the results of Griffith's experiment, indirectly proving the existence of DNA. * January 1 – Eastern Bloc emigration and defection: Boris Bazhan ...

: ''The American Orchestra and Theodore Thomas'' by

Charles Edward Russell Charles Edward Russell (September 25, 1860 in Davenport, Iowa – April 23, 1941 in Washington, D.C.) was an American journalist, opinion columnist, newspaper editor, and political activist. The author of a number of books of biography and soci ...

1929 This year marked the end of a period known in American history as the Roaring Twenties after the Wall Street Crash of 1929 ushered in a worldwide Great Depression. In the Americas, an agreement was brokered to end the Cristero War, a Catholic ...

: ''The Training of an American: The Earlier Life and Letters of Walter H. Page'' by Burton J. Hendrick

1930s

1930 Events January * January 15 – The Moon moves into its nearest point to Earth, called perigee, at the same time as its fullest phase of the Lunar Cycle. This is the closest moon distance at in recent history, and the next one will b ...

: ''The Raven: A Biography of Sam Houston'' by

Marquis James Marquis James (August 29, 1891, Springfield, Missouri – November 19, 1955) was an American journalist and author, twice awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his works ''The Raven: A Biography of Sam Houston'' and ''The Life of Andrew Jackson''. Early ...

1931 Events January * January 2 – South Dakota native Ernest Lawrence invents the cyclotron, used to accelerate particles to study nuclear physics. * January 4 – German pilot Elly Beinhorn begins her flight to Africa. * January 22 – Sir I ...

: ''Charles W. Eliot, President of Harvard University, 1869–1901'' by

Henry James Henry James ( – ) was an American-British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the ...

1932 Events January * January 4 – The British authorities in India arrest and intern Mahatma Gandhi and Vallabhbhai Patel. * January 9 – Sakuradamon Incident: Korean nationalist Lee Bong-chang fails in his effort to assassinate Emperor Hiro ...

: ''Theodore Roosevelt: A Biography'' by

Henry F. Pringle Henry Fowles Pringle (1897–1958) was an American historian and writer most famous for his witty but scholarly biography of Theodore Roosevelt which won the Pulitzer prize in 1932, as well as a scholarly biography of William Howard Taft. His w ...

* 1933: ''Grover Cleveland: A Study in Courage'' by

Allan Nevins Joseph Allan Nevins (May 20, 1890 – March 5, 1971) was an American historian and journalist, known for his extensive work on the history of the Civil War and his biographies of such figures as Grover Cleveland, Hamilton Fish, Henry Ford, and J ...

1934 Events January–February * January 1 – The International Telecommunication Union, a specialist agency of the League of Nations, is established. * January 15 – The 8.0 Nepal–Bihar earthquake strikes Nepal and Bihar with a maxi ...

: ''John Hay'' by

Tyler Dennett Tyler Dennett (June 13, 1883 Spencer, Wisconsin – December 29, 1949 in Geneva, New York) was an American historian and educator, best known for his book ''John Hay: From Poetry to Politics'' (1933), which won the 1934 Pulitzer Prize for Biograp ...

* 1935: ''R. E. Lee'' by Douglas S. Freeman *

1936 Events January–February * January 20 – George V of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India, dies at his Sandringham Estate. The Prince of Wales succeeds to the throne of the United Kingdom as King E ...

: ''The Thought and Character of William James'' by

Ralph Barton Perry Ralph Barton Perry (July 3, 1876 in Poultney, Vermont – January 22, 1957 in Boston, Massachusetts) was an American philosopher. He was a strident moral idealist who stated in 1909 that, to him, idealism meant "to interpret life consistently ...

* 1937: ''Hamilton Fish'' by

* 1938: ''Pedlar's Progress: The Life of Bronson Alcott'' by Odell Shepard * 1938: ''Andrew Jackson'', 2 vols. by

* 1939: ''

Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin ( April 17, 1790) was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the leading inte ...

'' by

Carl Van Doren Carl Clinton Van Doren (September 10, 1885 – July 18, 1950) was an American critic and biographer. He was the brother of critic and teacher Mark Van Doren and the uncle of Charles Van Doren. He won the 1939 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autob ...

1940s

1940 A calendar from 1940 according to the Gregorian calendar, factoring in the dates of Easter and related holidays, cannot be used again until the year 5280. Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January * Januar ...

: ''Woodrow Wilson, Life and Letters. Vols. VII and VIII'' by

Ray Stannard Baker Ray Stannard Baker (April 17, 1870 – July 12, 1946) (also known by his pen name David Grayson) was an American journalist, historian, biographer, and author. Biography Baker was born in Lansing, Michigan. After graduating from the Michigan ...

* 1941: ''Jonathan Edwards, 1703–1758: a biography'' by Ola Elizabeth Winslow *

1942 Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January * January 1 – WWII: The Declaration by United Nations is signed by China, the United Kingdom, the United States, the Soviet Union, and 22 other nations, in w ...

: ''Crusader in Crinoline: The Life of Harriet Beecher Stowe'' by Forrest Wilson *

1943 Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January * January 1 – WWII: The Soviet Union announces that 22 German divisions have been encircled at Stalingrad, with 175,000 killed and 137,650 captured. * January 4 ...

: ''Admiral of the Ocean Sea'' by

Samuel Eliot Morison Samuel Eliot Morison (July 9, 1887 – May 15, 1976) was an American historian noted for his works of maritime history and American history that were both authoritative and popular. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1912, and tau ...

1944 Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January * January 2 – WWII: ** Free French General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny is appointed to command French Army B, part of the Sixth United States Army Group in Nor ...

: ''The American Leonardo: The Life of

Samuel F. B. Morse Samuel Finley Breese Morse (April 27, 1791 – April 2, 1872) was an American inventor and painter. After having established his reputation as a portrait painter, in his middle age Morse contributed to the invention of a single-wire telegraph ...

'' by Carleton Mabee *

1945 1945 marked the end of World War II and the fall of Nazi Germany and the Empire of Japan. It is also the only year in which Nuclear weapon, nuclear weapons Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, have been used in combat. Events Below, ...

: ''George Bancroft: Brahmin Rebel'' by Russel Blaine Nye * 1946: ''Son of the Wilderness: The Life of

John Muir John Muir ( ; April 21, 1838December 24, 1914), also known as "John of the Mountains" and "Father of the National Parks", was an influential Scottish-American naturalist, author, environmental philosopher, botanist, zoologist, glaciologist ...

'' by Linnie Marsh Wolfe * 1947: ''The Autobiography of

William Allen White William Allen White (February 10, 1868 – January 29, 1944) was an American newspaper editor, politician, author, and leader of the Progressive movement. Between 1896 and his death, White became a spokesman for middle America. At a 193 ...

'' by

* 1948: ''Forgotten First Citizen:

John Bigelow John Bigelow Sr. (November 25, 1817 – December 19, 1911) was an American lawyer, statesman, and historian who edited the complete works of Benjamin Franklin and the first autobiography of Franklin taken from Franklin's previously lost origina ...

'' by

Margaret Clapp Margaret Antoinette Clapp (April 10, 1910 – May 3, 1974) was an American scholar, educator and Pulitzer Prize winner. She was the president of Wellesley College from 1949-1966. During her presidency, she was able to make many improvements to the ...

* 1949: ''Roosevelt and Hopkins'' by

Robert E. Sherwood Robert Emmet Sherwood (April 4, 1896 – November 14, 1955) was an American playwright and screenwriter. He is the author of '' Waterloo Bridge, Idiot's Delight, Abe Lincoln in Illinois, Rebecca, There Shall Be No Night, The Best Years of Our ...

1950s

1950 Events January * January 1 – The International Police Association (IPA) – the largest police organization in the world – is formed. * January 5 – Sverdlovsk plane crash: ''Aeroflot'' Lisunov Li-2 crashes in a snowstorm. All 19 ...

: ''John Quincy Adams and the Foundations of American Foreign Policy'' by

Samuel Flagg Bemis Samuel Flagg Bemis (October 20, 1891 – September 26, 1973) was an American historian and biographer. For many years he taught at Yale University. He was also president of the American Historical Association and a specialist in American dip ...

1951 Events January * January 4 – Korean War: Third Battle of Seoul – Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul for the second time (having lost the Second Battle of Seoul in September 1950). * January 9 – The Government of the United ...

: ''John C. Calhoun: American Portrait'' by Margaret Louise Coit *

1952 Events January–February * January 26 – Black Saturday in Egypt: Rioters burn Cairo's central business district, targeting British and upper-class Egyptian businesses. * February 6 ** Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh, becomes m ...

: ''Charles Evans Hughes'' by Merlo J. Pusey *

1953 Events January * January 6 – The Asian Socialist Conference opens in Rangoon, Burma. * January 12 – Estonian émigrés found a government-in-exile in Oslo. * January 14 ** Marshal Josip Broz Tito is chosen President of Yug ...

: ''Edmund Pendleton 1721–1803'' by David J. Mays * 1954: ''

The Spirit of St. Louis The ''Spirit of St. Louis'' (formally the Ryan NYP, registration: N-X-211) is the custom-built, single-engine, single-seat, high-wing monoplane that was flown by Charles Lindbergh on May 20–21, 1927, on the first solo nonstop transatlanti ...

'' by

Charles A. Lindbergh Charles Augustus Lindbergh (February 4, 1902 – August 26, 1974) was an American aviator, military officer, author, inventor, and activist. On May 20–21, 1927, Lindbergh made the first nonstop flight from New York City to Paris, a distance o ...

* 1955: ''The Taft Story'' by William S. White *

1956 Events January * January 1 – The Anglo-Egyptian Condominium ends in Sudan. * January 8 – Operation Auca: Five U.S. evangelical Christian missionaries, Nate Saint, Roger Youderian, Ed McCully, Jim Elliot and Pete Fleming, ar ...

: ''Benjamin Henry Latrobe'' by Talbot Faulkner Hamlin *

1957 1957 ( MCMLVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1957th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 957th year of the 2nd millennium, the 57th year of the 20th century, and the 8th year ...

: ''

Profiles in Courage ''Profiles in Courage'' is a 1956 volume of short biographies describing acts of bravery and integrity by eight United States Senators. The book profiles senators who defied the opinions of their party and constituents to do what they felt was ...

'' by

John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination ...

1958 Events January * January 1 – The European Economic Community (EEC) comes into being. * January 3 – The West Indies Federation is formed. * January 4 ** Edmund Hillary's Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition completes the third ...

: ''George Washington, Volumes I-VII'' by

Douglas Southall Freeman Douglas Southall Freeman (May 16, 1886 – June 13, 1953) was an American historian, biographer, newspaper editor, radio commentator, and author. He is best known for his multi-volume biographies of Robert E. Lee and George Washington, for both ...

with

John Alexander Carroll John Alexander Carroll (died 17 December 2000) was an American history professor who primarily taught at the University of Arizona from 1958 to 1967, and Troy University from 1974 to 1989. While at Arizona, Carroll founded ''Arizona and the West'' i ...

and

Mary Wells Ashworth Mary Wells Knight Ashworth (May 28, 1903 — September 12, 1992) was an American historian who wrote for Douglas Southall Freeman between 1945 to 1953. With Freeman, Ashworth worked on his seven volume biography on George Washington. After Freeman ...

1959 Events January * January 1 - Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when the forces of Fidel Castro advance. * January 2 - Lunar probe Luna 1 was the first man-made object to attain escape velocity from Earth. It reached the vicinity of E ...

: ''Woodrow Wilson, American Prophet'' by Arthur Walworth

1960s

1960 It is also known as the "Year of Africa" because of major events—particularly the independence of seventeen African nations—that focused global attention on the continent and intensified feelings of Pan-Africanism. Events January * Jan ...

: ''John Paul Jones'' by

1961 Events January * January 3 ** United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces that the United States has severed diplomatic and consular relations with Cuba (Cuba–United States relations are restored in 2015). ** Aero Flight 311 (K ...

: ''Charles Sumner and the Coming of the Civil War'' by David Donald *

1962 Events January * January 1 – Western Samoa becomes independent from New Zealand. * January 3 – Pope John XXIII excommunicates Fidel Castro for preaching communism. * January 8 – Harmelen train disaster: 93 die in the wor ...

: no award given In 1962 the Pulitzer board awarded the prize to W.A. Swanberg for ''Citizen Hearst''. The trustees of

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

, who administer the prize, overturned the award, refusing to honor a book that took a critical look at

William Randolph Hearst William Randolph Hearst Sr. (; April 29, 1863 – August 14, 1951) was an American businessman, newspaper publisher, and politician known for developing the nation's largest newspaper chain and media company, Hearst Communications. His flamboya ...

. *

1963 Events January * January 1 – Bogle–Chandler case: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation scientist Dr. Gilbert Bogle and Mrs. Margaret Chandler are found dead (presumed poisoned), in bushland near the Lane Co ...

: ''Henry James'' by

Leon Edel Joseph Leon Edel (9 September 1907 – 5 September 1997) was an American/Canadian literary critic and biographer. He was the elder brother of North American philosopher Abraham Edel. The ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' calls Edel "the foremos ...

1964 Events January * January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved. * January 5 - In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patriarc ...

: ''John Keats'' by Walter Jackson Bate * 1965: ''Henry Adams'', 3 vols., by

Ernest Samuels Ernest Samuels (May 19, 1903 in Chicago, Illinois – February 12, 1996 in Evanston, Illinois) was an American biographer and lawyer. Life Born in Chicago, he received his Ph.B. in 1923 and J.D. in 1926 from the University of Chicago. He move ...

* 1966: '' A Thousand Days: John F. Kennedy in the White House'' by

Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. Arthur Meier Schlesinger Jr. (; born Arthur Bancroft Schlesinger; October 15, 1917 – February 28, 2007) was an American historian, social critic, and public intellectual. The son of the influential historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Sr. and a s ...

1967 Events January * January 1 – Canada begins a year-long celebration of the 100th anniversary of Confederation, featuring the Expo 67 World's Fair. * January 5 ** Spain and Romania sign an agreement in Paris, establishing full consular and ...

: ''Mr. Clemens and Mark Twain'' by

Justin Kaplan Justin Daniel Kaplan (September 5, 1925 in Manhattan, New York City – March 2, 2014 in Cambridge, Massachusetts) was an American writer and editor. The general editor of ''Bartlett's Familiar Quotations'' (16th and 17th eds.), he was best kn ...

1968 The year was highlighted by protests and other unrests that occurred worldwide. Events January–February * January 5 – " Prague Spring": Alexander Dubček is chosen as leader of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. * Janu ...

: '' Memoirs'' by

George F. Kennan George Frost Kennan (February 16, 1904 – March 17, 2005) was an American diplomat and historian. He was best known as an advocate of a policy of containment of Soviet expansion during the Cold War. He lectured widely and wrote scholarly hist ...

1969 This year is notable for Apollo 11's first landing on the moon. Events January * January 4 – The Government of Spain hands over Ifni to Morocco. * January 5 **Ariana Afghan Airlines Flight 701 crashes into a house on its approach to ...

: ''The Man from New York: John Quinn and His Friends'' by Benjamin Lawrence Reid

1970s

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (''Extreme''). Between 10,000 and ...

: ''

Huey Long Huey Pierce Long Jr. (August 30, 1893September 10, 1935), nicknamed "the Kingfish", was an American politician who served as the 40th governor of Louisiana from 1928 to 1932 and as a United States senator from 1932 until his assassination ...

'' by Thomas Harry Williams * 1971: ''Robert Frost : The Years of Triumph, 1915–1938'', by

Lawrance Thompson Lawrance Roger Thompson 3 April 1906 — 15 April 1973) was an American academic at Princeton University from the 1930s to 1970s. Apart from World War II, Thompson primarily taught English from 1939 to 1968 before teaching Belles-lettres from 1968 ...

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using mean solar tim ...

: '' Eleanor and Franklin'' by

Joseph P. Lash Joseph Paul Lash (December 2, 1909 – August 22, 1987) was an American radical political activist, journalist, and writer. A close friend of Eleanor Roosevelt, Lash won both the Pulitzer Prize for Biography 1973 Events January * January 1 - The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark 1973 enlargement of the European Communities, enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union. * January 15 – Vietnam War: ...

: ''Luce and His Empire'' by W. A. Swanberg * 1974: ''O'Neill, Son and Artist'' by Louis Sheaffer * 1975 in literature, 1975: ''The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York'' by Robert Caro * 1976 in literature, 1976: ''Edith Wharton: A Biography'' by R. W. B. Lewis * 1977 in literature, 1977: ''A Prince of Our Disorder: The Life of T. E. Lawrence'' by John E. Mack * 1978 in literature, 1978: ''Samuel Johnson'' by Walter Jackson Bate * 1979 in literature, 1979: ''Days of Sorrow and Pain: Leo Baeck and the Berlin Jews'' by Leonard Baker

1980s

Entries from this point on include the finalists listed after the winner for each year. * 1980 in literature, 1980: ''The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt'' by Edmund Morris (writer), Edmund Morris ** ''Being Bernard Berenson'' by Meryle Secrest ** ''Bernard Berenson, The Making of a Connoisseur'' by

** ''The Duke of Deception'' by Geoffrey Wolff * 1981 in literature, 1981: ''Peter the Great: His Life and World'' by Robert K. Massie ** ''Walt Whitman: A Life'' by

** ''Walter Lippmann and the American Century'' by Ronald Steel * 1982 in literature, 1982: ''Grant: A Biography'' by William S. McFeely ** ''Mornings on Horseback'' by David McCullough ** ''Waldo Emerson'' by Gay Wilson Allen * 1983 in literature, 1983: ''Growing Up (memoir), Growing Up'' by Russell Baker ** ''Churchill: Young Man in a Hurry, 1874–1915'' by Ted Morgan (writer), Ted Morgan ** ''Thomas E. Dewey and His Times'' by Richard Norton Smith * 1984 in literature, 1984: ''Booker T. Washington: The Wizard of Tuskegee, 1901–1915'' by Louis R. Harlan ** ''Black Apollo of Science, Black Apollo of Science: The Life of Ernest Everett Just'' by Kenneth Manning ** ''Thomas Carlyle: A Biography'' by Fred Kaplan (biographer), Fred Kaplan * 1985 in literature, 1985: ''The Life and Times of Cotton Mather'' by Kenneth Silverman ** ''Becoming William James'' by Howard M. Feinstein ** ''The Seven Mountains of Thomas Merton'' by Michael Mott * 1986 in literature, 1986: ''Louise Bogan: A Portrait'' by Elizabeth Frank ** ''A Hidden Childhood: A Jewish Girl's Sanctuary in a French Convent, 1942–1945'' by Frida Scheps Weinstein ** ''George Washington Williams: A Biography'' by John Hope Franklin * 1987 in literature, 1987: ''Bearing the Cross, Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference'' by David Garrow, David J. Garrow ** ''Dostoevsky: The Stir of Liberation, 1860–1865'' by Joseph Frank (writer), Joseph Frank ** ''Murrow: His Life and Times'' by Ann M. Sperber, A.M. Sperber ** ''The Life and Times of Congressman John Quincy Adams'' by Leonard L. Richards * 1988 in literature, 1988: ''Look Homeward: A Life of Thomas Wolfe'' by David Herbert Donald ** ''George Santayana: A Biography'' by John Owen McCormick ** ''Hemingway'' by Kenneth S. Lynn * 1989 in literature, 1989: ''Oscar Wilde'' by Richard Ellmann ** ''A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam'' by Neil Sheehan ** ''Freud: A Life for Our Time'' by Peter Gay ** ''The Life of Langston Hughes: Volume II, 1941–1967: I Dream a World'' by Arnold Rampersad

1990s

* 1990 in literature, 1990: ''Machiavelli in Hell'' by Sebastian de Grazia ** ''A First-Class Temperament: The Emergence of Franklin Roosevelt'' by Geoffrey C. Ward ** ''Clear Pictures: First Loves, First Guides'' by Reynolds Price ** ''The Road from Coorain (book), The Road from Coorain'' by Jill Ker Conway * 1991 in literature, 1991: ''Jackson Pollock: An American Saga'' by Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith ** ''Alfred I. Du Pont: The Man and His Family'' by Joseph Frazier Wall ** ''The Five of Hearts: An Intimate Portrait of Henry Adams and His Friends 1880–1918'' by Patricia O'Toole * 1992 in literature, 1992: ''Fortunate Son: The Autobiography of Lewis B. Puller Jr.'' by Lewis Burwell Puller, Jr., Lewis B. Puller ** ''Frederick Douglass'' by William S. McFeely ** ''Orwell: The Authorized Biography'' by Michael Shelden * 1993 in literature, 1993: ''Truman (book), Truman'' by David McCullough ** ''Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman'' by James Gleick ** ''Kissinger: A Biography'' by Walter Isaacson * 1994 in literature, 1994: ''W. E. B. Du Bois: Biography of a Race, 1868–1919'' by David Levering Lewis ** ''Genet: A Biography'' by Edmund White ** ''In Extremis: The Life of Laura Riding'' by Deborah Baker * 1995 in literature, 1995: ''Harriet Beecher Stowe: A Life'' by Joan D. Hedrick ** ''Hugo Black: A Biography'' by Roger K. Newman ** ''Saint-Exupery: A Biography'' by Stacy Schiff * 1996 in literature, 1996: ''God: A Biography'' by Jack Miles ** ''John Sloan: Painter and Rebel'' by John Loughery ** ''Mozart: A Life'' by Maynard Solomon * 1997 in literature, 1997: ''Angela's Ashes: A Memoir'' by Frank McCourt (author), Frank McCourt ** ''Herman Melville: A Biography, Volume 1, 1819–1851'' by Hershel Parker ** ''In the Wilderness: Coming of Age in Unknown Country'' by Kim Barnes * 1998 in literature, 1998: ''Personal History'' by Katharine Graham ** ''Alfred C. Kinsey: A Public-Private Life'' by James H. Jones ** ''Whittaker Chambers: A Biography'' by Sam Tanenhaus * 1999 in literature, 1999: ''Lindbergh (book), Lindbergh'' by A. Scott Berg ** ''A Beautiful Mind (book), A Beautiful Mind'' by Sylvia Nasar ** ''At Home with the Marquis de Sade: A Life'' by Francine du Plessix Gray

2000s

* 2000 in literature, 2000: ''Vera, Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov'' by Stacy Schiff ** ''Clear Springs: A Memoir'' by Bobbie Ann Mason ** ''Galileo's Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith, and Love'' by Dava Sobel * 2001 in literature, 2001: ''W. E. B. Du Bois: The Fight for Equality and the American Century 1919-1963'' by David Levering Lewis ** ''Johann Sebastian Bach: The Learned Musician'' by Christoph Wolff ** ''The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin'' by H.W. Brands * 2002 in literature, 2002: ''John Adams (book), John Adams.'' by David McCullough ** ''An Hour Before Daylight: Memories of a Rural Boyhood'' by Jimmy Carter ** ''Grant'' by Jean Edward Smith * 2003 in literature, 2003: ''Master of the Senate: The Years of Lyndon Johnson'' by Robert Caro ** ''Beethoven: The Music and the Life'' by Lewis Lockwood ** ''The Fly Swatter'' by Nicholas Dawidoff * 2004 in literature, 2004: ''Khrushchev: The Man and His Era'' by William Taubman ** ''Arshile Gorky: His Life and Work'' by Hayden Herrera ** ''Isaac Newton'' by James Gleick * 2005 in literature, 2005: ''de Kooning: An American Master'' by Mark Stevens (art critic), Mark Stevens and Annalyn Swan ** ''Under a Wild Sky: John James Audubon and the Making of The Birds of America'' by William Souder ** ''Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare'' by Stephen Greenblatt * 2006 in literature, 2006: ''American Prometheus, American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer'' by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin ** ''The Peabody Sisters: Three Women Who Ignited American Romanticism'' by Megan Marshall ** ''The Year of Magical Thinking'' by Joan Didion * 2007 in literature, 2007: ''The Most Famous Man in America, The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher'' by Debby Applegate ** ''Andrew Carnegie'' by David Nasaw ** ''John Wilkes: The Scandalous Father of Civil Liberty'' by Arthur H. Cash * 2008 in literature, 2008: ''Eden's Outcasts, Eden's Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father'' by John Matteson ** ''The Life of Kingsley Amis'' by Zachary Leader ** ''The Worlds of Lincoln Kirstein'' by Martin Duberman * 2009 in literature, 2009: ''American Lion (book), American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House'' by Jon Meacham ** ''The Bin Ladens: An Arabian Family in the American Century'' by Steve Coll ** ''Traitor to His Class: The Privileged Life and Radical Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt'' by H.W. Brands

2010s

* 2010 in literature, 2010: ''The First Tycoon, The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt'' by T.J. Stiles ** ''Cheever: A Life'' by Blake Bailey ** ''Woodrow Wilson: A Biography'' by John Milton Cooper, Jr. * 2011 in literature, 2011: ''Washington: A Life'' by Ron Chernow ** ''Mrs. Adams in Winter: A Journey in the Last Days of Napoleon'' by Michael O'Brien (historian), Michael O'Brien ** ''The Publisher: Henry Luce and His American Century'' by Alan Brinkley * 2012 in literature, 2012: ''George F. Kennan: An American Life'' by John Lewis Gaddis ** ''Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention'' by Manning Marable ** ''Love and Capital: Karl and Jenny Marx and the Birth of a Revolution'' by Mary Gabriel (author), Mary Gabriel * 2013 in literature, 2013: ''The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo'' by Tom Reiss ** ''Portrait of a Novel: Henry James and the Making of an American Masterpiece'' by Michael Gorra ** ''The Patriarch: The Remarkable Life and Turbulent Times of Joseph P. Kennedy'' by David Nasaw * 2014 in literature, 2014: ''Margaret Fuller: A New American Life'' by Megan Marshall ** ''Jonathan Swift: His Life and His World'' by Leo Damrosch ** ''Karl Marx: A Nineteenth-Century Life'' by Jonathan Sperber * 2015 in literature, 2015: ''The Pope and Mussolini: The Secret History of Pius XI and the Rise of Fascism in Europe'' by David I. Kertzer ** ''Louis Armstrong: Master of Modernism'' by Thomas Brothers ** ''Stalin: Paradoxes of Power, 1878-1928, Stalin: Volume I: Paradoxes of Power, 1878–1928'' by Stephen Kotkin * 2016 in literature, 2016: ''Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life'' by William Finnegan ** ''Custer's Trials: A Life on the Frontier of a New America'' by T. J. Stiles, T.J. Stiles ** ''The Light of the World: A Memoir'' by Elizabeth Alexander (poet), Elizabeth Alexander * 2017 in literature, 2017: ''The Return: Fathers, Sons and the Land in Between'' by Hisham Matar ** ''In the Darkroom'' by Susan Faludi ** ''When Breath Becomes Air'' by Paul Kalanithi * 2018 in literature, 2018: ''Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder'' by Caroline Fraser ** ''Richard Nixon: The Life'' by John A. Farrell ** ''Robert Lowell, Setting the River on Fire: A Study of Genius, Mania, and Character'' by Kay Redfield Jamison * 2019 in literature, 2019: ''The New Negro: The Life of Alain Locke'' by Jeffrey C. Stewart ** ''Proust's Duchess: How Three Celebrated Women Captured the Imagination of Fin-de-Siècle Paris'' by Caroline Weber (author), Caroline Weber ** ''The Road Not Taken: Edward Lansdale and the American Tragedy in Vietnam'' by Max Boot

2020s

* 2020 in literature, 2020: ''Sontag: Her Life and Work'' by Benjamin Moser ** ''Our Man: Richard Holbrooke and the End of the American Century'', by George Packer ** ''Parisian Lives: Samuel Beckett, Simone de Beauvoir, and Me'' by Deirdre Bair * 2021 in literature, 2021: ''The Dead Are Arising, The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X'' by Les Payne and Tamara Payne ** ''Red Comet, Red Comet: The Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath'', by Heather Clark ** ''Stranger in the Shogun's City: A Japanese Woman and Her World'' by Amy Stanley * 2022 in literature, 2022: ''Chasing Me to My Grave: An Artist's Memoir of the Jim Crow South'' by Winfred Rembert and Erin I. Kelly ** ''Pessoa: A Biography'', by Richard Zenith ** ''The Doctors Blackwell, The Doctors Blackwell: How Two Pioneering Sisters Brought Medicine to Women and Women to Medicine'' by Janice P. Nimura

Repeat winners

Ten people have won the Pulitzer for Biography or Autobiography twice: * Burton J. Hendrick, 1923, 1929 *

, 1933, 1937 *

, 1930, 1938 * Douglas S. Freeman, 1935, 1958 *

, 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''.

References

External links

* {{PulitzerPrize BiographyorAutobiographyAuthors Pulitzer Prizes by category, Biography Biography awards Awards established in 1917 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography winners, Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography-winning works,

Winners

1910s

1920s

1930s

1940s

1950s

1960s

1970s

1980s

1990s

2000s

2010s

2020s

Repeat winners

See also

References

External links