The National Book Awards

The National Book Awards were established in 1950 by a consortium of publishing groups that wanted to bring to the public's attention exceptional books written by Americans, as well as encourage reading in general.

Today, the awards are give in four genres: fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and young people's literature. The winners, chosen by five-member, independent judging panels for each genre, receive a $10,000 cash award and a bronze statue.

The Award is one the 'big three 'American book awards alongside the Pulitzer and the National Book Critics Choice. The Nationals Five Under 35 Award is also worth having a look at.

2009 | 2008 Winners | 2008 Five Under 35 | 2007 | 2006 | Winners 1950- 2005

2010 National Book Award Finalist

 There were 1,115 total submissions this year for arguably America's leading book awards, the National,  The winners are:

Fiction: Lord of Misrule, by Jaimy Gordon
Nonfiction: Just Kids, by Patti Smith
Poetry: Lighthead, by Terrance Hayes
Young people’s literature: Mockingbird, by Kathryn Erskine
Lifetime achievement award: Tom Wolfe

National Book Award 2009

Nov 19 - A novel about life in New York City in the 1970s and a biography of U.S. tycoon Cornelius Vanderbilt were among the winners at the United States 60th annualNational Book.

Colum McCann (left) won the fiction award with Let the Great World Spin published by Random House, while The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt, by T.J. Stiles and published by Alfred A. Knopf, won the nonfiction award.

"From 10 ordinary lives he crafts an indelibly hallucinatory portrait of a decaying New York City," the judges said of Irish-born McCann.

Stiles traced Vanderbilt's life from his birth in New York to the creation of his transport empire and family dynasty.

Phillip Hoose won the Young People's Literature award for Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice, published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

The book tells the true story of Colvin, who was a teenager in 1955 when she refused to give up her seat to white woman on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama -- nine months before Rosa Parks took the same stand. But instead of being celebrated as Parks was, Colvin was jailed.

"Because of this woman, our lives have changed," said Hoose, as he accepted his award with Colvin by his side

The National Book Award for Poetry was awarded to Keith Waldrop for Transcendental Studies: A Trilogy, published by University of California Press.

Past National Book Award winners include John Updike, Philip Roth and Ralph Ellison. In 2009, 193 publishers submitted 1,129 books for prizes.

2009 National Book Award Winners & Finalists

Fiction:

• Winner - Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann -
• American Salvage by Bonnie Jo Campbell
• In Other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyal Mueenuddin
• Lark and Termite by Jayne Anne Phillips
• Far North by Marcel Theroux

Nonfiction:

• Winner - The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt by T.J. Stiles
• Following the Water: A Hydromancer's Notebook by David M. Carroll
• Remarkable Creatures: Epic Adventures in the Search for the Origins of Species by Sean B. Carroll
• Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle City by Greg Grandin
• The Poison King: The Life and Legend of Mithradates, Rome's Deadliest Enemy by Adrienne Mayor

Poetry:

• Winner - Transcendental Studies: A Trilogy by Keith Waldrop

• Versed by Rae Armantrout

• Or to Begin Again by Ann Lauterbach

• Speak Low by Carl Phillips

• Open Interval by Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon

Young People's Literature:

• Winner - Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip Hoose
• Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith by Deborah Heiligman
• Stitches by David Small
• Lips Touch: Three Times by Laini Taylor
• Jumped by Rita Williams-Garcia

2008 National Book Award Winners- 19th November

Over 3 hours of Video footage from Shortlisted Authors for the 2008 National Book Awards on BookAwardtv. Go to On Demand Menu- National 2008 including Mark Doty Interview and The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family by Annette Gordon-Reed lecture series

2008 Winners Fiction | Non-fiction |Poetry | Young People's Literature | 2008 Finalists

2008 Winner Fiction Shadow Country by Peter Matthiessen (excerpt)

2008 Winner Nonfiction

The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family by Annette Gordon-Reed (excerpt)

2008 Winner Poetry Fire to Fire: New and Selected Poems by Mark Doty (poem)-

2008 Winner Young People’s Literature What I Saw and How I Lied by Judy Blundell- (Jude Watson) JuWinner

2008 National Book Award Finalists

15th October The finalists for this years awards have been announced in Chicago. A nice sense of winds of change with this years selections- we like it....... Winners Nov 19th.

2008 National Book Award Finalists at Amazon | 2008 Brief Book & Author Details | 2007 Winners | 2006 Winners | Past Winners 1950-2005 | 2008 Five under 35

Fiction

• Home by Marilynne Robinson (excerpt, a most anticipated book)
• The Lazarus Project by Aleksandar Hemon (excerpt)
• Telex from Cuba by Rachel Kushner (excerpt)
• Shadow Country by Peter Matthiessen (excerpt) - Winner
• The End by Salvatore Scibona (excerpt)

Nonfiction

• This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War by Drew Gilpin Faust (excerpt)
• The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family by Annette Gordon-Reed (excerpt)- Winner
• The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals by Jane Mayer (excerpt)
• Final Salute: A Story of Unfinished Lives by Jim Sheeler (excerpt)
• The Suicide Index: Putting My Father's Death in Order by Joan Wickersham (excerpt

Poetry

• Watching the Spring Festival by Frank Bidart (in The Quarterly Conversation)
• Fire to Fire: New and Selected Poems by Mark Doty (poem)- Winner
• Creatures of a Day by Reginald Gibbons (poem)
• Without Saying by Richard Howard (poem)
• Blood Dazzler by Patricia Smith (recordings)

Young People’s Literature

• Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson (excerpt)
• The Underneath by Kathi Appelt (excerpt)
• What I Saw and How I Lied by Judy Blundell- Winner
• The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart (excerpt)
• The Spectacular Now by Tim Tharp (excerpt)

 The 2008 “5 Under 35” are (click on the names for more information from National Book Foundation):

Five young fiction writers have been recognized by the National Book Foundation at the “5 Under 35” celebration at Tribeca Cinemas on Monday, November 17, Three of this year's young honorees were born outside the United States. The five writers have each been selected by a previous National Book Award Finalist or Winner as someone whose work is particularly promising and exciting and is among the best of a new generation of writers. 

Matthew Eck, The Farther Shore (Milkweed Editions, 2007)
Selected by Joshua Ferris, 2007 Fiction Finalist for Then We Came to the End 

Keith Gessen, All the Sad Young Literary Men (Viking Press, 2008)
Selected by Jonathan Franzen, 2001 Fiction Winner for The Corrections

Sana Krasikov, One More Year: Stories (Spiegel & Grau, 2008)
Selected by Francine Prose, 2000 Fiction Finalist for Blue Angel

Nam Le, The Boat (Knopf, 2008)
Selected by Mary Gaitskill, 2005 Fiction Finalist for Veronica

Fiona Maazel, Last Last Chance (FSG, 2008)

2007 FICTION

Mischa Berlinski, Fieldwork: A Novel (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)

Lydia Davis, Varieties of Disturbance: Stories (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
Joshua Ferris, Then We Came to the End: A Novel(Little, Brown & Company)
Denis Johnson, Tree of Smoke: A Novel (Farrar, Straus & Giroux) Winner
Jim Shepard,Like You'd Understand, Anyway: Stories (Alfred A. Knopf)

Fiction judges: Francine Prose (chair), Andrew Sean Greer,
Walter Kirn, David Means, and Joy Williams.

2007 NONFICTION

Edwidge Danticat, Brother, I'm Dying (Alfred A. Knopf)
Christopher Hitchens, God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything
(Twelve/Hachette Book Group USA)
Woody Holton, Unruly Americans and the Origins of the Constitution
(Hill and Wang/Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
Arnold Rampersad, Ralph Ellison: A Biography (Alfred A. Knopf)
Tim Weiner, Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA (Doubleday) Winner

Nonfiction judges: David Shields (chair), Deborah Blum,
Caroline Elkins, Annette Gordon-Reed, and James Shapiro.

2007 POETRY

Linda Gregerson, Magnetic North (Houghton Mifflin Company)
Robert Hass, Time and Materials: Poems 1997-2005 (Ecco/HarperCollins) Winner
David Kirby, The House on Boulevard St.: New and Selected Poems (Southern Messenger Poets)(Louisiana State University Press)
Stanley Plumly, Old Heart: Poems(W.W. Norton & Company)
Ellen Bryant Voigt, Messenger: New and Selected Poems 1976-2006
(W.W. Norton & Company)

Poetry Judges: Charles Simic (chair), Linda Bierds, David St. John,
Vijay Seshadri, and Natasha

2007 YOUNG PEOPLE'S LITERATURE

Sherman Alexie, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian Winner
(Little, Brown & Company)
Kathleen Duey, Skin Hunger (A Resurrection of Magic)
(Atheneum Books for Young Readers)
M. Sindy Felin, Touching Snow (Atheneum Books for Young Readers)
Brian Selznick, The Invention of Hugo Cabret (Scholastic Press)
Sara Zarr, Story of a Girl(Little, Brown & Company)

Young People’s Literature Judges: Elizabeth Partridge (chair),
Pete Hautman, James Howe, Patricia McCormick, and Scott Westerfeld

And the Finalists in the NBA"5 Under 35 for 2007" ........

Kirstin Allio, Garner
(Coffee House Press, 2005) Review by David Abrams
Selected by Dana Spiotta, 2006 NBA Fiction Finalist for Eat the Document

Dinaw Mengestu, The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears
(Riverhead Books, 2007)
Selected by Jess Walter, 2006 NBA Fiction Finalist for The Zero Asali Solomon, Get Down: Stories
(Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2006)
Selected by Jennifer Egan, 2001 NBA Fiction Finalist for Look at Me Anya Ulinich, Petropolis
(Viking Press, 2007) Selected by Ken Kalfus, 2006 NBA Fiction Finalist for A Disorder Peculiar to the Country Charles Yu, Third Class Superhero
(Harcourt, 2006)
Selected by Richard Powers, 2006 NBA Fiction Winner for The Echo Maker 

2006 National Book Award Winners

Fiction: The Echo Maker: A Novelby Richard Powers (FSG)

Nonfiction: The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowlby Timothy Egan (Houghton Mifflin) -- A January Book Sense Pick

Poetry: Splay Anthem (New Directions Paperbook) by Nathaniel Mackey (New Directions)

Young People's Literature: The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation: Volume One: The Pox Party (Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation)by M.T Anderson

Reviews of The Echo Maker

Washington Post review by Sebastian Faulks

San Francisco Chronicle review by William Kowinski

Seattle Times review by Steve Weinbe

National Book Award Winners (1950-2005)

2005
Fiction: Europe Central by William T. Vollmann (Viking)
Nonfiction: The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion (Knopf) -- An October 2005 Book Sense Notable
Poetry: Migration by W.S. Merwin (Copper Canyon Press)
The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall (Knopf Books for Young Readers) -- A Summer 2005 Top Ten Book Sense Children's Pick

2004
Fiction: Lily Tuck, The News from Paraguay: A Novel (HarperCollins)
Nonfiction: Kevin Boyle, Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age (Holt)
Poetry: Jean Valentine, Door in the Mountain: New and Collected Poems, 1965-2003 (Wesleyan Poetry) (Wesleyan Univ. Press)
Young People's Literature: Pete Hautman, Godless (S&S Books for Young Readers)

2003
Fiction: Shirley Hazzard, The Great Fire: A Novel (FSG)
Nonfiction: Carlos Eire, Waiting for Snow in Havana: Confessions of a Cuban Boy (Free Press/S&S) -- a March/April 2003 Book Sense 76 Pick
Poetry: C.K. Williams, The Singing: Poems (FSG)
Young People's Literature: Polly Horvath, The Canning Season (FSG)

2002
Fiction: Julia Glass, Three Junes (Pantheon Books) -- a Book Sense 76 pick
Nonfiction: Robert A. Caro, Master of the Senate: The Years of Lyndon Johnson (Alfred A. Knopf)
Poetry: Ruth Stone, In the Next Galaxy (Copper Canyon Press)
Young People's Literature: Nancy Farmer, The House of the Scorpion (A Richard Jackson Book/Atheneum Books for Young Readers) -- a Winter 2002-2003 Children's Book Sense 76 Top Ten Pic

2001
Fiction: Jonathan Franzen, The Corrections
Nonfiction: Andrew Solomon, The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression
Poetry: Alan Dugan, Poems Seven: New and Complete Poetry
Young People's Literature: Virginia Euwer Wolff, True Believer

2000
Fiction: In America, Susan Sontag
Nonfiction: In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex, Nathaniel Philbrick
Poetry: Blessing the Boats: New and Selected Poems 1988-2000, Lucille Clifton
Young People's Literature: Homeless Bird,Gloria Whelan

1999
Fiction: Waiting, Ha Jin
Nonfiction: Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II, John W. Dower
Poetry: Vice: New and Selected Poems, Ai
Young People's Literature: When Zachary Beaver Came to Town, Kimberly Willis Holt

Biography/Autobiography: Robert Kennedy and His Times, Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.
Children's Book: The Great Gilly Hopkins, Katherine Paterson
Contemporary Thought: The Snow Leopard, Peter Matthiessen
Fiction: Going After Cacciato, Tim O'Brian
History: Intellectual Life in the Colonial South, 1585-1760, Richard Beale Davis
Poetry: Mirabell: Books of Number, James Merrill
Translation: Cesar Vallejo's The Complete Posthumous Poetry, Clayton Eshleman and Jose Rubin Barcia

1998
Fiction: Charming Billy, Alice McDermott
Nonfiction: Slaves in the Family, Edward Ball
Poetry: This Time: New and Selected Poems, Gerald Stern
Young People's Literature: Holes, Louis Sachar

1997
Fiction: Cold Mountain, Charles Frazier
Nonfiction: American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson, Joseph J. Ellis
Poetry: Effort at Speech: New & Selected Poems, William Meredith
Young People's Literature: Dancing on the Edge, Han Nolan

1996
Fiction: Ship Fever and Other Stories, Andrea Barrett
Nonfiction: An American Requiem: God, My Father, and the War That Came Between Us, James Carroll
Poetry: Scrambled Eggs & Whiskey, Hayden Carruth
Young People's Literature: Parrot in the Oven: Mi Vida, Victor Martinez

1995
Fiction: Sabbath's Theater, Philip Roth
Nonfiction: The Haunted Land: Facing Europe's Ghosts After Communism, Tina Rosenberg
Poetry: Passing Through: The Later Poems, Stanley Kunitz

1994
Fiction: A Frolic of His Own, William Gaddis
Nonfiction: How We Die: Reflections on Life's Final Chapter, Sherwin B. Nuland
Poetry: A Worshipful Company of Fletchers, James Ta

1993
Fiction: The Shipping News, E. Annie Proulx
Nonfiction: United States: Essays 1952-1992, Gore Vidal
Poetry: Garbage, A. R. Ammons

1992
Fiction: All the Pretty Horses, Cormac McCarthy
Nonfiction: Becoming a Man: Half a Life Story, Paul Monette
Poetry: New & Selected Poems, Mary Oliver

1991
Fiction: Mating, Norman Rush
Nonfiction: Freedom, Orlando Patterson
Poetry: What Work Is, Philip Levine

1990
Fiction: Middle Passage, Charles Johnson
Nonfiction: The House of Morgan: An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance, Ron Chernow

1989
Fiction: Spartina, John Casey
Nonfiction: From Beirut to Jerusalem, Thomas L. Friedman

1988
Fiction: Paris Trout, Pete Dexter
Nonfiction: A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam, Neil Sheehan

1987
Fiction: Paco's Story, Larry Heinemann
Nonfiction: The Making of the Atomic Bomb, Richard Rhodes

1986
Fiction: World's Fair, E.L. Doctorow
Nonfiction: Arctic Dreams, Barry Lopez

1985
Fiction: White Noise, Don DeLillo
First Work of Fiction: Easy in the Islands, Bob Shacochis
Nonfiction: Common Ground: A Turbulent Decade in the Lives of Three American Families, J. Anthony Lukas

1984
Fiction: Victory Over Japan: A Book of Stories, Ellen Gilchrist
First Work of Fiction: Stones for Ibarra, Harriet Doerr
Nonfiction: Andrew Jackson and the Course of American Democracy, 1833-1845, Robert V. Remini

1983
Autobiography/Biography (hardcover): Isak Dinesen: The Life of a Storyteller, Judith Thurman
Autobiography/Biography (paperback): Nathaniel Hawthorne in His Time, James R. Mellow
Children's Book, Fiction (hardcover): Homesick: My Own Story, Jean Fritz
Children's Book, Fiction (paperback): A Place Apart, Paula Fox; Marked By Fire, Joyce Carol Thomas
Children's Book, Nonfiction: Chimney Sweeps, James Cross Giblin
Children's Picture Book (hardcover): Miss Rumphius, Barbara Cooney; Doctor De Soto, William Steig
Children's Picture Book (paperback): A House Is a House for Me, Mary Ann Hoberman
Fiction (hardcover): The Color Purple, Alice Walker
Fiction (paperback): The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty, Eudora Welty
First Novel: The Women of Brewster Place, Gloria Naylor
General Nonfiction (hardcover): China: Alive in the Bitter Sea, Fox Butterfield
General Nonfiction (paperback): National Defense, James Fallows
History (hardcover): Voices of Protest: Huey Long, Father Coughlin and The Great Depression, Alan Brinkley
History (paperback): Utopian Thought in the Western World, Frank E. Manuel and Fritzie P. Manuel
Original Paperback: The Red Magician, Lisa Goldstein
Poetry: Selected Poems, Galway Kinnell; Country Music: Selected Early Poems, Charles Wright
Science (hardcover): "Subtle Is the Lord...": The Science and Life of Albert Einstein, Abraham Pais
Science (paperback): The Mathematical Experience, Philip P. Davis and Reuben Hersh
Translation: Baudelaire's Les Fleurs du Mal, Richard Howard

1982
Autobiography/biography (hardcover): Mornings on Horseback, David McCullough
Autobiography/biography (paperback): Walter Lippmann and the American Century, Ronald Steel
Children's Book, Fiction (hardcover): Westmark, Lloyd Alexander
Children's Book, Fiction (paperback): Words by Heart, Ouida Sebestyen
Children's Book, Nonfiction: A Penguin Year, Susan Bonners
Children's Book, Picture Book (hardcover): Outside Over There, Maurice Sendak
Children's Book, Picture Book (paperback): Noah's Ark, Peter Spier
Fiction (hardcover): Rabbit Is Rich, John Updike
Fiction (paperback): So Long, See You Tomorrow, William Maxwell
First Novel: Dale Loves Sophie to Death, Robb Forman Dew
General Nonfiction (hardcover): The Soul of a New Machine, Tracy Kidder
General Nonfiction (paperback): Naming Names, Victor S. Navasky
History (hardcover): People of the Sacred Mountain: A History of the Northern Cheyenne Chiefs and Warrior Societies, 1830-1879, Father Peter John Powell
History (paperback): The Generation of 1914, Robert Wohl
Poetry: Life Supports: New and Collected Poems, William Bronk
Science (hardcover): Lucy: The Beginnings of Humankind, Donald C. Johanson and Maitland A. Edey
Science (paperback): Taking the Quantum Leap: The New Physics for Nonscientists, Fred Alan Wolf
Translation: Higuchi Ichiyo's In the Shade of Spring Leaves, Robert Lyons Danly; The Ten Thousand Leaves: A Translation of the Man'Yoshu, Japan's Premier Anthology of Classical Poetry, Ian Hideo Levy

1981
Autobiography/biography (hardcover): Walt Whitman, Justin Kaplan
Autobiography/biography (paperback): Samuel Beckett, Deidre Bair
Children's Book, Fiction (hardcover): The Night Swimmers, Betsy Byars
Children's Book, Fiction (paperback): Ramona and Her Mother, Beverly Cleary
Children's Book, Nonfiction (hardcover): Oh, Boy! Babies, Alison Cragin Herzig and Jane Lawrence Mali
Fiction (hardcover): Plains Song, Wright Morris
Fiction (paperback): The Stories of John Cheever, John Cheever
First Novel: Sister Wolf, Ann Arensberg
General Nonfiction (hardcover): China Men, Maxine Hong Kingston
General Nonfiction (paperback): The Last Cowboy, Jane Kramer
History (hardcover): Christianity, Social Tolerance and Homosexuality, John Boswell
History (paperback): Been in the Storm So Long: The Aftermath of Slavery, Leon F. Litwak
Poetry: The Need to Hold Still, Lisel Mueller
Science (hardcover): The Panda's Thumb: More Reflections on Natural History, Stephen Jay Gould
Science (paperback): The Medusa and the Snail, Lewis Thomas
Translation: The Letters of Gustave Flaubert, Francis Steegmuller; Arno Schmidt's Evening Edged in Gold, John E. Woods

1980
Autobiography (hardcover): By Myself, Lauren Bacall
Autobiography (paperback): And I Worked at the Writer's Trade, Malcolm Cowley
Biography (hardcover): The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, Edmund Morris
Biography (paperback): Max Perkins:Editor of Genius, A. Scott Berg
Children's Book (hardcover): A Gathering of Days: A New England Girl's Journal, Joan W. Blos
Children's Book (paperback): A Swiftly Tilting Planet, Madeleine L'Engle
Current Interest (hardcover): Julia Child and More Company, Julia Child
Current Interest (paperback): The Culture of Narcissism, Christopher Lasch
Fiction (hardcover): Sophie's Choice, William Styron
Fiction (paperback): The World According to Garp, John Irving
First Novel: Birdy, William Wharton
General Nonfiction (hardcover): The Right Stuff, Tom Wolfe
General Nonfiction (paperback): The Snow Leopard, Peter Matthiessen
General Reference (hardcover): The Complete Directory, Elder Witt, ed.
General Reference (paperback): Complete Directory to Prime Network TV Shows: 1946-Present, Tim Brooks and Earle Marsh
History (hardcover): White House Years, Henry A. Kissinger
History (paperback): A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century, Barbara W. Tuchman
Mystery (hardcover): The Green Ripper, John D. MacDonald
Mystery (paperback): Stained Glass, William F. Buckley, Jr.
Poetry: Ashes, Philip Levine
Religion/Inspiration (hardcover): The Gnostic Gospels, Elaine Pagels
Religion/Inspiration (paperback): A Severe Mercy, Sheldon Vanauken
Science (hardcover): Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid, Douglas Hofstadter
Science (paperback): The Dancing Wu Li Masters: An Overview of the New Physics, Gary Zukav
Science Fiction (hardcover): Jem, Frederick Pohl
Science Fiction (paperback): The Book of the Dun Cow, Walter Wangerin, Jr.
Translation: Cesare Pavese's Hard Labor, William Arrowsmith; Osip E. Mandelstam's Complete Critical Prose and Letters, Jane Gary Harris and Constance Link
Western: Bendigo Shafter, Louis L'Amour

1978
Biography/Autobiography: Samuel Johnson, W. Jackson Bate
Children's Literature: The View from the Oak, Herbert Kohl and Judith Kohl
Contemporary Thought: Winners and Losers, Gloria Emerson
Fiction: Blood Ties, Mary Lee Settle
History: The Path Between the Seas: Creation of the Panama Canal 1870-1914, David McCullough
Poetry: The Collected Poems of Howard Nemerov, Howard Nemerov
Translation: Uwe George's In the Deserts of This Earth, Clara Winston and Richard Winston

1977
Biography/Autobiography: Norman Thomas: The Last Idealist, W.A. Swanberg
Children's Book: The Master Puppeteer, Katherine Paterson
Contemporary Thought: The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales, Bruno Bettleheim
Fiction: The Spectator Bird, Wallace Stegner
History: World of Our Fathers, Irving Howe
Poetry: Collected Poems, 1930-1976, Richard Eberhart
Translation: Master Tung's Western Chamber Romance, Li-Li Ch'en

1976
Arts and Letters: The Great War and Memory, Paul Fussell
Children's Literature: Bert Breen's Barn, Walter D. Edmonds
Contemporary Affairs: Passage to Ararat, Michael J. Arlen
Fiction: Jr, William Gaddis
History: The Problem of Slavery in the Age of Revolution, 1770-1823, David Brion Davis
Poetry: Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror, John Ashbery

1975
Arts and Letters: Marcel Proust, Roger Shattuck; The Lives of a Cell: Notes of a Biology Watcher, Lewis Thomas
Biography: The Life of Emily Dickinson, Richard B. Sewall
Children's Book: M.C. Higgins The Great, Virginia Hamilton
Contemporary Affairs: All Gods Dangers: The Life of Nate Shaw, Theodore Rosengarten
Fiction: Dog Soldiers, Robert Stone; The Hair of Harold Roux, Thomas Williams
History: The Ordeal of Thomas Hutchinson, Bernard Bailyn
Philosophy and Religion: Anarchy, State and Utopia, Robert Nozick
Poetry: Presentation Piece, Marilyn Hacker
Science: Interpretation of Schizophrenia, Silvano Arieti
Translation: Miguel D. Unamuno's The Agony of Christianity and Essays on Faith, Anthony Kerrigan

1974
Arts and Letters: Deeper into the Movies, Pauline Kael
Biography: Malcolm Lowry: A Biography, Douglas Day; Macaulay: The Shaping of the Historian, John Clive
Children's Book: The Court of the Stone Children, Eleanor Cameron
Contemporary Affairs: The Briar Patch, Murray Kempton
Fiction: A Crown of Feathers and Other Stories, Isaac Bashevis Singer;Gravity's Rainbow, Thomas Pynchon
History: Macaulay: The Shaping of the Historian, John Clive
Philosophy and Religion: Edmund Husserl: Philosopher of Infinite Tasks, Maurice Natanson
Poetry: Diving into the Wreck: Poems, 1971-72, Adrienne Rich;The Fall of America: Poems of These States, Allen Ginsberg
Science: Life: The Unfinished Experiment, S.E. Lurie
Translation: Octavio Paz's: Alternating Current, Helen R. Lane; Paul Valery's Monsieur Teste, Jackson Matthews

1973
Arts and Letters: Diderot, Arthur M. Wilson
Biography: George Washington, Vol. IV: Anguish and Farewell, 1793-1799, James Thomas Flexner
Children's Book: The Farthest Shore, Ursula K. LeGuin
Contemporary Affairs: Fire in the Lake: The Vietnamese and the Americans in Vietnam, Frances Fitzgerald
Fiction: Chimera, John Barth; Augustus, John Williams
History: The Children of Pride: A True Story of Georgia and the Civil War, Robert Manson Myers; Judenrat: The Jewish Councils in Eastern Europe under Nazi Occupation, Isaiah Trunk
Philosophy and Religion: A Religious History of the American People, S.E. Ahlstrom
Poetry: Collected Poems: 1951-1971, A.R. Ammons
Science: The Serengeti Lion: A Study of Predator-Prey Relations, George B. Schaller
Translation: Virgil's Aeneid, Allen Mandelbaum

1972
Arts and Letters: The Classical Style: Hayden, Mozart, Beethoven, Charles Rosen
Biography: Eleanor and Franklin:The Story of Their Relationship, Based on Eleanor Roosevelt's Private Papers, Joseph P. Lash
Children's Book: The Slightly Irregular Fire Engine or the Hithering Thithering Djinn, Donald Bartheleme
Contemporary Affairs: The Last Whole Earth Catalog, Stewart Brand, ed.
Fiction: The Complete Stories of Flannery O'Connor, Flannery O'Connor
History: Ordeal of the Union, Vols. VII & VIII: The Organized War, 1863-1864 and The Organized War to Victory, Allen Nevins
Philosophy and Religion: Righteous Empire: The Protestant Experience in America, Martin E. Marty
Poetry: The Collected Poems of Frank O'Hara, Frank O'Hara; Selected Poems, Howard Moss
Science: The Blue Whale, George L. Small
Translation: Jacques Monod's Chance and Necessity, Austryn Wainhouse

1971
Arts and Letters: Cocteau: A Biography, Francis Steegmuller
Children's Book: The Marvelous Misadventures of Sebastian, Lloyd Alexander
Fiction: Mr. Sammler's Planet, Saul Bellow
History and Biography: Roosevelt: The Soldier of Freedom, James MacGregor Burns
Poetry: To See, To Take, Mona Van Duyn
Science: Science in the British Colonies of America, Raymond Phineas Stearns
Translation: Bertolt Brecht's Saint Joan of the Stockyards, Frank Jones; Yasunari Kawabata's The Sound of The Mountain, Edward G. Seidensticker

1970
Arts and Letters: An Unfinished Woman, A Memoir, Lillian Hellman
Children's Book: A Day of Pleasure: Stories of a Boy Growing Up in Warsaw, Isaac Bashevis Singer
Fiction: Them, Joyce Carol Oates
History and Biography: Huey Long, T. Harry Williams
Philosophy and Religion: Gandhi's Truth: On the Origins of Militant Nonviolence, Erik H. Erikson
Poetry: The Complete Poems, Elizabeth Bishop
Translation: Celine's Castle to Castle, Ralph Manheim

1969
Arts and Letters: The Armies of the Night: History As A Novel, The Novel As History, Norman Mailer
Children's Literature: Journey from Peppermint Street, Meindert DeJong
Fiction: Steps, Jerzy Kosinski
History and Biography: White Over Black: American Attitudes Toward the Negro, 1550-1812, Winthrop D. Jordan
Poetry: His Toy, His Dream, His Rest, John Berryman
Science: Death in Life: Survivors of Hiroshima, Robert J. Lifton
Translation: Calvino's Cosmicomics, William Weaver

1968
Arts and Letters: Selected Essays, William Troy
Fiction: The Eighth Day, Thornton Wilder
History and Biography: Memoirs: 1925-1950, George F. Kennan
Poetry: The Light Around the Body, Robert Bly
Science, Philosophy, and Religion: Death at an Early Age, Jonathan Kozol
Translation: Soren Kirkegaard's Journals and Papers, Edna Hong and Howard Hong

1967
Arts and Letters: Mr. Clemens and Mark Twain, Justin Kaplan
Fiction: The Fixer, Bernard Malamud
History and Biography: The Enlightenment, Vol. 1: An Interpretation, Peter Gay
Poetry: Nights and Days, James Merrill
Science, Philosophy, and Religion: La Vida, Oscar Lewis
Translation: Julio Cortazar's Hopscotch, Gregory Rabassa;Casanova's History of My Life, Willard Trask

1966
Arts and Letters: Paris Journal, 1944-1965, Janet Flanner
Fiction: The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter, Katherine Anne Porter
History and Biography: A Thousand Days: John F. Kennedy in the White House, Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.
Poetry: Buckdancer's Choice: Poems, James Dickey

1965
Arts and Letters: Oysters of Lockmariaquer, Eleanor Clark
Fiction: Herzog, Saul Bellow
History and Biography: The Life of Lenin, Louis Fisher
Poetry: The Far Field, Theodore Roethke
Science, Philosophy, and Religion: God and Golem, Inc.: A Comment on Certain Points Where Cybernetics Impinges on Religion, Norbert Wiener

1964
Arts and Letters: John Keats: The Making of a Poet, Aileen Ward
Fiction: The Centaur, John Updike
History and Biography: The Rise of the West, William H. McNeill
Poetry: Selected Poems, John Crowe Ransom
Science, Philosophy, and Religion: Man-Made America, Christopher Tunnard and Boris Pushkarev

1963
Fiction: Morte d'Urban, J.F. Powers
Nonfiction: Henry James: Vol. II, The Conquest of London; Vol. III, The Middle Years, Leon Edel
Poetry: Traveling Through the Dark, William Stafford

1962
Fiction: The Moviegoer, Walker Percy
Nonfiction: The City in History: Its Origins, Its Transformations, and Its Prospects, Lewis Mumford
Poetry: Poems, Alan Dugan

1961
Fiction: The Waters of Kronos, Conrad Richter
Nonfiction: The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, William L. Shirer
Poetry: The Woman at the Washington Zoo, Randall Jarrell

1960
Fiction: Goodbye Columbus, Philip Roth
Nonfiction: James Joyce, Richard Ellman
Poetry: Life Studies, Robert Lowell

1959
Fiction: The Magic Barrel, Bernard Malamud
Nonfiction: Mistress to an Age: A Life of Madame De Stael, J. Christopher Herold
Poetry: Words for the Wind, Theodore Roethke

1958
Fiction: The Wapshot Chronicle, John Cheever
Nonfiction: The Lion and the Throne, Catherine Drinker Bowen
Poetry: Promises: Poems, 1954-1956, Robert Penn Warren

1957
Fiction: The Field of Vision, Wright Morris
Nonfiction: Russia Leaves the War, George F. Kennan
Poetry: Things of the World, Richard Wilbur

1956
Fiction: Ten North Frederick, John O'Hara
Nonfiction: An American in Italy, Herbert Kubly
Poetry: The Shield of Achilles, W.H. Auden

1955
Fiction: A Fable, William Faulkner
Nonfiction: The Measure of Man, Joseph W. Krutch
Poetry: The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens, Wallace Stevens

1954
Fiction: The Adventures of Augie March, Saul Bellow
Nonfiction: A Stillness at Appomattox, Bruce Catton
Poetry: Collected Poems, Conrad Aiken

1953
Fiction: Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison
Nonfiction: The Course of an Empire, Bernard A. De Voto
Poetry: Collected Poems, 1917-1952, Archibald MacLeish

1952
Fiction: From Here to Eternity, James Jones
Nonfiction: The Sea Around Us, Rachel Carson
Poetry: Collected Poems, Marianne Moore

1951
Fiction: The Collected Stories of William Faulkner, William Faulkner
Nonfiction: Herman Melville, Newton Arvin
Poetry: The Auroras of Autumn, Wallace Stevens

1950
Fiction: The Man with the Golden Arm, Nelson Algren
Nonfiction: Ralph Waldo, Ralph L. Rusk
Poetry: Paterson: Book III and Selected Poems, William Carlos Williams