What Is the National Book Award?
By Doug Brinlee
One of the most prominent literary awards in the United States is the The National Book Awards. They were founded in 1950 by a group of publishers with the intention of bringing public awareness to American authors. Publishers wanted to increase readership and give incentive for improving America’s cultural writing. They also wanted to bring national recognition to their peers. The awards are selected by writers for writers and are presented annually for literature written by an American author and published in the prior year. The National Book Awards are administered by the National Book Foundation which oversees the selection process and yearly activities leading up to the awards. The National Book Award has several categories as well as two separate lifetime achievement awards. If you are a U.S. author with works of fiction, nonfiction, or poetry, this is one of the ultimate awards you can receive.
History of the National Book Awards
The first annual National Book Awards were held on March 16, 1950, at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York. The American Book Publisher’s Council, The Book Manufacturers’ Institute, and The American Booksellers’ Association had all sponsored and set up the Awards. A large group that consisted of publishers, writers, and critics had gathered to witness the first of what was to become a major national award. The idea was for the award to be given to writers for their excellence in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry.
Over the next couple of decades, other categories were added, including Science, Philosophy, Biography, Religion, Autobiography, History, Arts and Letters, First Novel, Translation, Contemporary Thought, Original Paperback, and Children’s Book. Then in 1980, the National Book Awards went through a major change when several publishers decided to add even more categories. They wanted to increase awareness by recognizing even more American authors. The name of the National Book Awards was changed to the American Book Awards which now consisted of a total of 16 categories and 28 separate prizes. Winners were now chosen by a committee that included publishers, librarians, critics, and writers. But instead of improving the awards, many felt that they had lost their merit and that the awards no longer carried the significance that they once had. The name and category change lasted until 1986 when the current board of directors reduced the number of categories down to three and changed the name back to the National Book Awards. Also, the awards were now chosen by writers for other writers. Then in 1988, the National Book Foundation was created to oversee the guidance of the awards and make sure that all the rules and regulations were correctly followed.
Criteria for the National Book Awards
The current rules for the National Book Awards have been in effect since 1996. Winners are nominated in four categories: Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, and Young People’s Literature. Entries for the annual National Book Awards are nominated by publishers, however, board members can ask for a publisher to nominate a specific book. Only books written by American authors between December 1 of the previous year and November 30 of the following year are eligible.
Each category is judged by a panel of five writers who have written and published works in that category. The judges are nominated by previous National Book Award Winners, Finalists, and judges. The final panels are then selected by the Foundation’s Executive Director along with the Board of Directors. The panels change every year so rarely do judges serve back-to-back on panels. When going over the nominees, judges review literally hundreds of books in each category. When the panels deliberate, all of their discussions are held separate and independent from the Foundation. The members of the National Book Foundation only determine a submission’s eligibility. Serving as a judge is completely voluntary but as compensation, each judge receives $2,500 while the panel chairs receive $3,000 for their efforts.
During the The National Book Awards Ceremony and Dinner which is held each year in November, the chair from each panel announces the runners-up and winners. On the day of the National Book Awards Ceremony the judges meet to select the National Book Award winners. The rpize for each winner is $10,000 and a bronze sculpture. Finalists also receive a prize of $1,000, a medal, and a citation.
National Book Award Winners
The winners of the National Book Award from 1950 to present are as follows:
2008
Fiction: Peter Matthiessen, Shadow Country
NonFiction: Annette Gordon-Reed, The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family
Poetry: Mark Doty, Fire to Fire: New and Collected Poems
Young People's Literature: Judy Blundell, What I Saw and How I Lied
2007
Fiction: Denis Johnson, Tree of Smoke
NonFiction: Tim Weiner, Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA
Poetry: Robert Hass, Time and Materials
Young People's Literature: Sherman Alexie, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
2006
Fiction: The Echo Maker by Richard Powers
NonFiction: The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl by Timothy Egan
Poetry: Splay Anthem by Nathaniel Mackey
Young People's Literature: The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Vol. 1: The Pox Party by M.T. Anderson
2005
Fiction: Europe Central by William T. Vollmann
NonFiction: The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
Poetry: Migration: New and Selected Poems by W.S. Merwin
Young People's Literature: The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy by Jeanne Birdsall
2004
Fiction: Lily Tuck, The News from Paraguay
NonFiction: Kevin Boyle, Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age
Poetry: Jean Valentine, Door in the Mountain: New and Collected Poems, 1965-2003
Young People's Literature: Pete Hautman, The Godless
2003
Fiction: Shirley Hazzard, The Great Fire
NonFiction: Carlos Eire, Waiting for Snow in Havana: Confessions of a Cuban Boy
Poetry: C.K. Williams, The Singing
Young People's Literature: Polly Horvath, The Canning Season
2002
Fiction: Julia Glass, Three Junes
NonFiction: Robert A. Caro, Master of the Senate: The Years of Lyndon Johnson
Poetry: Ruth Stone, In the Next Galaxy
Young People's Literature: Nancy Farmer, The House of the Scorpion
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: Susan Sontag, In America
NonFiction: Nathaniel Philbrick, In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex
Poetry: Lucille Clifton, Blessing the Boats: New and Selected Poems 1988-2000
Young People's Literature: Gloria Whelan, Homeless Bird
1999
Fiction: Ha Jin, Waiting
NonFiction: John W. Dower, Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II
Poetry: Ai, Vice: New and Selected Poems
Young People's Literature: Kimberly Willis Holt, When Zachary Beaver Came to Town
1998
Fiction: Alice McDermott, Charming Billy
NonFiction: Edward Ball, Slaves in the Family
Poetry: Gerald Stern, This Time: New and Selected Poems
Young People's Literature: Louis Sachar, Holes
1997
Fiction: Charles Frazier, Cold Mountain
NonFiction: Joseph J. Ellis, American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson
Poetry: William Meredith, Effort at Speech: New & Selected Poems
Young People's Literature: Han Nolan, Dancing on the Edge
1996
Fiction: Andrea Barrett, Ship Fever and Other Stories
NonFiction: James Carroll, An American Requiem: God, My Father, and the War That Came Between Us
Poetry: Hayden Carruth, Scrambled Eggs & Whiskey
Young People's Literature: Victor Martinez, Parrot in the Oven: Mi Vida
1995
Fiction: Philip Roth, Sabbath's Theater
NonFiction: Tina Rosenberg, The Haunted Land: Facing Europe's Ghosts After Communism
Poetry: Stanley Kunitz, Passing Through: The Later Poems
1994
Fiction: William Gaddis, A Frolic of His Own
NonFiction: Sherwin B. Nuland, How We Die: Reflections on Life's Final Chapter
Poetry: James Tate, A Worshipful Company of Fletchers
1993
Fiction: E. Annie Proulx, The Shipping News
NonFiction: Gore Vidal, United States: Essays 1952-1992
Poetry: A. R. Ammons, Garbage
1992
Fiction: Cormac McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses
NonFiction: Paul Monette, Becoming a Man: Half a Life Story
Poetry: Mary Oliver, New & Selected Poems
1991
Fiction: Norman Rush, Mating
NonFiction: Orlando Patterson, Freedom
Poetry: Philip Levine, What Work Is
1990
Fiction: Charles Johnson, Middle Passage
NonFiction: Ron Chernow, The House of Morgan: An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance
1989
Fiction: John Casey, Spartina
NonFiction: Thomas L. Friedman, From Beirut to Jerusalem
1988
Fiction: Pete Dexter, Paris Trout
NonFiction: Neil Sheehan, A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam
1987
Fiction: Larry Heinemann, Paco's Story
NonFiction: Richard Rhodes, The Making of the Atomic Bomb
1986
Fiction: E.L. Doctorow, World's Fair
NonFiction: Barry Lopez, Arctic Dreams
1985
Fiction: Don DeLillo, White Noise
First Work of Fiction: Bob Shacochis, Easy in the Islands
NonFiction: J. Anthony Lukas, Common Ground: A Turbulent Decade in the Lives of Three American Families
1984
Fiction: Ellen Gilchrist, Victory Over Japan: A Book of Stories
First Work of Fiction: Harriet Doerr, Stones for Ibarra
NonFiction: Robert V. Remini, Andrew Jackson and the Course of American Democracy, 1833-1845
1983
Autobiography/Biography (hardcover): Judith Thurman, Isak Dinesen: The Life of a Storyteller
Autobiography/biography (paperback): James R. Mellow, Nathaniel Hawthorne in His Time
Children's Book, Fiction (hardcover): Jean Fritz, Homesick: My Own Story
Children's Book, Fiction (paperback): Joyce Carol Thomas, A Place Apart, Paula Fox; Marked By Fire
Children's Book, NonFiction: James Cross Giblin, Chimney Sweeps
Children's Picture Book (hardcover): William Steig, Miss Rumphius; Barbara Cooney, Doctor De Soto
Children's Picture Book (paperback): Mary Ann Hoberman, A House Is a House for Me
Fiction (hardcover): Alice Walker, The Color Purple
Fiction (paperback): Eudora Welty, The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty
First Novel: Gloria Naylor, The Women of Brewster Place
General Nonfiction (hardcover): Fox Butterfield, China: Alive in the Bitter Sea
General Nonfiction (paperback): James Fallows, National Defense
History (hardcover): Alan Brinkley, Voices of Protest: Huey Long, Father Coughlin and The Great Depression
History (paperback): Frank E. Manuel and Fritzie P. Manuel, Utopian Thought in the Western World
Original Paperback: Lisa Goldstein, The Red Magician
Poetry: Charles Wright, Selected Poems, Galway Kinnell, Country Music: Selected Early Poems
Science (hardcover): Abraham Pais, "Subtle Is the Lord...": The Science and Life of Albert Einstein
Science (paperback): Philip P. Davis and Reuben Hersh, The Mathematical Experience
Translation: Richard Howard, Baudelaire's Les Fleurs du Mal
1982
Autobiography/Biography (hardcover): David McCullough, Mornings on Horseback
Autobiography/biography (paperback): Ronald Steel, Walter Lippmann and the American Century
Children's Book, Fiction (hardcover): Lloyd Alexander, Westmark
Children's Book, Fiction (paperback): Ouida Sebestyen, Words by Heart
Children's Book, NonFiction: Susan Bonners, A Penguin Year
Children's Book, Picture Book (hardcover): Maurice Sendak, Outside Over There
Children's Book, Picture Book (paperback): Peter Spier, Noah's Ark
Fiction (hardcover): John Updike, Rabbit Is Rich
Fiction (paperback): William Maxwell, So Long, See You Tomorrow
First Novel: Robb Forman Dew, Dale Loves Sophie to Death
General Nonfiction (hardcover): Tracy Kidder, The Soul of a New Machine
General Nonfiction (paperback): Victor S. Navasky, Naming Names
History (hardcover): Father Peter John Powell, People of the Sacred Mountain: A History of the Northern Cheyenne Chiefs and Warrior Societies, 1830-1879
History (paperback): Robert Wohl, The Generation of 1914
Poetry: William Bronk, Life Supports: New and Collected Poems
Science (hardcover): Donald C. Johanson and Maitland A. Edey, Lucy: The Beginnings of Humankind
Science (paperback): Fred Alan Wolf, Taking the Quantum Leap: The New Physics for Nonscientists
Translation: Robert Lyons Danly, 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
1981
Autobiography/Biography (hardcover): Justin Kaplan, Walt Whitman
Autobiography/biography (paperback): Deidre Bair, Samuel Beckett
Children's Book, Fiction (hardcover): Betsy Byars, The Night Swimmers
Children's Book, Fiction (paperback): Beverly Cleary, Ramona and Her Mother
Children's Book, Nonfiction (hardcover): Alison Cragin Herzig and Jane Lawrence Mali, Oh, Boy! Babies
Fiction (hardcover): Wright Morris, Plains Song
Fiction (paperback): John Cheever, The Stories of John Cheever
First Novel: Ann Arensberg, Sister Wolf
General Nonfiction (hardcover): Maxine Hong Kingston, China Men
General Nonfiction (paperback): Jane Kramer, The Last Cowboy
History (hardcover): John Boswell, Christianity, Social Tolerance and Homosexuality
History (paperback): Leon F. Litwak, Been in the Storm So Long: The Aftermath of Slavery
Poetry: Lisel Mueller, The Need to Hold Still
Science (hardcover): Stephen Jay Gould, The Panda's Thumb: More Reflections on Natural History
Science (paperback): Lewis Thomas, The Medusa and the Snail
Translation: John E. Woods, The Letters of Gustave Flaubert; Francis Steegmuller, Arno Schmidt's Evening Edged in Gold
1980
Autobiography (hardcover): Lauren Bacall, By Myself
Autobiography (paperback): Malcolm Cowley, And I Worked at the Writer's Trade
Biography (hardcover): Edmund Morris, The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt
Biography (paperback): A. Scott Berg, Max Perkins:Editor of Genius
Children's Book (hardcover): Joan W. Blos, A Gathering of Days: A New England Girl's Journal
Children's Book (paperback): Madeleine L'Engle, A Swiftly Tilting Planet
Current Interest (hardcover): Julia Child, Julia Child and More Company
Current Interest (paperback): Christopher Lasch, The Culture of Narcissism
Fiction (hardcover): William Styron, Sophie's Choice
Fiction (paperback): John Irving, The World According to Garp
First Novel: William Wharton, Birdy
General Nonfiction (hardcover): Tom Wolfe, The Right Stuff
General Nonfiction (paperback): Peter Matthiessen, The Snow Leopard
General Reference (hardcover): Elder Witt, ed., The Complete Directory
General Reference (paperback): Tim Brooks and Earle Marsh, Complete Directory to Prime Network TV Shows: 1946-Present
History (hardcover): Henry A. Kissinger, White House Years
History (paperback): Barbara W. Tuchman, A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century
Mystery (hardcover): John D. MacDonald, The Green Ripper
Mystery (paperback): William F. Buckley, Jr., Stained Glass
Poetry: Philip Levine, Ashes
Religion/Inspiration (hardcover): Elaine Pagels, The Gnostic Gospels
Religion/Inspiration (paperback): Sheldon Vanauken, A Severe Mercy
Science (hardcover): Douglas Hofstadter, Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid
Science (paperback): Gary Zukav, The Dancing Wu Li Masters: An Overview of the New Physics
Science Fiction (hardcover): Frederick Pohl, Jem
Science Fiction (paperback): Walter Wangerin, Jr., The Book of the Dun Cow
Translation: William Arrowsmith, Cesare Pavese's Hard Labor; Jane Gary Harris and Constance Link, Osip E. Mandelstam's Complete Critical Prose and Letters
Western: Louis L'Amour, Bendigo Shafter
1979
Biography/AutoBiography: Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., Robert Kennedy and His Times
Children's Book: Katherine Paterson, The Great Gilly Hopkins
Contemporary Thought: Peter Matthiessen, The Snow Leopard
Fiction: Tim O'Brian, Going After Cacciato
History: Richard Beale Davis, Intellectual Life in the Colonial South, 1585-1760
Poetry: James Merrill, Mirabell: Books of Number
Translation: Clayton Eshleman and Jose Rubin Barcia, Cesar Vallejo's The Complete Posthumous Poetry
1978
Biography/AutoBiography: W. Jackson Bate, Samuel Johnson
Children's Literature: Herbert Kohl and Judith Kohl, The View from the Oak
Contemporary Thought: Gloria Emerson, Winners and Losers
Fiction: Mary Lee Settle, Blood Ties
History: David McCullough, The Path Between the Seas: Creation of the Panama Canal 1870-1914
Poetry: Howard Nemerov, The Collected Poems of Howard Nemerov
Translation: Clara Winston and Richard Winston, Uwe George's In the Deserts of This Earth
1977
Biography/AutoBiography: W.A. Swanberg, Norman Thomas: The Last Idealist
Children's Book: Katherine Paterson, The Master Puppeteer
Contemporary Thought: Bruno Bettleheim, The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tale
Fiction: Wallace Stegner, The Spectator Bird
History: Irving Howe, World of Our Fathers
Poetry: Richard Eberhart, Collected Poems, 1930-1976
Translation: Li-Li Ch'en, Master Tung's Western Chamber Romance
1976
Arts and Letters: Paul Fussell, The Great War and Memory
Children's Literature: Walter D. Edmonds, Bert Breen's Barn
Contemporary Affairs: Michael J. Arlen, Passage to Ararat
Fiction: William Gaddis, Jr
History: David Brion Davis, The Problem of Slavery in the Age of Revolution, 1770-1823
Poetry: John Ashbery, Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror
1975
Arts and Letters: Roger Shattuck, Marcel Proust; Lewis Thomas, The Lives of a Cell: Notes of a Biology Watcher
Biography: Richard B. Sewall, The Life of Emily Dickinson
Children's Book: Virginia Hamilton, M.C. Higgins The Great
Contemporary Affairs: Theodore Rosengarten, All Gods Dangers: The Life of Nate Shaw
Fiction: Robert Stone, Dog Soldiers; Thomas Williams, The Hair of Harold Roux
History: Bernard Bailyn, The Ordeal of Thomas Hutchinson
Philosophy and Religion: Robert Nozick, Anarchy, State and Utopia
Poetry: Marilyn Hacker, Presentation Piece
Science: Silvano Arieti, Interpretation of Schizophrenia
Translation: Anthony Kerrigan, Miguel D. Unamuno's The Agony of Christianity and Essays on Faith
1974
Arts and Letters: Pauline Kael, Deeper into the Movies
Biography: Douglas Day, Malcolm Lowry: A Biography; John Clive, Macaulay: The Shaping of the Historian
Children's Book: Eleanor Cameron, The Court of the Stone Children
Contemporary Affairs: Murray Kempton, The Briar Patch
Fiction: Isaac Bashevis Singer, A Crown of Feathers and Other Stories; Thomas Pynchon, Gravity's Rainbow
History: John Clive, Macaulay: The Shaping of the Historian
Philosophy and Religion: Maurice Natanson, Edmund Husserl: Philosopher of Infinite Tasks
Poetry: Adrienne Rich, Diving into the Wreck: Poems, 1971-72; Allen Ginsberg, The Fall of America: Poems of These States
Science: S.E. Lurie, Life: The Unfinished Experiment
Translation: Helen R. Lane, Octavio Paz's: Alternating Current; Jackson Matthews, Paul Valery's Monsieur Teste
1973
Arts and Letters: Arthur M. Wilson, Diderot
Biography: James Thomas Flexner, George Washington, Vol. IV: Anguish and Farewell, 1793-1799
Children's Book: Ursula K. LeGuin, The Farthest Shore
Contemporary Affairs: Frances Fitzgerald, Fire in the Lake: The Vietnamese and the Americans in Vietnam
Fiction: John Williams, Chimera, John Barth; Augustus
History: Robert Manson Myers, The Children of Pride: A True Story of Georgia and the Civil War; Isaiah Trunk, Judenrat: The Jewish Councils in Eastern Europe under Nazi Occupation
Philosophy and Religion: S.E. Ahlstrom, A Religious History of the American People
Poetry: A.R. Ammons, Collected Poems: 1951-1971
Science: George B. Schaller, The Serengeti Lion: A Study of Predator-Prey Relations
Translation: Allen Mandelbaum, Virgil's Aeneid
1972
Arts and Letters: Charles Rosen, The Classical Style: Hayden, Mozart, Beethoven
Biography: Joseph P. Lash, Eleanor and Franklin:The Story of Their Relationship, Based on Eleanor Roosevelt's Private Papers
Children's Book: Donald Bartheleme, The Slightly Irregular Fire Engine or the Hithering Thithering Djinn
Contemporary Affairs: Stewart Brand, ed., The Last Whole Earth Catalog
Fiction: Flannery O'Connor, The Complete Stories of Flannery O'Connor
History: Allen Nevins, Ordeal of the Union, Vols. VII & VIII: The Organized War, 1863-1864 and The Organized War to Victory
Philosophy and Religion: Martin E. Marty, Righteous Empire: The Protestant Experience in America
Poetry: Howard Moss, The Collected Poems of Frank O'Hara, Frank O'Hara; Selected Poems
Science: George L. Small, The Blue Whale
Translation: Austryn Wainhouse, Jacques Monod's Chance and Necessity
1971
Arts and Letters: Francis Steegmuller, Cocteau: A Biography
Children's Book: Lloyd Alexander, The Marvelous Misadventures of Sebastian
Fiction: Saul Bellow, Mr. Sammler's Planet
History and Biography: James MacGregor Burns, Roosevelt: The Soldier of Freedom
Poetry: Mona Van Duyn, To See, To Take
Science: Raymond Phineas Stearns, Science in the British Colonies of America
Translation: Frank Jones, Bertolt Brecht's Saint Joan of the Stockyards; Edward G. Seidensticker, Yasunari Kawabata's The Sound of The Mountain
1970
Arts and Letters: Lillian Hellman, An Unfinished Woman, A Memoir
Children's Book: Isaac Bashevis Singer, A Day of Pleasure: Stories of a Boy Growing Up in Warsaw
Fiction: Joyce Carol Oates, Them
History and Biography: T. Harry Williams, Huey Long
Philosophy and Religion: Erik H. Erikson, Gandhi's Truth: On the Origins of Militant Nonviolence
Poetry: Elizabeth Bishop, The Complete Poems
Translation: Ralph Manheim, Celine's Castle to Castle
1969
Arts and Letters: Norman Mailer, The Armies of the Night: History As A Novel, The Novel As History
Children's Literature: Meindert DeJong, Journey from Peppermint Street
Fiction: Jerzy Kosinski, Steps
History and Biography: Winthrop D. Jordan, White Over Black: American Attitudes Toward the Negro, 1550-1812
Poetry: John Berryman, His Toy, His Dream, His Rest
Science: Robert J. Lifton, Death in Life: Survivors of Hiroshima
Translation: William Weaver, Calvino's Cosmicomics
1968
Arts and Letters: William Troy, Selected Essays
Fiction: Thornton Wilder, The Eighth Day
History and Biography: George F. Kennan, Memoirs: 1925-1950
Poetry: Robert Bly, The Light Around the Body
Science, Philosophy, and Religion: Jonathan Kozol, Death at an Early Age
Translation: Edna Hong and Howard Hong, Soren Kirkegaard's Journals and Papers
1967
Arts and Letters: Justin Kaplan, Mr. Clemens and Mark Twain
Fiction: Bernard Malamud, The Fixer
History and Biography: Peter Gay, The Enlightenment, Vol. 1: An Interpretation
Poetry: James Merrill, Nights and Days
Science, Philosophy, and Religion: Oscar Lewis, La Vida
Translation: Gregory Rabassa, Julio Cortazar's Hopscotch; Willard Trask, Casanova’s History of My Life
1966
Arts and Letters: Janet Flanner, Paris Journal, 1944-1965
Fiction: Katherine Anne Porter, The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter
History and Biography: Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., A Thousand Days: John F. Kennedy in the White House
Poetry: James Dickey, Buckdancer's Choice: Poems
1965
Arts and Letters: Eleanor Clark, Oysters of Lockmariaquer
Fiction: Saul Bellow, Herzog
History and Biography: Louis Fisher, The Life of Lenin
Poetry: Theodore Roethke, The Far Field
Science, Philosophy, and Religion: Norbert Wiener, God and Golem, Inc.: A Comment on Certain Points Where Cybernetics Impinges on Religion
1964
Arts and Letters: Aileen Ward, John Keats: The Making of a Poet
Fiction: John Updike, The Centaur
History and Biography: William H. McNeill, The Rise of the West
Poetry: John Crowe Ransom, Selected Poems
Science, Philosophy, and Religion: Christopher Tunnard and Boris Pushkarev, Man-Made America
1963
Fiction: J.F. Powers, Morte d'Urban
NonFiction: Leon Edel, Henry James: Vol. II, The Conquest of London; Vol. III, The Middle Years
Poetry: William Stafford, Traveling Through the Dark
1962
Fiction: Walker Percy, The Moviegoer
NonFiction: Lewis Mumford, The City in History: Its Origins, Its Transformations, and Its Prospect
Poetry: Alan Dugan, Poems
1961
Fiction: Conrad Richter, The Waters of Kronos
NonFiction: William L. Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich
Poetry: Randall Jarrell, The Woman at the Washington Zoo
1960
Fiction: Philip Roth, Goodbye Columbus
NonFiction: Richard Ellman, James Joyce
Poetry: Robert Lowell, Life Studies
1959
Fiction: Bernard Malamud, The Magic Barrel
NonFiction: J. Christopher Herold, Mistress to an Age: A Life of Madame De Stael
Poetry: Theodore Roethke, Words for the Wind
1958
Fiction: John Cheever, The Wapshot Chronicle
NonFiction: Catherine Drinker Bowen, The Lion and the Throne
Poetry: Robert Penn Warren, Promises: Poems, 1954-1956
1957
Fiction: Wright Morris, The Field of Vision
NonFiction: George F. Kennan, Russia Leaves the War
Poetry: Richard Wilbur, Things of the World
1956
Fiction: John O'Hara, Ten North Frederick
NonFiction: Herbert Kubly, An American in Italy
Poetry: W.H. Auden, The Shield of Achilles
1955
Fiction: William Faulkner, A Fable
NonFiction: Joseph W. Krutch, The Measure of Man
Poetry: Wallace Stevens, The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens
1954
Fiction: Saul Bellow, The Adventures of Augie March
NonFiction: Bruce Catton, A Stillness at Appomattox
Poetry: Conrad Aiken, Collected Poems
1953
Fiction: Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man
NonFiction: Bernard A. De Voto, The Course of an Empire
Poetry: Archibald MacLeish, Collected Poems, 1917-1952
1952
Fiction: James Jones, From Here to Eternity
NonFiction: Rachel Carson, The Sea Around Us
Poetry: Marianne Moore, Collected Poems
1951
Fiction: William Faulkner, The Collected Stories of William Faulkner
NonFiction: Newton Arvin, Herman Melville
Poetry: Wallace S3tevens, The Auroras of Autumn
1950
Fiction: Nelson Algren, The Man with the Golden Arm
NonFiction: Ralph L. Rusk, Ralph Waldo
Poetry: William Carlos Williams, Paterson: Book III and Selected Poems
Medal of Distinguished Contribution to American Letters
The National Book Foundation has two separate lifetime achievement awards. The first is the Medal of Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. The winner of this award is an author who contributed to American literature during a lifetime of work. The award comes with a medal and a $10,000 cash prize. The past winners of the Medal of Distinguished Contribution to American Letters are:
- 1991 - Eudora Welty
- 1992 - James Laughlin
- 1993 - Clifton Fadiman
- 1994 - Gwendolyn Brooks
- 1995 - David McCullough
- 1996 - Toni Morrison
- 1997 - Studs Terkel
- 1998 - John Updike
- 1999 - Oprah Winfrey
- 2000 - Ray Bradbury
- 2001 - Arthur Miller
- 2002 - Philip Roth
- 2003 - Stephen King
- 2004 - Judy Blume
- 2005 - Norman Mailer
- 2006 - Adrienne Rich
- 2007 - Joan Didion
- 2008 - Maxine Hong Kingston
Literarian Award
The Literarian Award is the second lifetime achievement award that is handed out by the National Book Foundation. It goes to the author whose work over the years best exemplifies the NBF’s goals and objectives. The Literarian Award winners from the past are:
- 2005 - Lawrence Ferlinghetti
- 2006 - Robert B. Silvers and Barbara Epstein
- 2007 - Terry Gross
- 2008 - Barney Rosset