# List of winners of the National Book Award

These authors and books have won the annual National Book Awards, awarded to American authors by the National Book Foundation based in the United States.

## History of categories

The National Book Awards were first awarded to four 1935 publications in May 1936. Contrary to that historical fact, the National Book Foundation currently recognizes only a history of purely literary awards that begins in 1950. The pre-war awards and the 1980 to 1983 graphics awards are covered below following the main list of current award categories.
There have been five award categories since 2018: Fiction, Non-fiction, Poetry, Young People's Literature, and Translated Literature. The main list below is organized by the current award categories and by year.
The categories' winners are selected from hundreds of preliminary nominees – "from 150 titles (Translated Literature) to upwards of 600 titles (Nonfiction)." Since 2013, a long list of ten entries for each of the categories has been selected and announced in September, followed by five finalists for each category in October, with the year's winners announced in November.
Repeat winners and split awards are covered at the bottom of the page.

## Current award categories

This section covers awards starting in 1950 in the five current categories as defined by their names. Some awards in "previous categories" may have been equivalent except in name.

### Fiction

General fiction for adult readers is a National Book Award category that has been continuous since 1950, with multiple awards for a few years beginning 1980. From 1935 to 1941, there were six annual awards for novels or general fiction and the "Bookseller Discovery", the "Most Original Book"; both awards were sometimes given to a novel.
National Book Award for Fiction winners, 1950 to 1979 :
| Year | Author | Title |
| 1950 | Nelson Algren | The Man with the Golden Arm |
| 1951 | William Faulkner | The Collected Stories of William Faulkner |
| 1952 | James Jones | From Here to Eternity |
| 1953 | Ralph Ellison | Invisible Man |
| 1954 | Saul Bellow | The Adventures of Augie March |
| 1955 | William Faulkner | A Fable |
| 1956 | John O'Hara | Ten North Frederick |
| 1957 | Wright Morris | The Field of Vision |
| 1958 | John Cheever | The Wapshot Chronicle |
| 1959 | Bernard Malamud | The Magic Barrel |
| 1960 | Philip Roth | Goodbye, Columbus |
| 1961 | Conrad Richter | The Waters of Kronos |
| 1962 | Walker Percy | The Moviegoer |
| 1963 | J. F. Powers | Morte d'Urban |
| 1964 | John Updike | The Centaur |
| 1965 | Saul Bellow | Herzog |
| 1966 | Katherine Anne Porter | The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter |
| 1967 | Bernard Malamud | The Fixer |
| 1968 | Thornton Wilder | The Eighth Day |
| 1969 | Jerzy Kosinski | Steps |
| 1970 | Joyce Carol Oates | them |
| 1971 | Saul Bellow | Mr. Sammler's Planet |
| 1972 | Flannery O'Connor | The Complete Stories |
| 1973 | John Barth | Chimera |
| 1973 | John Edward Williams | Augustus |
| 1974 | Thomas Pynchon | Gravity's Rainbow |
| 1974 | Isaac Bashevis Singer | A Crown of Feathers and Other Stories |
| 1975 | Robert Stone | Dog Soldiers |
| 1975 | Thomas Williams | The Hair of Harold Roux |
| 1976 | William Gaddis | J R |
| 1977 | Wallace Stegner | The Spectator Bird |
| 1978 | Mary Lee Settle | Blood Tie |
| 1979 | Tim O'Brien | Going After Cacciato |
Dozens of new categories were introduced in 1980, including "General fiction", hardcover and paperback, which are both listed here. The comprehensive "Fiction" genre and hard-or-soft format were both restored three years later.
National Book Award for Fiction winners, 1980–1983 :
| Year | Category | Author | Title |
| 1980 | Hardcover | William Styron | Sophie's Choice |
| 1980 | Paperback | John Irving | The World According to Garp |
| 1981 | Hardcover | Wright Morris | Plains Song: For Female Voices |
| 1981 | Paperback | John Cheever | The Stories of John Cheever |
| 1982 | Hardcover | John Updike | Rabbit is Rich |
| 1982 | Paperback | William Maxwell | So Long, See You Tomorrow |
| 1983 | Hardcover | Alice Walker | The Color Purple |
| 1983 | Paperback | Eudora Welty | The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty |
The comprehensive "Fiction" category returned in 1984.
National Book Award for Fiction winners, 1984 to present :
| Year | Author | Title |
| 1984 | Ellen Gilchrist | Victory Over Japan: A Book of Stories |
| 1985 | Don DeLillo | White Noise |
| 1986 | E.L. Doctorow | World's Fair |
| 1987 | Larry Heinemann | Paco's Story |
| 1988 | Pete Dexter | Paris Trout |
| 1989 | John Casey | Spartina |
| 1990 | Charles Johnson | Middle Passage |
| 1991 | Norman Rush | Mating |
| 1992 | Cormac McCarthy | All the Pretty Horses |
| 1993 | E. Annie Proulx | The Shipping News |
| 1994 | William Gaddis | A Frolic of His Own |
| 1995 | Philip Roth | Sabbath's Theater |
| 1996 | Andrea Barrett | Ship Fever and Other Stories |
| 1997 | Charles Frazier | Cold Mountain |
| 1998 | Alice McDermott | Charming Billy |
| 1999 | Ha Jin | Waiting |
| 2000 | Susan Sontag | In America |
| 2001 | Jonathan Franzen | The Corrections |
| 2002 | Julia Glass | Three Junes |
| 2003 | Shirley Hazzard | The Great Fire |
| 2004 | Lily Tuck | The News from Paraguay |
| 2005 | William T. Vollmann | Europe Central |
| 2006 | Richard Powers | The Echo Maker |
| 2007 | Denis Johnson | Tree of Smoke |
| 2008 | Peter Matthiessen | Shadow Country |
| 2009 | Colum McCann | Let the Great World Spin |
| 2010 | Jaimy Gordon | Lord of Misrule |
| 2011 | Jesmyn Ward | Salvage the Bones |
| 2012 | Louise Erdrich | The Round House |
| 2013 | James McBride | The Good Lord Bird |
| 2014 | Phil Klay | Redeployment |
| 2015 | Adam Johnson | Fortune Smiles |
| 2016 | Colson Whitehead | The Underground Railroad |
| 2017 | Jesmyn Ward | Sing, Unburied, Sing |
| 2018 | Sigrid Nunez | The Friend |
| 2019 | Susan Choi | Trust Exercise |
| 2020 | Charles Yu | Interior Chinatown |
| 2021 | Jason Mott | Hell of a Book |
| 2022 | Tess Gunty | The Rabbit Hutch |
| 2023 | Justin Torres | Blackouts |
| 2024 | Percival Everett | James |

### Nonfiction

General nonfiction for adult readers is a National Book Award category continuous only from 1984, when the general award was restored after two decades of awards in several nonfiction categories. From 1935 to 1941 there were six annual awards for general nonfiction, two for biography, and the Bookseller Discovery or Most Original Book was sometimes nonfiction.
National Book Award for Nonfiction winners, 1950–1959 :
| Year | Author | Title | Result |
| 1950 | Ralph L. Rusk | The Life of Ralph Waldo Emerson | Winner |
| 1951 | Newton Arvin | Herman Melville | Winner |
| 1952 | Rachel Carson | The Sea Around Us | Winner |
| 1953 | Bernard De Voto, | The Course of Empire | Winner |
| 1954 | Bruce Catton | A Stillness at Appomattox | Winner |
| 1955 | Joseph Wood Krutch | The Measure of Man | Winner |
| 1956 | Herbert Kubly | An American in Italy | Winner |
| 1957 | George F. Kennan | Russia Leaves the War | Winner |
| 1958 | Catherine Drinker Bowen | The Lion and the Throne | Winner |
| 1959 | J. Christopher Herold | Mistress to an Age: A Life of Madame de Staël | Winner |
Multiple nonfiction categories were introduced in 1964, initially Arts and Letters; History and (Auto)Biography; and Science, Philosophy and Religion. See also Contemporary and General Nonfiction. The comprehensive "Nonfiction" genre was restored twenty years later.
National Book Award for Nonfiction winners, 1984 to present :
| Year | Author | Title | Result |
| 1984 | Robert V. Remini | Andrew Jackson and the Course of American Democracy, 1833–1845 | Winner |
| 1985 | J. Anthony Lukas | Common Ground: A Turbulent Decade in the Lives of Three American Families | Winner |
| 1986 | Barry Lopez | Arctic Dreams: Imagination and Desire in a Northern Landscape | Winner |
| 1987 | Richard Rhodes | The Making of the Atomic Bomb | Winner |
| 1988 | Neil Sheehan | A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam | Winner |
| 1989 | Thomas L. Friedman | From Beirut to Jerusalem | Winner |
| 1990 | Ron Chernow | The House of Morgan: An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance | Winner |
| 1991 | Orlando Patterson | Freedom, Vol. 1: Freedom in the Making of Western Culture | Winner |
| 1992 | Paul Monette | Becoming a Man: Half a Life Story | Winner |
| 1993 | Gore Vidal | United States: Essays 1952–1992 | Winner |
| 1994 | Sherwin B. Nuland | How We Die: Reflections on Life's Final Chapter | Winner |
| 1995 | Tina Rosenberg | The Haunted Land: Facing Europe's Ghosts After Communism | Winner |
| 1996 | James Carroll | An American Requiem: God, My Father, and the War that Came Between Us | Winner |
| 1997 | Joseph J. Ellis | American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson | Finalist |
| 1998 | Edward Ball | Slaves in the Family | Winner |
| 1999 | John W. Dower | Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II | Winner |
| 2000 | Nathaniel Philbrick | In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex | Winner |
| 2001 | Andrew Solomon | The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression | Winner |
| 2002 | Robert A. Caro | Master of the Senate: The Years of Lyndon Johnson | Winner |
| 2003 | Carlos Eire | Waiting for Snow in Havana: Confessions of a Cuban Boy | Winner |
| 2004 | Kevin Boyle | Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age | Winner |
| 2005 | Joan Didion | The Year of Magical Thinking | Winner |
| 2006 | Timothy Egan | The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl | Winner |
| 2007 | Tim Weiner | Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA | Winner |
| 2008 | Annette Gordon-Reed | The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family | Winner |
| 2009 | T. J. Stiles | The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt | Winner |
| 2010 | Patti Smith | Just Kids | Winner |
| 2011 | Stephen Greenblatt | The Swerve: How the World Became Modern | Winner |
| 2012 | Katherine Boo | Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity | Winner |
| 2013 | George Packer | The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America | Winner |
| 2014 | Evan Osnos | Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China | Winner |
| 2015 | Ta-Nehisi Coates | Between the World and Me | Winner |
| 2016 | Ibram X. Kendi | Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America | Winner |
| 2017 | Masha Gessen | The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia | Winner |
| 2018 | Jeffrey C. Stewart | The New Negro: The Life of Alain Locke | Winner |
| 2019 | Sarah M. Broom | The Yellow House | Winner |
| 2020 | Les Payne and Tamara Payne | The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X | Winner |
| 2021 | Tiya Miles | All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, a Black Family Keepsake | Winner |
| 2022 | Imani Perry | South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon To Understand the Soul of a Nation | Winner |
| 2023 | Ned Blackhawk | The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the unmaking of US history | Winner |
| 2024 | Jason De León | Soldiers and Kings | Winner |

### Poetry

National Book Award for Poetry winners, 1950 to 1983 :
| Year | Author | Title |
| 1950 | William Carlos Williams | Paterson: Book Three and Selected Poems |
| 1951 | Wallace Stevens | The Auroras of Autumn |
| 1952 | Marianne Moore | Collected Poems |
| 1953 | Archibald MacLeish | Collected Poems, 1917–1952 |
| 1954 | Conrad Aiken | Collected Poems |
| 1955 | Wallace Stevens | The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens |
| 1956 | W. H. Auden | The Shield of Achilles |
| 1957 | Richard Wilbur | Things of This World |
| 1958 | Robert Penn Warren | Promises: Poems, 1954–1956 |
| 1959 | Theodore Roethke | Words for the Wind |
| 1960 | Robert Lowell | Life Studies |
| 1961 | Randall Jarrell | The Woman at the Washington Zoo |
| 1962 | Alan Dugan | Poems |
| 1963 | William Stafford | Traveling Through the Dark |
| 1964 | John Crowe Ransom | Selected Poems |
| 1965 | Theodore Roethke | The Far Field |
| 1966 | James Dickey | Buckdancer's Choice |
| 1967 | James Merrill | Nights and Days |
| 1968 | Robert Bly | The Light Around the Body |
| 1969 | John Berryman | His Toy, His Dream, His Rest |
| 1970 | Elizabeth Bishop | The Complete Poems |
| 1971 | Mona Van Duyn | To See, To Take |
| 1972 | Howard Moss | Selected Poems |
| 1972 | Frank O'Hara | The Collected Works of Frank O'Hara |
| 1973 | A. R. Ammons | Collected Poems, 1951–1971 |
| 1974 | Allen Ginsberg | The Fall of America: Poems of these States, 1965–1971 |
| 1974 | Adrienne Rich | Diving into the Wreck: Poems 1971–1972 |
| 1975 | Marilyn Hacker | Presentation Piece |
| 1976 | John Ashbery | Self-portrait in a Convex Mirror |
| 1977 | Richard Eberhart | Collected Poems, 1930–1976 |
| 1978 | Howard Nemerov | The Collected Poems of Howard Nemerov |
| 1979 | James Merrill | Mirabell: Book of Numbers |
| 1980 | Philip Levine | Ashes: Poems New and Old |
| 1981 | Lisel Mueller | The Need to Hold Still |
| 1982 | William Bronk | Life Supports: New and Collected Poems |
| 1983 | Galway Kinnell | Selected Poems |
| 1983 | Charles Wright | Country Music: Selected Early Poems |
Major reorganization in 1984 eliminated the 30-year-old Poetry award along with dozens of younger ones. Poetry alone was restored seven years later.
National Book Award for Poetry winners, 1991 to present :
| Year | Author | Title |
| 1991 | Philip Levine | What Work Is |
| 1992 | Mary Oliver | New and Selected Poems |
| 1993 | A. R. Ammons | Garbage |
| 1994 | James Tate | A Worshipful Company of Fletchers |
| 1995 | Stanley Kunitz | Passing Through: The Later Poems |
| 1996 | Hayden Carruth | Scrambled Eggs and Whiskey |
| 1997 | William Meredith | Effort at Speech: New and Selected Poems |
| 1998 | Gerald Stern | This Time: New and Selected Poems |
| 1999 | Ai | Vice: New and Selected Poems |
| 2000 | Lucille Clifton | Blessing the Boats: New and Selected Poems 1988–2000 |
| 2001 | Alan Dugan | Poems Seven: New and Complete Poetry |
| 2002 | Ruth Stone | In the Next Galaxy |
| 2003 | C. K. Williams | The Singing |
| 2004 | Jean Valentine | Door in the Mountain: New and Collected Poems, 1965–2003 |
| 2005 | W. S. Merwin | Migration: New and Selected Poems |
| 2006 | Nathaniel Mackey | Splay Anthem |
| 2007 | Robert Hass | Time and Materials: Poems, 1997–2005 |
| 2008 | Mark Doty | Fire to Fire: New and Collected Poems |
| 2009 | Keith Waldrop | Transcendental Studies: A Trilogy |
| 2010 | Terrance Hayes | Lighthead |
| 2011 | Nikky Finney | Head Off & Split |
| 2012 | David Ferry | Bewilderment: New Poems and Translations |
| 2013 | Mary Szybist | Incarnadine |
| 2014 | Louise Glück | Faithful and Virtuous Night |
| 2015 | Robin Coste Lewis | Voyage of the Sable Venus |
| 2016 | Daniel Borzutzky | The Performance of Becoming Human |
| 2017 | Frank Bidart | Half-light: Collected Poems 1965–2016 |
| 2018 | Justin Phillip Reed | Indecency |
| 2019 | Arthur Sze | Sight Lines |
| 2020 | Don Mee Choi | DMZ Colony |
| 2021 | Martín Espada | Floaters |
| 2022 | John Keene | Punks: New & Selected Poems |
| 2023 | Craig Santos Perez | from unincorporated territory [åmot] |
| 2024 | Lena Khalaf Tuffaha | Something About Living |

### Young People's Literature

    See also the "Children's" award categories, immediately below.
National Book Award for Young People's Literature winners, 1996 to present :
| Year | Author | Title |
| 1996 | Victor Martinez | Parrott in the Oven: MiVida |
| 1997 | Han Nolan | Dancing on the Edge |
| 1998 | Louis Sachar | Holes |
| 1999 | Kimberly Willis Holt | When Zachary Beaver Came to Town |
| 2000 | Gloria Whelan | Homeless Bird |
| 2001 | Virginia Euwer Wolff | True Believer |
| 2002 | Nancy Farmer | The House of the Scorpion |
| 2003 | Polly Horvath | The Canning Season |
| 2004 | Pete Hautman | Godless |
| 2005 | Jeanne Birdsall | The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy |
| 2006 | M. T. Anderson | The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Vol. I |
| 2007 | Sherman Alexie | The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian |
| 2008 | Judy Blundell | What I Saw and How I Lied |
| 2009 | Phillip Hoose | Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice |
| 2010 | Kathryn Erskine | Mockingbird |
| 2011 | Thanhha Lai | Inside Out and Back Again |
| 2012 | William Alexander | Goblin Secrets |
| 2013 | Cynthia Kadohata | The Thing About Luck |
| 2014 | Jacqueline Woodson | Brown Girl Dreaming |
| 2015 | Neal Shusterman | Challenger Deep |
| 2016 | John Lewis, Nate Powell, and Andrew Aydin | March: Book Three |
| 2017 | Robin Benway | Far from the Tree |
| 2018 | Elizabeth Acevedo | The Poet X |
| 2019 | Martin W. Sandler | 1919 The Year That Changed America |
| 2020 | Kacen Callender | King and the Dragonflies |
| 2021 | Malinda Lo | Last Night at the Telegraph Club |
| 2022 | Sabaa Tahir | All My Rage |
| 2023 | Dan Santat | A First Time for Everything |
| 2024 | Shifa Saltagi Safadi | Kareem Between |

### Award for Translated Literature

An award for translated works was first established in 1967. The standard $1000 cash prize was initially provided by the National Translation Center, which had been founded at the University of Texas at Austin in 1965 with a grant from the Ford Foundation.
The first translation award ran from 1967 to 1983 and was for fiction only; the translated author could be living or dead.
National Book Award for Translation winners, 1967 to 1983 :
| Year | Author | Title |
| 1967 | Gregory Rabassa | Julio Cortázar's Hopscotch |
| 1967 | Willard Trask | Casanova's History of My Life |
| 1968 | Howard Hong and Edna Hong | Søren Kierkegaard's Journals and Papers |
| 1969 | William Weaver | Italo Calvino's Cosmicomics |
| 1970 | Ralph Manheim | Céline's Castle to Castle |
| 1971 | Frank Jones | Bertolt Brecht's Saint Joan of the Stockyards |
| 1971 | Edward G. Seidensticker | Yasunari Kawabata's The Sound of the Mountain |
| 1972 | Austryn Wainhouse | Jacques Monod's Chance and Necessity |
| 1973 | Allen Mandelbaum | The Aeneid of Virgil |
| 1974 | Karen Brazell | The Confessions of Lady Nijo |
| 1974 | Helen R. Lane | Octavio Paz's Alternating Current |
| 1974 | Jackson Matthews | Paul Valéry's Monsieur Teste |
| 1975 | Anthony Kerrigan | Miguel de Unamuno's The Agony of Christianity and Essays on Faith |
| 1977 | Li-Li Ch'en | Master Tung's Western Chamber Romance |
| 1978 | Richard and Clara Winston | Uwe George's In the Deserts of This Earth |
| 1979 | Clayton Eshleman and José Rubia Barcia | César Vallejo's The Complete Posthumous Poetry |
| 1980 | William Arrowsmith | Cesare Pavese's Hard Labor |
| 1980 | Jane Gary Harris and Constance Link | Osip E. Mandelstam's Complete Critical Prose and Letters |
| 1981 | Francis Steegmuller | The Letters of Gustave Flaubert |
| 1981 | John E Woods | Arno Schmidt's Evening Edged in Gold |
| 1982 | Ian Hideo Levy | Higuchi Ichiyō's In the Shade of Spring Leaves |
| 1982 | Robert Lyons Danly | The Ten Thousand Leaves: A Translation of The Man'Yoshu, Japan's Premier Anthology of Classical Poetry |
| 1983 | Richard Howard | Charles Baudelaire's Les Fleurs du mal |
The National Book Award for Translated Literature was inaugurated in 2018 for fiction or non-fiction, where both author and translator were alive at the beginning of the awards cycle.
National Book Award for Translated Literature winners, 2018 to present :
| Year | Author | Title |
| 2018 | Margaret Mitsutani | Tawada Yoko's The Emissary |
| 2019 | Ottilie Mulzet | László Krasznahorkai's Baron Wenckheim's Homecoming |
| 2020 | Morgan Giles | Miri Yu's Tokyo Ueno Station |
| 2021 | Aneesa Abbass Higgins | Elisa Shua Dusapin's Winter in Sokcho |
| 2022 | Megan McDowell | Samanta Schweblin's Seven Empty Houses |
| 2023 | Bruna Dantas Lobarto | Stênio Gardel's The Words That Remain |
| 2024 | Lin King | Yang Shuang-zi's Taiwan Travelogue |

## Children's books

National Book Award for Children's Literature winners, 1969–1979 :
| Year | Category | Author | Title |
| 1969 | Literature | Meindert DeJong | Journey from Peppermint Street |
| 1970 | Literature | Isaac Bashevis Singer | A Day of Pleasure: Stories of a Boy Growing up in Warsaw |
| 1971 | Literature | Lloyd Alexander | The Marvelous Misadventures of Sebastian |
| 1972 | Literature | Donald Barthelme | The Slightly Irregular Fire Engine or The Hithering Thithering Djinn |
| 1973 | Literature | Ursula K. Le Guin | The Farthest Shore |
| 1974 | Literature | Eleanor Cameron | The Court of the Stone Children |
| 1975 | Literature | Virginia Hamilton | M. C. Higgins the Great |
| 1976 | Literature | Walter D. Edmonds | Bert Breen's Barn |
| 1977 | Literature | Katherine Paterson | The Master Puppeteer |
| 1978 | Literature | Judith Kohl and Herbert R. Kohl | The View From the Oak: The Private Worlds of Other Creatures |
| 1979 | Literature | Katherine Paterson | The Great Gilly Hopkins |
| 1980 | Fiction (hardcover) | Joan Blos | A Gathering of Days: A New England Girl's Journal |
| 1980 | Fiction (paperback) | Madeleine L'Engle | A Swiftly Tilting Planet |
| 1981 | Fiction (hardcover) | Betsy Byars | The Night Swimmers |
| 1981 | Fiction (paperback) | Beverly Cleary | Ramona and Her Mother |
| 1981 | Nonfiction (hardcover) | Alison Cragin Herzig and Jane Lawrence Mali | Oh, Boy! Babies |
| 1982 | Fiction (hardcover) | Lloyd Alexander | Westmark |
| 1982 | Fiction (paperback) | Ouida Sebestyen | Words by Heart |
| 1982 | Nonfiction | Susan Bonners | A Penguin Year |
| 1982 | Picture Books (hardcover) | Maurice Sendak | Outside Over There |
| 1982 | Picture Books (paperback) | Peter Spier | Noah's Ark |
| 1983 | Fiction (hardcover) | Jean Fritz | Homesick: My Own Story |
| 1983 | Fiction (paperback) | Paula Fox | A Place Apart |
| 1983 | Fiction (paperback) | Joyce Carol Thomas | Marked by Fire |
| 1983 | Nonfiction | James Cross Giblin | Chimney Sweeps |
| 1983 | Picture Books (hardcover) | Barbara Cooney | Miss Rumphius |
| 1983 | Picture Books (hardcover) | William Steig | Doctor De Soto |
| 1983 | Picture Books (paperback) | Mary Ann Hoberman with Betty Fraser (illus.) | A House is a House for Me |

## Nonfiction subcategories 1964 to 1983

This section covers awards from 1964 to 1983 in categories that differ from the "current categories" in name. Some of them were substantially equivalent to current categories.

### Arts and Letters

National Book Award for Nonfiction: Arts and Letters winners, 1964–1976 :
| Year | Author | Title |
| 1964 | Aileen Ward | John Keats: The Making of a Poet |
| 1965 | Eleanor Clark | The Oysters of Locmariaquer |
| 1966 | Janet Flanner | Paris Journal, 1944–1965 |
| 1967 | Justin Kaplan | Mr. Clemens and Mark Twain: A Biography |
| 1968 | William Troy | Selected Essays |
| 1969 | Norman Mailer | The Armies of the Night: History as a Novel, The Novel as History |
| 1970 | Lillian Hellman | An Unfinished Woman: A Memoir |
| 1971 | Francis Steegmuller | Cocteau: A Biography |
| 1972 | Charles Rosen | The Classical Style: Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven |
| 1973 | Arthur M. Wilson | Diderot |
| 1974 | Pauline Kael | Deeper into Movies |
| 1975 | Roger Shattuck | Marcel Proust |
| 1975 | Lewis Thomas | The Lives of a Cell: Notes of a Biology Watcher |
| 1976 | Paul Fussell | The Great War and Modern Memory |

### History and (Auto)biography

National Book Award for Nonfiction: History and (Auto)biography winners, 1964–1983 :
| Year | Category | Author | Title |
| 1964 | History and Biography | William H. McNeill | The Rise of the West: A History of the Human Community |
| 1965 | History and Biography | Louis Fischer | The Life of Lenin |
| 1966 | History and Biography | Arthur Schlesinger | A Thousand Days: John F. Kennedy in the White House |
| 1967 | History and Biography | Peter Gay | The Enlightenment: The Rise of Modern Paganism |
| 1968 | History and Biography | George F. Kennan | Memoirs: 1925–1950 |
| 1969 | History and Biography | Winthrop D. Jordan | White over Black: American Attitudes Toward the Negro, 1550–1812 |
| 1970 | History and Biography | T. Harry Williams | Huey Long |
| 1971 | History and Biography | James MacGregor Burns | Roosevelt: The Soldier of Freedom |
| 1972 | Biography | Joseph P. Lash | Eleanor and Franklin: The Story of Their Relationship, Based on Eleanor Roosevelt's Private Papers |
| 1972 | History | Allan Nevins | The Organized War |
| 1973 | Biography | James Thomas Flexner | George Washington, Vol. IV: Anguish and Farewell, 1793–1799 |
| 1973 | History | Robert Manson Myers | The Children of Pride: A True Story of Georgia and the Civil War |
| 1973 | History | Isaiah Trunk | Judenrat: The Jewish Councils in Eastern Europe under Nazi Occupation |
| 1974 | Biography | John Clive | Thomas Babington Macaulay: The Shaping of the Historian |
| 1974 | Biography | Douglas Day | Malcolm Lowry: A Biography |
| 1974 | History | John Clive | Thomas Babington Macaulay: The Shaping of the Historian |
| 1975 | Biography | Richard B. Sewall | The Life of Emily Dickinson |
| 1975 | History | Bernard Bailyn | The Ordeal of Thomas Hutchinson |
| 1976 | History and Biography | David Brion Davis | The Problem of Slavery in the Age of Revolution, 1770–1823 |
| 1977 | Biography and Autobiography | W. A. Swanberg | Norman Thomas: The Last Idealist |
| 1977 | History | Irving Howe | World of Our Fathers: The Journey of the East European Jews to America and the Life They Found and Made |
| 1978 | Biography and Autobiography | W. Jackson Bate | Samuel Johnson |
| 1978 | History | David McCullough | The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal 1870–1914 |
| 1979 | Biography and Autobiography | Arthur Schlesinger | Robert Kennedy and His Times |
| 1979 | History | Richard Beale Davis | Intellectual Life in the Colonial South, 1585–1763 |
| 1980 | Autobiography (hardcover) | Lauren Bacall | Lauren Bacall by Myself |
| 1980 | Autobiography (paperback) | Malcolm Cowley | And I Worked at the Writer's Trade: Chapters of Literary History 1918–1978 |
| 1980 | Biography (hardcover) | Edmund Morris | The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt |
| 1980 | Biography (paperback) | A. Scott Berg | Max Perkins: Editor of Genius |
| 1980 | History (hardcover) | Henry A. Kissinger | The White House Years |
| 1980 | History (paperback) | Barbara W. Tuchman | A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century |
| 1981 | (Auto)biography (hardcover) | Justin Kaplan | Walt Whitman: A Life |
| 1981 | (Auto)biography (paperback) | Deirdre Bair | Samuel Beckett: A Biography |
| 1981 | History (hardcover) | John Boswell | Christianity, Social Tolerance and Homosexuality |
| 1981 | History (paperback) | Leon F. Litwack | Been in the Storm So Long: The Aftermath of Slavery |
| 1982 | (Auto)biography (hardcover) | David McCullough | Mornings on Horseback |
| 1982 | (Auto)biography (paperback) | Ronald Steel | Walter Lippmann and the American Century |
| 1982 | History (hardcover) | Peter J. Powell | People of the Sacred Mountain: A History of the Northern Cheyenne Chiefs and Warrior Societies, 1830–1879 |
| 1982 | History (paperback) | Robert Wohl | The Generation of 1914 |
| 1983 | (Auto)biography (hardcover) | Judith Thurman | Isak Dinesen: The Life of a Storyteller |
| 1983 | (Auto)biography (paperback) | James R. Mellow | Nathaniel Hawthorne in His Times |
| 1983 | History (hardcover) | Alan Brinkley | Voices of Protest: Huey Long, Father Coughlin and the Great Depression |
| 1983 | History (paperback) | Frank E. Manuel and Fritzie P. Manuel | Utopia in the Western World |

### Science, Philosophy and Religion

National Book Award for Nonfiction: Science, Philosophy, and Religion winners, 1964–1983 :
| Year | Category | Author | Title |
| 1964 | Science, Philosophy and Religion | Christopher Tunnard and Boris Pushkarev | Man-made America: Chaos or Control? |
| 1965 | Science, Philosophy and Religion | Norbert Wiener | God and Golem, Inc: A Comment on Certain Points where Cybernetics Impinges on Religion |
| 1966 | Science, Philosophy and Religion | No Award (four finalists, none selected) | No Award (four finalists, none selected) |
| 1967 | Science, Philosophy and Religion | Oscar Lewis | La Vida: A Puerto Rican Family in the Culture of Poverty—San Juan and New York |
| 1968 | Science, Philosophy and Religion | Jonathan Kozol | Death at an Early Age |
| 1969 | The Sciences | Robert Jay Lifton | Death in Life: Survivors of Hiroshima |
| 1970 | Philosophy and Religion | Erik H. Erikson | Gandhi's Truth: On the Origins of Militant Nonviolence |
| 1971 | The Sciences | Raymond Phineas Stearns | Science in the British Colonies of America |
| 1972 | Philosophy and Religion | Martin E. Marty | Righteous Empire: The Protestant Experience in America |
| 1972 | The Sciences | George L. Small | The Blue Whale |
| 1973 | Philosophy and Religion | S. E. Ahlstrom | A Religious History of the American People |
| 1973 | The Sciences | George B. Schaller | The Serengeti Lion: A Study of Predator-Prey Relations |
| 1974 | Philosophy and Religion | Maurice Natanson | Edmund Husserl: Philosopher of Infinite Tasks |
| 1974 | The Sciences | S. E. Luria | Life: The Unfinished Experiment |
| 1975 | Philosophy and Religion | Robert Nozick | Anarchy, State, and Utopia |
| 1975 | The Sciences | Silvano Arieti | Interpretation of Schizophrenia |
| 1975 | The Sciences | Lewis Thomas | The Lives of a Cell: Notes of a Biology Watcher |
| 1980 | Religion/Inspiration (hardcover) | Elaine Pagels | The Gnostic Gospels |
| 1980 | Religion/Inspiration (paperback) | Sheldon Vanauken | A Severe Mercy |
| 1980 | Science (hardcover) | Douglas Hofstadter | Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid |
| 1980 | Science (paperback) | Gary Zukav | The Dancing Wu Li Masters: An Overview of the New Physics |
| 1981 | Science (hardcover) | Stephen Jay Gould | The Panda's Thumb: More Reflections on Natural History |
| 1981 | Science (paperback) | Lewis Thomas | The Medusa and the Snail: More Notes of a Biology Watcher |
| 1982 | Science (hardcover) | Donald C. Johanson and Maitland A. Edey | Lucy: The Beginnings of Humankind |
| 1982 | Science (paperback) | Fred Alan Wolf | Taking the Quantum Leap: The New Physics for Nonscientists |
| 1983 | Science (hardcover) | Abraham Pais | " Subtle is the Lord...": The Science and Life of Albert Einstein |
| 1983 | Science (paperback) | Philip J. Davis and Reuben Hersh | The Mathematical Experience |

### Contemporary

National Book Award for Nonfiction: Contemporary winners, 1972–1980 :
| Category | Year | Author | Title |
| Contemporary Affairs | 1972 | Stewart Brand (ed.) | The Last Whole Earth Catalog |
| Contemporary Affairs | 1973 | Frances FitzGerald | Fire in the Lake: The Vietnamese and the Americans in Vietnam |
| Contemporary Affairs | 1974 | Murray Kempton | The Briar Patch: The People of the State of New York versus Lumumba Shakur, et al. |
| Contemporary Affairs | 1975 | Theodore Rosengarten | All God's Dangers: The Life of Nate Shaw |
| Contemporary Affairs | 1976 | Michael J. Arlen | Passage to Ararat |
| Contemporary Thought | 1977 | Bruno Bettelheim | The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales |
| Contemporary Thought | 1978 | Gloria Emerson | Winners and Losers |
| Contemporary Thought | 1979 | Peter Matthiessen | The Snow Leopard |
| Current Interest (hardcover) | 1980 | Julia Child | Julia Child and More Company |
| Current Interest (paperback) | 1980 | Christopher Lasch | The Culture of Narcissism: American Life in an Age of Diminishing Expectations |

### General Nonfiction

National Book Award for Nonfiction: General Nonfiction winners, 1980–1983 :
| Year | Category | Author | Title |
| 1980 | Hardcover | Tom Wolfe | The Right Stuff |
| 1980 | Paperback | Peter Matthiessen | The Snow Leopard |
| 1981 | Hardcover | Maxine Hong Kingston | China Men |
| 1981 | Paperback | Jane Kramer | The Last Cowboy: Europeans and The Politics of Memory |
| 1982 | Hardcover | Tracy Kidder | The Soul of a New Machine |
| 1982 | Paperback | Victor S. Navasky | Naming Names |
| 1983 | Hardcover | Fox Butterfield | China: Alive in the Bitter Sea |
| 1983 | Paperback | James Fallows | National Defense |

## Other Fiction 1980 to 1985

National Book Award for Fiction Subcategory winners, 1980–1983 :
| Year | Category | Author | Title |
| 1980 | First Novel | William Wharton | Birdy |
| 1980 | Mystery (hardcover) | John D. MacDonald | The Green Ripper |
| 1980 | Mystery (paperback) | William F. Buckley | Stained Glass |
| 1980 | Science Fiction (hardcover) | Frederik Pohl | Jem |
| 1980 | Science Fiction (paperback) | Walter Wangerin | The Book of the Dun Cow |
| 1980 | Western | Louis L'Amour | Bendigo Shafter |
| 1981 | First Novel | Ann Arensberg | Sister Wolf |
| 1982 | First Novel | Robb Forman Dew | Dale Loves Sophie to Death |
| 1983 | First Novel | Gloria Naylor | The Women of Brewster Place |
| 1984 | First Work of Fiction | Harriet Doerr | Stones for Ibarra |
| 1985 | First Work of Fiction | Bob Shacochis | Easy in the Islands |

## Miscellaneous

National Book Award for Miscellaneous winners, 1980,1983 :
| Year | Category | Author | Title |
| 1980 | General Reference Books (hardcover) | Elder Witt (ed.) | The Complete Directory |
| 1980 | General Reference Books (paperback) | Tim Brooks and Earle Marsh | The Complete Directory of Prime Time Network TV Shows: 1946–Present |
| 1983 | Original Paperback | Lisa Goldstein | The Red Magician |

## 1935 to 1941

The first National Book Awards were presented in May 1936 at the annual convention of the American Booksellers Association to four 1935 books selected by its members. Subsequently, the awards were announced mid-February to March 1 and presented at the convention. For 1937 books there were ballots from 319 stores, about three times as many as for 1935. There had been 600 ABA members in 1936.
The "Most Distinguished" Nonfiction, Biography, and Novel (for 1935 and 1936) were reduced to two and termed "Favorite" Nonfiction and Fiction beginning 1937. Master of ceremonies Clifton Fadiman declined to consider the Pulitzer Prizes (not yet announced in February 1938) as potential ratifications. "Unlike the Pulitzer Prize committee, the booksellers merely vote for their favorite books. They do not say it is the best book or the one that will elevate the standard of manhood or womanhood. Twenty years from now we can decide which are the masterpieces. This year we can only decide which books we enjoyed reading the most."
The Bookseller Discovery officially recognized "outstanding merit which failed to receive adequate sales and recognition" The award stood alone for 1941 and the New York Times frankly called it "a sort of consolation prize that the booksellers hope will draw attention to his work".
Authors and publishers outside the United States were eligible and there were several winners by non-U.S. authors (at least Lofts, Curie, de Saint-Exupéry, Du Maurier, and Llewellyn). The Bookseller Discovery and the general awards for fiction and non-fiction were conferred six times in seven years, the Most Original Book five times, and the biography award in the first two years only.
Dates are years of publication.
National Book Award winners, 1935–1941 :
| Year | Category | Author | Title |
| 1935 | Biography | Vincent Sheean | Personal History |
| 1935 | Most Original Book | Charles G. Finney | The Circus of Dr. Lao |
| 1935 | Nonfiction | Anne Morrow Lindbergh | North to the Orient |
| 1935 | Novel | Rachel Field | Time Out of Mind |
| 1936 | Biography | Victor Heiser | An American Doctor's Odyssey: Adventures in Forty-Five Countries |
| 1936 | Bookseller Discovery | Norah Lofts | I Met a Gypsy |
| 1936 | Most Original Book | Della T. Lutes | The Country Kitchen |
| 1936 | Nonfiction | Van Wyck Brooks | The Flowering of New England: 1815–1865 |
| 1937 | Bookseller Discovery | Lawrence Watkin | On Borrowed Time |
| 1937 | Fiction | A. J. Cronin | The Citadel |
| 1937 | Most Original Book | Carl Crow | Four Hundred Million Customers: The Experiences—Some Happy, Some Sad, of an American Living in China, and What They Taught Him |
| 1937 | Nonfiction | Ève Curie | Madame Curie |
| 1938 | Bookseller Discovery | David Fairchild | The World Was My Garden: Travels of a Plant Explorer |
| 1938 | Fiction | Daphne Du Maurier | Rebecca |
| 1938 | Most Original Book | Margaret Halsey | With Malice Toward Some |
| 1938 | Nonfiction | Anne Morrow Lindbergh | Listen! The Wind |
| 1939 | Bookseller Discovery | Elgin Groseclose | Ararat |
| 1939 | Fiction | John Steinbeck | The Grapes of Wrath |
| 1939 | Most Original Book | Dalton Trumbo | Johnny Got His Gun |
| 1939 | Nonfiction | Antoine de Saint-Exupéry | Wind, Sand and Stars |
| 1940 | Bookseller Discovery | Perry Burgess | Who Walk Alone (1942 subtitle, Life of a Leper) |
| 1940 | Fiction | Richard Llewellyn | How Green Was My Valley |
| 1940 | Nonfiction | Hans Zinsser | As I Remember Him: The Biography of R.S. |
| 1941 | Bookseller Discovery | George Sessions Perry | Hold Autumn in Your Hand |

## Graphics awards

The "Academy Awards model" (Oscars) was introduced in 1980 under the name TABA, The American Book Awards. The program expanded from seven literary awards to 28 literary and 6 graphics awards. After 1983, with 19 literary and 8 graphics awards, the Awards practically went out of business, to be restored in 1984 with a program of three literary awards.
Since 1988 the Awards have been under the care of the National Book Foundation which does not recognize the graphics awards.
| 1980 | Art/Illustrated collection (hardcover) | Drawings and Digressions by Larry Rivers with Carol Brightman; Herman Strobuck, designer (Clarkson N. Potter) |
| 1980 | Art/Illustrated original art (hard) | The Birthday of the Infanta by Oscar Wilde (1888 original), illustrated by Leonard Lubin (Viking Press) |
| 1980 | Art/Illustrated (paperback) | Anatomy Illustrated by Emily Blair Chewning; designed by Dana Levy (Fireside/ Simon & Schuster) |
| 1980 | Book Design (hc & ppb) | The Architect's Eye by Debora Nevins and Robert A. M. Stern (Pantheon Books) |
| 1980 | Cover Design (paper) | Famous Potatoes by Joe Cottonwood (orig. 1978); David Myers, designer (Delta/ Seymour Lawrence) |
| 1980 | Jacket Design (hard) | Birdy by William Wharton; Fred Marcellino, designer (Alfred A. Knopf) |
| 1981 | Book Design, pictorial | In China, photographed by Eve Arnold, designer R. D. Scudellari (The Brooklyn Museum) |
| 1981 | Book Design, typographical | Saul Bellow, Drumlin Woodchuck by Mark Harris, designed by Richard Hendel (University of Georgia Press) |
| 1981 | Book Illustration, collected or adapted | The Lost Museum: glimpses of vanished originals by Robert M. Adams, designed by Michael Shroyer (Viking Press) |
| 1981 | Cover Design, paperback | Fiorucci: The Book, designed by Quist-Couratin(?) (Milan: Harlin Quist Books, distributed by Dial/ Delacorte) |
| 1981 | Jacket Design, hardcover | In China, photographed by Eve Arnold, designer R. D. Scudellari (The Brooklyn Museum) |
| 1982 | | |
| 1983 | Pictorial Design | Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, designer/illustrator Barry Moser, art director Steve Renick (University of California Press) |
| 1983 | Typographical Design | A Constructed Roman Alphabet, designer/illustrator David Lance Goines, art director William F. Luckey (David R. Godine) |
| 1983 | Illustration Collected Art | John Singer Sargent by Carter Ratcliff, designer Howard Morris, editor Nancy Grubb, production manager Dana Cole (Abbeville Press) |
| 1983 | Illustration Original Art | Porcupine Stew by Beverly Major, illustrator Erick Ingraham, designer/art director Cynthia Basil (William Morrow Junior Books) |
| 1983 | Illustration Photographs | Alfred Stieglitz: Photographs and Writings by Sarah Greenough and Juan Hamilton, designer Eleanor Morris Caponigro (National Gallery of Art/Callaway Editions) |
| 1983 | Cover Design | Bogmail by Patrick McGinley, illustrator Doris Ettlinger, designer/art director Neil Stuart (Penguin Books) |
| 1983 | Jacket Design | Souls on Fire by Elie Wiesel, designer Fred Marcellino, art director Frank Metz (Summit Books/ Simon & Schuster) |
Herbert Mitgang's report on the inaugural TABA begins thus: "Thirty-four hardcover and paperback books, many of which nobody had heard of before, were named winners during a generally ragged presentation of the first American Book Awards in a ceremony at the Seventh Regiment Armory last night. The event was designed to resemble Hollywood's Oscars, but instead there was little glamour. All the winners were barred from accepting their awards, and most did not attend."

## Repeat winners
### Books

At least three books have won two National Book Awards. Dates are award years.
* John Clive, Thomas Babington Macaulay: The Shaping of the Historian
       1974 Biography; 1974 History
* Peter Matthiessen, The Snow Leopard
       1979 Contemporary Thought; 1980 General Nonfiction, Paperback
* Lewis Thomas, The Lives of a Cell: Notes of a Biology Watcher
       1975 Arts and Letters; 1975 Science

### Authors

At least three authors have won three awards: Saul Bellow with three Fiction awards; Peter Matthiessen with two awards for The Snow Leopard (above) and the 2008 Fiction award for Shadow Country; Lewis Thomas with two awards for The Lives of a Cell (above) and the 1981 Science paperback award for The Medusa and the Snail.
These three authors and numerous others have written two award-winning books.
Dates are award years.

#### "Children's" and "Young People's" categories

* Lloyd Alexander, 1971, 1982
* Katherine Paterson, 1977, 1979

#### "Fiction"

* Saul Bellow (3), 1954, 1965, 1971
* John Cheever, 1958, 1981
* William Faulkner, 1951, 1955
* William Gaddis, 1976, 1994
* Bernard Malamud, 1959, 1967
* Wright Morris, 1957, 1981
* Philip Roth, 1960, 1995
* John Updike, 1964, 1982
* Jesmyn Ward, 2011, 2017

#### "Fiction" and another category

* Peter Mathiessen, 2008 and The Snow Leopard, two nonfiction categories 1979 and 1980
* Isaac Bashevis Singer, 1974 and A Day of Pleasure: Stories of a Boy Growing up in Warsaw, Children's Literature 1970

#### "Nonfiction" and nonfiction subcategories

* Justin Kaplan, 1961, 1981 (Arts and Letters, Biography/Autobiography)
* George F. Kennan, 1957, 1968 (Nonfiction, History and Biography)
* Anne Morrow Lindbergh, 1936, 1939 (Non-Fiction, Non-Fiction)
* David McCullough, 1978, 1982 (History, Autobiography/Biography)
* Arthur Schlesinger, 1966, 1979 (History and Biography, Biography and Autobiography)
* Frances Steegmuller, 1971, 1981 (Arts and Letters, Translation)
* Lewis Thomas, 1975, 1981 (Arts and Letters and Science, Science)

#### "Poetry"

* A. R. Ammons, 1973, 1993
* Alan Dugan, 1962, 2001
* Philip Levine, 1980, 1991
* James Merrill, 1967, 1979
* Theodore Roethke, 1959, 1965
* Wallace Stevens, 1951, 1955

## Split awards

The Translation award was split six times during its 1967 to 1983 history, once split three ways. Twelve other awards were split, all during that period.
* 1967 Translation
* 1971 Translation
* 1972 Poetry
* 1973 Fiction, History
* 1974 Fiction, Poetry, Biography, Translation (3)
* 1975 Fiction, Arts & Letters, The Sciences
* 1980 Translation
* 1981 Translation
* 1982 Translation
* 1983 Poetry, Children's Fiction paper, Children's Picture hard
Four of the ten awards were split in 1974, including the three-way split in Translation. That year the Awards practically went out of business. In 1975 there was no sponsor. A temporary administrator, the Committee on Awards Policy, "begged" judges not to split awards, yet three of ten awards were split. William Cole explained this in a New York Times column pessimistically entitled "The Last of the National Book Awards" but the Awards were "saved" by the National Institute of Arts and Letters in 1976.
Split awards returned with a 1980 reorganization on Academy Awards lines (under the ambiguous name "American Book Awards" for a few years). From 1980 to 1983 there were not only split awards but more than twenty award categories annually; there were graphics awards (or "non-literary awards") and dual awards for hardcover and paperback books, both unique to the period.
In 1983 the awards again went out of business, and they were not saved for 1983 publications (January to October). The 1984 reorganization prohibited split awards as it trimmed the award categories from 27 to three.