# Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Biography

Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Biography, established in 1981, is a category of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Works are eligible during the year of their first US publication in English, though they may be written originally in languages other than English.

## Recipients

Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Biography winners and finalists :
| Year | Author | Title | Subject | Result |
| 1981 | David McCullough | Mornings on Horseback | Theodore Roosevelt, 26th president of the United States, serving from 1901 to 1909 (1858–1919) | Winner |
| 1982 | Gay Wilson Allen | Waldo Emerson: A Biography | Ralph Waldo Emerson, American philosopher, essayist, and poet (1803–1882) | Winner |
| 1983 | Seymour Hersh | The Price of Power: Kissinger in the Nixon White House | Henry Kissinger, German-born American politician, diplomat, and geopolitical consultant (1923–2023) | Winner |
| 1984 | Ernst Pawel | The Nightmare of Reason: A Life of Franz Kafka | Franz Kafka, Bohemian writer from Prague (1883–1924) | Winner |
| 1985 | Michael Scammell | Solzhenitsyn: A Biography | Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Russian writer and historian (1918–2008) | Winner |
| 1986 | Maynard Mack | Alexander Pope: A Life | Alexander Pope, English poet (1688–1744) | Winner |
| 1987 | Kenneth S. Lynn | Hemingway | Ernest Hemingway, American author and journalist (1899–1961) | Winner |
| 1988 | Brenda Maddox | Nora: The Real Life of Molly Bloom | Nora Barnacle, Muse and wife of Irish author James Joyce (1884–1951) | Winner |
| 1989 | Tobias Wolff | This Boy's Life: A Memoir | | Winner |
| 1990 | Geoffrey C. Ward | A First-Class Temperament: The Emergence of Franklin Roosevelt | Franklin D. Roosevelt, 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 to 1945 (1882–1945) | Winner |
| 1990 | Robert A. Caro | Means of Ascent: Volume 2 of The Years of Lyndon Johnson | Lyndon B. Johnson, 36th president of the United States, serving from 1963 to 1969 (1908–1973) | Finalist |
| 1990 | Deirdre Bair | Simone de Beauvoir: A Biography | Simone de Beauvoir, French philosopher, social theorist and activist (1908–1986) | Finalist |
| 1990 | Patricia O'Toole | The Five of Hearts: An Intimate Portrait of Henry Adams and His Friends, 1880–1918 | Henry Adams, American historian and Adams political family member (1838–1918) | Finalist |
| 1990 | Hugo Young | The Iron Lady: A Biography of Margaret Thatcher | Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 (1925–2013) | Finalist |
| 1991 | T. H. Watkins | Righteous Pilgrim: The Life and Times of Harold L. Ickes, 1874–1952 | Harold L. Ickes, American politician, Secretary of State from 1933 to 1946 (1874–1952) | Winner |
| 1991 | Natalie Kusz | Road Song: A Memoir | | Finalist |
| 1991 | Benita Eisler | O'Keeffe and Stieglitz: An American Romance | Georgia O'Keeffe, American modernist artist (1887–1986), and Alfred Stieglitz, American photographer (1864–1946) | Finalist |
| 1991 | Willard Sterne Randall | Benedict Arnold: Patriot and Traitor | Benedict Arnold, American military officer during the Revolutionary War who defected to the British (1741–1801) | Finalist |
| 1991 | John Richardson | A Life of Picasso: Volume 1. The Prodigy, 1881–1906 | Pablo Picasso, Spanish painter and sculptor, known for co-founding the Cubist movement (1881–1973) | Finalist |
| 1992 | Blanche Wiesen Cook | Eleanor Roosevelt: Volume One, 1884–1933 | Eleanor Roosevelt, First Lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945 (1884–1962) | Winner |
| 1992 | Edwin Haviland Miller | Salem Is My Dwelling Place: A Life of Nathaniel Hawthorne | Nathaniel Hawthorne, American novelist and short story writer (1804–1864) | Finalist |
| 1992 | Deena Ruth Rosenberg | Fascinating Rhythm: The Collaboration of George and Ira Gershwin | George Gershwin, American pianist and composer (1898–1937), and his brother, Ira Gershwin, American lyricist (1896–1983) | Finalist |
| 1992 | Kenneth Silverman | Edgar A. Poe: Mournful and Never-ending Remembrance | Edgar Allan Poe, American writer and literary critic (1809–1849) | Finalist |
| 1992 | William Martin | A Prophet With Honor: The Billy Graham Story | Billy Graham, American Christian evangelist (1918–2018) | Finalist |
| 1993 | John Mack Faragher | Daniel Boone: The Life and Legend of an American Pioneer | Daniel Boone, American pioneer and frontiersman (1734–1820) | Winner |
| 1993 | Antonia Fraser | The Six Wives of Henry VIII | Wives of Henry VIII | Finalist |
| 1993 | Philip B. Kunhardt, Jr., Philip B. Kunhardt III, and Peter W. Kunhardt | Lincoln: An Illustrated Biography | Abraham Lincoln, 16th president of the United States, serving from 1861 to 1865 (1809–1865) | Finalist |
| 1993 | William Lanouette and Bela Silard | Genius in the Shadows: A Biography of Leo Szilard, the Man Behind the Bomb | Leo Szilard, Hungarian-American physicist and inventor (1898–1964) | Finalist |
| 1993 | Joseph Brent | Charles Sanders Peirce: A Life | Charles Sanders Peirce, American thinker who founded pragmatism (1839–1914) | Finalist |
| 1994 | Mikal Gilmore | Shot in the Heart | Gary Gilmore, American murderer (1940–1977) | Winner |
| 1994 | Ruth Butler | Rodin: The Shape of Genius | Auguste Rodin, French sculptor generally considered the founder of modern sculpture (1840–1917) | Finalist |
| 1994 | Gerald Gunther | Learned Hand: The Man and the Judge | Learned Hand, American jurist (1872–1961) | Finalist |
| 1994 | Joan D. Hedrick | Harriet Beecher Stowe: A Life | Harriet Beecher Stowe, American abolitionist and author (1811–1896) | Finalist |
| 1994 | Brian Keenan | An Evil Cradling | | Finalist |
| 1995 | Doris Lessing | Under My Skin: Volume One of My Autobiography, to 1949 | | Winner |
| 1995 | Susan Quinn | Marie Curie: A Life | Marie Curie, Polish-French physicist and chemist (1867–1934) | Finalist |
| 1995 | Tobias Wolff | In Pharaoh's Army: Memories of the Lost War | | Finalist |
| 1995 | Alix Kates Shulman | Drinking the Rain: A Memoir | | Finalist |
| 1995 | Brenda Maddox | D.H. Lawrence: The Story of a Marriage | D. H. Lawrence, English writer and poet (1885–1930) | Finalist |
| 1996 | Frank McCourt | Angela's Ashes: A Memoir | | Winner |
| 1996 | Fiona MacCarthy | William Morris: A Life for Our Time | William Morris, British textile designer, novelist, and socialist activist (1834–1896) | Finalist |
| 1996 | Lyle Leverich | Tom: The Unknown Tennessee Williams | Tennessee Williams, American playwright (1911–1983) | Finalist |
| 1996 | Simon Callow | Orson Welles: The Road to Xanadu | Orson Welles, American actor, director, writer, and producer (1915–1985) | Finalist |
| 1996 | John Richardson | A Life of Picasso: Volume 2. The Cubist Rebel, 1907–1916 | Pablo Picasso, Spanish painter and sculptor, known for co-founding the Cubist movement (1881–1973) | Finalist |
| 1996 | Hannah Pakula | An Uncommon Woman: The Empress Frederick | Victoria, Princess Royal, princess of the United Kingdom and German Empress (1840–1901) | Finalist |
| 1996 | Gail Levin | Edward Hopper: An Intimate Biography | Edward Hopper, American realist painter, widely known for his oil paintings (1882–1967) | Finalist |
| 1996 | Joan Mellen | Hellman and Hammett: The Legendary Passion of Lillian Hellman and Dashiell Hammett | Lillian Hellman, American dramatist and screenwriter (1905–1984), and Dashiell Hammett, American writer (1894–1961) | Finalist |
| 1997 | Sam Tanenhaus | Whittaker Chambers: A Biography | Whittaker Chambers, Defected communist spy, writer, editor (1901– 1961) | Winner |
| 1997 | A.M. Sperber and Eric Lax | Bogart | Humphrey Bogart, American actor (1899–1957) | Finalist |
| 1997 | James Salter | Burning the Days: Recollection | | Finalist |
| 1997 | Alan Schom | Napoleon Bonaparte: A Life | Napoleon, French Emperor 1804–1814 and again in 1815 (1769–1821) | Finalist |
| 1997 | Gavin Lambert | Nazimova: A Biography | Alla Nazimova, Russian-American actress, director, and producer (1879–1945) | Finalist |
| 1998 | A. Scott Berg | Lindbergh | Charles Lindbergh, American aviator, military officer, author, inventor, and activist (1902–1974) | Winner |
| 1998 | Fintan O'Toole | A Traitor's Kiss: The Life of Richard Brinsley Sheridan, 1751–1816 | Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Irish satirist, a politician, a playwright, poet, and long-term owner of the London Theatre Royal, Drury Lane (1751–1816) | Finalist |
| 1998 | Barbara Goldsmith | Other Powers: The Age of Suffrage, Spiritualism, and the Scandalous Victoria Woodhull | Victoria Woodhull, American women's suffrage movement leader (1838–1927) | Finalist |
| 1998 | Hilary Spurling | The Unknown Matisse: Volume 1. The Early Years, 1869–1908 | Henri Matisse, 20th-century French artist (1869–1954) | Finalist |
| 1998 | Graham Robb | Victor Hugo: A Biography | Victor Hugo, French novelist, poet, and dramatist (1802–1885) | Finalist |
| 1999 | Judith Thurman | Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette | Colette, French writer, (1873–1954) | Winner |
| 1999 | Benita Eisler | Byron: Child of Passion, Fool of Fame | Lord Byron, 19th-century English Romantic poet and lyricist (1788–1824) | Finalist |
| 1999 | Robert Clark | My Grandfather's House: A Genealogy of Doubt and Faith | | Finalist |
| 1999 | Simon Schama | Rembrandt's Eyes | Rembrandt, 17th-century Dutch painter and printmaker (1606–1669) | Finalist |
| 1999 | Jerome Loving | Walt Whitman: The Song of Himself | Walt Whitman, American poet, essayist and journalist (1819–1892) | Finalist |
| 2000 | William J. Cooper, Jr. | Jefferson Davis, American | Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States from 1861 to 1865 (1808–1889) | Winner |
| 2000 | Joseph J. Ellis | Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation | Founding Fathers of the United States | Finalist |
| 2000 | Ian Kershaw | Hitler: Volume 2. 1936–1945 Nemesis | Adolf Hitler, Führer of Nazi Germany (1889–1945) | Finalist |
| 2000 | Philip Short | Mao: A Life | Mao Zedong, also known as chairman Mao, founding father of the People's Republic of China (1893–1976) | Finalist |
| 2000 | H.W. Brands | The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin | Benjamin Franklin, American polymath and a Founding Father of the United States (1706–1790) | Finalist |
| 2001 | Edmund Morris | Theodore Rex | Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th president of the United States, serving from 1901 to 1909 (1858–1919) | Winner |
| 2001 | Adam Sisman | Boswell's Presumptuous Task: The Making of the Life of Dr. Johnson | James Boswell, Scottish lawyer, diarist, and author (1740–1795) | Finalist |
| 2001 | David McCullough | John Adams | John Adams, 2nd president of the United States, serving from 1797 to 1801 (1735–1826) | Finalist |
| 2001 | Antonia Fraser | Marie Antoinette: The Journey | Marie Antoinette, Queen of France from 1774 to 1792 (1755–1793) | Finalist |
| 2001 | Laura Hillenbrand | Seabiscuit: An American Legend | Seabiscuit, Champion thoroughbred racehorse in the United States | Finalist |
| 2002 | Robert A. Caro | Master of the Senate: The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Vol. 3 | Lyndon B. Johnson, 36th president of the United States, serving from 1963 to 1969 (1908–1973) | Winner |
| 2002 | T. J. Stiles | Jesse James: Last Rebel of the Civil War | Jesse James, American outlaw (1847–1882) | Finalist |
| 2002 | Claire Tomalin | Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self | Samuel Pepys, English diarist (1633–1703) | Finalist |
| 2002 | Daniel Ellsberg | Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers | | Finalist |
| 2002 | Gioconda Belli | The Country Under My Skin: A Memoir of Love and War | | Finalist |
| 2003 | Neil Smith | American Empire: Roosevelt's Geographer and the Prelude to Globalization | Isaiah Bowman, American geographer and President of Johns Hopkins University, 1935–1948 (1878–1950) | Winner |
| 2003 | Robert Hughes | Goya | Francisco Goya, 18th and 19th-century Spanish painter and printmaker (1746–1828) | Finalist |
| 2003 | Deirdre Bair | Jung: A Biography | Carl Jung, Swiss psychiatrist and psychotherapist (1875–1961) | Finalist |
| 2003 | T.J. Binyon | Pushkin: A Biography | Alexander Pushkin, Russian poet, playwright, and novelist (1799–1837) | Finalist |
| 2003 | Rebecca Solnit | River of Shadows: Eadweard Muybridge and the Technological Wild West | Eadweard Muybridge, English-American photographer, known for his pioneering work in photographic studies of motion, and early work in motion-picture projection (1830–1904) | Finalist |
| 2004 | Mark Stevens and Annalyn Swan | de Kooning: An American Master | Willem de Kooning, Dutch-American abstract expressionist artist (1904– 1997) | Winner |
| 2004 | Ron Chernow | Alexander Hamilton | Alexander Hamilton, American founding father and statesman (1757–1804) | Finalist |
| 2004 | Richard Rhodes | John James Audubon: The Making of an American | John James Audubon, American self-trained artist, naturalist, and ornithologist (1785–1851) | Finalist |
| 2004 | Michael Ybarra | Washington Gone Crazy: Senator Pat McCarran and the Great American Communist Hunt | Pat McCarran, American judge and politician (1876–1954) | Finalist |
| 2004 | Stephen Greenblatt | Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare | William Shakespeare, English poet, playwright, and actor (1564–1616) | Finalist |
| 2005 | Hilary Spurling | Matisse the Master: A Life of Henri Matisse, the Conquest of Colour, 1909–1954 | Henri Matisse, 20th-century French artist (1869–1954) | Winner |
| 2005 | Andrew Delbanco | Melville: His World and Work | Herman Melville, 19th-century American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet (1819–1891) | Finalist |
| 2005 | Marion Elizabeth Rodgers | Mencken: The American Iconoclast | H. L. Mencken, American journalist and writer (1880–1956) | Finalist |
| 2005 | Doris Kearns Goodwin | Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln | Abraham Lincoln, 16th president of the United States, serving from 1861 to 1865 | Finalist |
| 2005 | Steven Watts | The People's Tycoon: Henry Ford and the American Century | Henry Ford, American industrialist and businessman (1863–1947) | Finalist |
| 2006 | Neal Gabler | Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination | Walt Disney, American entrepreneur, animator and producer (1901–1966) | Winner |
| 2006 | Jeffrey Goldberg | Prisoners: A Muslim and a Jew Across the Middle East Divide | | Finalist |
| 2006 | Rodney Bolt | The Librettist of Venice: The Remarkable Life of Lorenzo Da Ponte | Lorenzo Da Ponte, Italian, later American, opera librettist, poet and Roman Catholic priest (1749–1838) | Finalist |
| 2006 | Daniel Mendelsohn | The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million | | Finalist |
| 2006 | Debby Applegate | The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher | Henry Ward Beecher, American clergyman and abolitionist (1813–1887) | Finalist |
| 2007 | Simon Sebag Montefiore | Young Stalin | Joseph Stalin, Leader of the Soviet Union from 1924 to 1953 (1878–1953) | Winner |
| 2007 | Robert Morgan | Boone: A Biography | Daniel Boone, American pioneer and frontiersman (1734–1820) | Finalist |
| 2007 | Nancy Isenberg | Fallen Founder: The Life of Aaron Burr | Aaron Burr, 3rd vice president of the United States from 1801 to 1805 (1756–1836) | Finalist |
| 2007 | Tim Jeal | Stanley: The Impossible Life of Africa's Greatest Explorer | Henry Morton Stanley, Welsh journalist and explorer, famous for his exploration of Central Africa (1841–1904) | Finalist |
| 2007 | Michael J. Neufeld | Von Braun: Dreamer of Space, Engineer of War | Wernher von Braun, German-American aerospace engineer (1912–1977) | Finalist |
| 2008 | Paula J. Giddings | Ida: A Sword Among Lions: Ida B. Wells and the Campaign Against Lynching | Ida B. Wells, African-American civil rights activist (1862–1931) | Winner |
| 2008 | Jon Meacham | American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House | Andrew Jackson, 7th president of the United States from 1829 to 1837 (1767–1845) | Finalist |
| 2008 | Jackie Wullschlager | Chagall: A Biography | Marc Chagall, French artist (1887–1985) | Finalist |
| 2008 | Ernest Freeberg | Democracy's Prisoner: Eugene V. Debs, the Great War, and the Right to Dissent | | Finalist |
| 2008 | H.W. Brands | Traitor to His Class: The Privileged Life and Radical Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt | Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd president of the United States from 1933 to 1945 | Finalist |
| 2009 | Linda Gordon | Dorothea Lange: A Life Beyond Limits | Dorothea Lange, American photojournalist (1895–1965) | Winner |
| 2009 | Michael Scammell | Koestler: The Literary and Political Odyssey of a Twentieth-Century Skeptic | Arthur Koestler, Jewish Hungarian-British author and journalist (1905–1983) | Finalist |
| 2009 | Melvin I. Urofsky | Louis D. Brandeis: A Life | Louis D. Brandeis, United States Supreme Court justice from 1916 to 1939 (1856–1941) | Finalist |
| 2009 | Kenneth Whyte | The Uncrowned King: The Sensational Rise of William Randolph Hearst | William Randolph Hearst, American newspaper publisher (1863–1951) | Finalist |
| 2009 | Kirstin Downey | The Woman Behind the New Deal: The Life of Frances Perkins, FDR's Secretary of Labor and His Moral Conscience | Frances Perkins, American politician and workers rights advocate (1880–1965) | Finalist |
| 2010 | Laura Hillenbrand | Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption | Louis Zamperini, American athlete and army officer (1917–2014) | Winner |
| 2010 | Edmund Morris | Colonel Roosevelt | Theodore Roosevelt, 26th president of the United States, serving from 1901 to 1909 (1858–1919) | Finalist |
| 2010 | Miranda Carter | George, Nicholas and Wilhelm: Three Royal Cousins and the Road to World War I | King George V of Britain, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, and Tsar Nicholas II of Russia | Finalist |
| 2010 | Christopher Hitchens | Hitch-22: A Memoir | | Finalist |
| 2010 | Selina Hastings | The Secret Lives of Somerset Maugham: A Biography | W. Somerset Maugham, English playwright and writer (1874–1965) | Finalist |
| 2011 | John A. Farrell | Clarence Darrow: Attorney for the Damned | Clarence Darrow, American lawyer and leading member of the American Civil Liberties Union (1857– 1938) | Winner |
| 2011 | Robert K. Massie | Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman | Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia from 1762 to 1796 (1729–1796) | Finalist |
| 2011 | Manning Marable | Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention | Malcolm X, African-American human rights activist (1925–1965) | Finalist |
| 2011 | Mark Whitaker | My Long Trip Home: A Family Memoir | | Finalist |
| 2011 | Alexandra Styron | Reading My Father: A Memoir | | Finalist |
| 2012 | Robert A. Caro | The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson | Lyndon B. Johnson, 36th president of the United States, serving from 1963 to 1969 (1908–1973) | Winner |
| 2012 | Alice Kessler-Harris | A Difficult Woman: The Challenging Life and Times of Lillian Hellman | Lillian Hellman, American dramatist and screenwriter (1905–1984) | Finalist |
| 2012 | H.W. Brands | The Man Who Saved the Union: Ulysses Grant in War and Peace | Ulysses S. Grant, 18th president of the United States from 1869 to 1877 (1822–1885) | Finalist |
| 2012 | R.J. Smith | The One: The Life and Music of James Brown | James Brown, American musician (1933–2006) | Finalist |
| 2012 | David Nasaw | The Patriarch: The Remarkable Life and Turbulent Times of Joseph P. Kennedy | Joseph P. Kennedy, American businessman and politician (1888–1969) | Finalist |
| 2013 | Marie Arana | Bolivar: American Liberator | Simon Bolívar, Venezuelan military and political leader (1783–1830) | Winner |
| 2013 | Deborah Solomon | American Mirror: The Life and Art of Norman Rockwell | Norman Rockwell, 20th-century American painter and illustrator (1894–1978) | Finalist |
| 2013 | Edna O'Brien | Country Girl: A Memoir | | Finalist |
| 2013 | Benita Eisler | The Red Man's Bones: George Catlin, Artist and Showman | George Catlin, 19th-century American painter, adventurer, lawyer, author, and traveler (1796–1872) | Finalist |
| 2013 | A. Scott Berg | Wilson | Woodrow Wilson, 28th president of the United States, serving from 1913 to 1921 (1856–1924) | Finalist |
| 2014 | Andrew Roberts | Napoleon: A Life | Napoleon, French Emperor 1804–1814 and again in 1815 (1769–1821) | Winner |
| 2014 | Robert M. Dowling | Eugene O'Neill: A Life in Four Acts | Eugene O'Neill, American playwright, and Nobel laureate in Literature (1888–1953) | Finalist |
| 2014 | Kirstin Downey | Isabella: The Warrior Queen | Isabella of Castile, Queen of Castile who sponsored Christopher Columbus's journey and established the Spanish Inquisition (1451–1504) | Finalist |
| 2014 | Stephen Kotkin | Stalin: Paradoxes of Power, 1878–1928 | Joseph Stalin, Leader of the Soviet Union from 1924 to 1953 (1878–1953) | Finalist |
| 2014 | Adam Begley | Updike | John Updike, American novelist, poet, short story writer, art critic, and literary critic (1932–2009) | Finalist |
| 2015 | Hayden Herrera | Listening to Stone: The Art and Life of Isamu Noguchi | Isamu Noguchi, Japanese-American artist (1904–1988) | Winner |
| 2015 | Terry Alford | Fortune's Fool: The Life of John Wilkes Booth | John Wilkes Booth, 19th-century American stage actor and assassin of Abraham Lincoln (1838–1865) | Finalist |
| 2015 | Charlotte DeCroes Jacobs | Jonas Salk: A Life | Jonas Salk, 20th-century American virologist; inventor of the polio vaccine (1914–1995) | Finalist |
| 2015 | John Norris | Mary McGrory The First Queen of Journalism | Mary McGrory, American journalist and columnist (1918 –2004) | Finalist |
| 2015 | Patrick McGilligan | Young Orson: The Years of Luck and Genius on the Path to Citizen Kane | Orson Welles, American actor, director, writer, and producer (1915–1985) | Finalist |
| 2016 | Volker Ullrich with Jefferson Chase (trans.) | Hitler: Ascent, 1889–1939 | Adolf Hitler, Führer of Nazi Germany (1889–1945) | Winner |
| 2016 | Claire Harman | Charlotte Brontë: A Fiery Heart | Charlotte Brontë, English novelist and poet (1816–1855) | Finalist |
| 2016 | Frances Wilson | Guilty Thing: A Life of Thomas De Quincey | Thomas De Quincey, English essayist, (1785–1859) | Finalist |
| 2016 | James McBride | Kill 'Em and Leave: Searching for the Real James Brown | James Brown, American musician (1933–2006) | Finalist |
| 2016 | Ross King | Mad Enchantment: Claude Monet and the Painting of the Water Lilies | Claude Monet, French painter (1840–1926) | Finalist |
| 2017 | Laura Walls | Henry David Thoreau: A Life | Henry David Thoreau, 19th-century American essayist, poet, and philosopher | Winner |
| 2017 | Jonathan Eig | Ali: A Life | Muhammad Ali, American boxer, philanthropist and activist (1942–2016) | Finalist |
| 2017 | Adam Federman | Fasting and Feasting: The Life of Visionary Food Writer Patience Gray | Patience Gray, English cookery and travel writer of the mid-20th century (1917– 2005) | Finalist |
| 2017 | Ron Chernow | Grant | Ulysses S. Grant, 18th president of the United States, serving from 1869 to 1877 (1822 –1885) | Finalist |
| 2017 | John A. Farrell | Richard Nixon: The Life | Richard Nixon, 37th president of the United States from 1969 to 1974 (1913–1994) | Finalist |
| 2018 | David W. Blight | Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom | Frederick Douglass, African-American social reformer, writer, and abolitionist (c. 1818–1895) | Winner |
| 2018 | Seymour M. Hersh | Reporter: A Memoir | Seymour M. Hersh, American journalist (1937–) | Finalist |
| 2018 | Victoria Johnson | American Eden: David Hosack, Botany, and Medicine in the Garden of the Early Republic | David Hosack, American physician, botanist, and educator (1769–1835) | Finalist |
| 2018 | Bob Spitz | Reagan: An American Journey | Ronald Reagan, 40th president of the United States, serving from 1981 to 1989 (1911–2004) | Finalist |
| 2018 | Tara Westover | Educated | Tara Westover, American historian and author (1986–) | Finalist |
| 2019 | George Packer | Our Man: Richard Holbrooke and the End of the American Century | Richard Holbrooke, American diplomat and author (1941–2010) | Winner |
| 2019 | Leo Damrosch | The Club | Samuel Johnson, James Boswell, Edmund Burke, Adam Smith, Edward Gibbon, and James Boswell | Finalist |
| 2019 | Victoria Riskin | Fay Wray and Robert Riskin: A Hollywood Memoir | Fay Wray, American actress (1907–2004), and Robert Riskin, American screenwriter and playwright (1897–1955) | Finalist |
| 2019 | Yuval Taylor | Zora and Langston | Zora Neale Hurston, American folklorist, novelist, and short story writer (1891–1960), and Langston Hughes, American writer and social activist (1901–1967) | Finalist |
| 2019 | Evan Thomas | First: Sandra Day O'Connor | Sandra Day O'Connor, United States Supreme Court justice (1930–) | Finalist |
| 2020 | William Souder | Mad at the World: A Life of John Steinbeck | John Steinbeck, American writer (1902–1968) | Winner |
| 2020 | Les Payne and Tamara Payne | The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X | Malcolm X, African-American human rights activist (1925–1965) | Finalist |
| 2020 | Heather Clark | Red Comet: The Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath | Sylvia Plath, American poet, novelist and short story writer (1932–1963) | Finalist |
| 2020 | Blake Gopnik | Warhol | Andy Warhol, American artist, film director, and producer (1928–1987) | Finalist |
| 2020 | David Michaelis | Eleanor | Eleanor Roosevelt, First Lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945 (1884–1962) | Finalist |
| 2021 | Paul Auster | Burning Boy: The Life and Work of Stephen Crane | Stephen Crane, American novelist, short story writer, poet, and journalist (1871–1900) | Winner |
| 2021 | Nick Davis | Competing With Idiots: Herman and Joe Mankiewicz, A Dual Portrait | Herman Mankiewicz, American screenwriter (1897–1953) and Joseph L. Mankiewicz, American film director (1909–1993) | Finalist |
| 2021 | Rebecca Donner | All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days: The True Story of the American Woman at the Heart of the German Resistance to Hitler | Mildred Harnack, American-German literary historian (1902–1943) | Finalist |
| 2021 | Mark Harris | Mike Nichols: A Life | Mike Nichols, American television director, writer, producer and comedian (1931–2014) | Finalist |
| 2021 | John Tresch | The Reason for the Darkness of the Night: Edgar Allan Poe and the Forging of American Science | Edgar Allan Poe, American writer and literary critic (1809–1849) | Finalist |
| 2022 | Beverly Gage | G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century | J. Edgar Hoover, American law-enforcement administrator (1895–1972) | Winner |
| 2022 | Tomiko Brown-Nagin | Civil Rights Queen: Constance Baker Motley and the Struggle for Equality | Constance Baker Motley, American judge and politician (1921–2005) | Finalist |
| 2022 | Jennifer Homans | Mr. B: George Balanchine's 20th Century | George Balanchine, Georgian-American ballet choreographer (1904–1983) | Finalist |
| 2022 | David Maraniss | Path Lit by Lightning: The Life of Jim Thorpe | Jim Thorpe, American athlete (1887–1953) | Finalist |
| 2022 | Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa | His Name Is George Floyd: One Man's Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice | George Floyd, African-American man murdered by police (1973–2020) | Finalist |
| 2023 | Gregg Hecimovich | The Life and Times of Hannah Crafts: The True Story of The Bondwoman’s Narrative | Hannah Crafts, American writer | Winner |
| 2023 | Leah Redmond Chang | Young Queens: Three Renaissance Women and the Price of Power | | Finalist |
| 2023 | Jonny Steinberg | Winnie and Nelson: Portrait of a Marriage | | Finalist |
| 2023 | Elizabeth R. Varon | Longstreet: The Confederate General Who Defied the South | James Longstreet, American general (1821–1904) | Finalist |
| 2023 | David Waldstreicher | The Odyssey of Phillis Wheatley: A Poet’s Journeys Through American Slavery and Independence | Phillis Wheatley, African-American writer (c. 1753–1784) | Finalist |