The Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography
1920s | 1930s | 1940s | 1950s | 1960s | 1970s | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s For more information about the Pulitzer Prizes, click here.
1917 Julia Ward Howe, 1819-1910 by Laura E. Richards and Maude Howe Elliott, assisted by Florence Howe Hall
1918 Benjamin Franklin, self-revealed; a biographical and critical study based mainly on his own writings by William Cabell Bruce (volume 1) (volume 2)
1919 The education of Henry Adams by Henry Adams
1920 The life of John Marshall by Albert J. Beveridge
1921 The Americanization of Edward Bok; the autobiography of a Dutch boy fifty years after... by Edward Bok
1922 A daughter of the middle border by Hamlin Garland
1923 The life and letters of Walter H. Page by Burton J. Hendrick
1924 From immigrant to inventor by Michael Idvorsky Pupin
1925 Barrett Wendell and his letters by M. A. Dewolfe Howe
1926 The life of Sir William Osler by Harvey Cushing
1927 Whitman; an interpretation in narrative by Emory Holloway
1928 The American orchestra and Theodore Thomas by Charles Edward Russell
1929 The training of an American : the earlier life and letters of Walter H. Page, 1855-1913 by Burton J. Hendrick
1930 The Raven; a biography of Sam Houston by Marquis James
1931 Charles W. Eliot, president of Harvard university, 1869-1909 by Henry James
1932 Theodore Roosevelt, a biography by Henry F. Pringle
1933 Grover Cleveland : a study in courage by Allan Nevins
1934 John Hay; from poetry to politics by Tyler Dennett
1935 R. E. Lee, a biography by Douglas S. Freeman
1936 The thought and character of William James by Ralph Barton Perry
1937 Hamilton Fish; the inner history of the Grant administration by Allan Nevins
1938 Pedlar's progress by Odell Shepard
1938 The life of Andrew Jackson by Marquis James
1939 Benjamin Franklin by Carl Van Doren
1940 Woodrow Wilson; life and letters : volume VII : War leader, April 6, 1917-February 28, 1918 and volume VIII : Armistice, March 1-November 11, 1918 by Ray Stannard Baker
1941 Jonathan Edwards, 1703-1758; a biography by Ola Elizabeth Winslow
1942 Crusader in crinoline, the life of Harriet Beecher Stowe by Forrest Wilson
1943 Admiral of the ocean sea, a life of Christopher Columbus by Samuel Eliot Morison (one-volume, condensed edition here)
1944 The American Leonardo, a life of Samuel F. B. Morse by Carleton Mabee
1945 George Bancroft by Russell Blaine Nye
1946 Son of the wilderness; the life of John Muir by Linnie Marsh Wolfe
1947 The autobiography of William Allen White by William Allen White
1948 Forgotten first citizen : John Bigelow by Margaret Clapp
1949 Roosevelt and Hopkins, an intimate history by Robert E. Sherwood
1950 John Quincy Adams and the foundations of American foreign policy by Samuel Flagg Bemis
1951 John C. Calhoun : American portrait by Margaret Louise Coit
1952 Charles Evans Hughes by Merlo J. Pusey
1953 Edmund Pendleton, 1721-1803 : a biography by David J. Mays
1954 The Spirit of St. Louis by Charles A. Lindbergh
1955 The Taft story by William S. White
1956 Benjamin Henry Latrobe by Talbot Faulkner Hamlin
1957 Profiles in courage by John F. Kennedy
1958 George Washington, a biography Douglas Southall Freeman
1959 Woodrow Wilson : volume 1: American prophet by Arthur Walworth
1960 John Paul Jones : a sailor's biography by Samuel Eliot Morison
1961 Charles Sumner and the coming of the Civil War by David Donald
1962 No award
1963 Henry James by Leon Edel
1964 John Keats by Walter Jackson Bate
1965 Henry Adams, in three volumes (The young Henry Adams; Henry Adams, the middle years; Henry Adams; the major phase) by Ernest Samuels
1966 A thousand days; John F. Kennedy in the White House by Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.
1967 Mr. Clemens and Mark Twain, a biography by Justin Kaplan
1968 Memoirs by George E. Kennan
1969 The man from New York : John Quinn and his friends by Benjamin Lawrence Reid
1970 Huey Long by T. Harry Williams
1971 Robert Frost : volume 2: the years of triumph, 1915-1938 by Lawrance Thompson
1972 Eleanor and Franklin; the story of their relationship, based on Eleanor Roosevelt's private papers by Joseph P. Lash
1973 Luce and his empire by W. A. Swanberg
1974 O'Neill : son and artist by Louis Sheaffer
1975 The power broker : Robert Moses and the fall of New York by Robert Caro
1976 Edith Wharton : a biography by R. W. B. Lewis
1977 A prince of our disorder : the life of T. E. Lawrence by John E. Mack
1978 Samuel Johnson by Walter Jackson Bate
1979 Days of sorrow and pain : Leo Baeck and the Berlin Jews by Leonard Baker
1980 The rise of Theodore Roosevelt by Edmund Morris
1981 Peter the Great : his life and world by Robert K. Massie
1982 Grant : a biography by William McFeely
1983 Growing up by Russell Baker
1984 Booker T. Washington : the wizard of Tuskegee, 1901-1915 by Louis R. Harlan
1985 The life and times of Cotton Mather by Kenneth Silverman
1986 Louise Bogan : a portrait by Elizabeth Frank
1987 Bearing the cross : Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference by David. J. Garrow
1988 Look homeward : a life of Thomas Wolfe by David Herbert Donald
1989 Oscar Wilde by Richard Ellmann
1990 Machiavelli in hell by Sebastian de Grazia
1991 Jackson Pollock : an American genius by Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith
1992 Fortunate son : the healing of a Vietnam vet by Lewis B. Puller, Jr.
1993 Truman by David McCullough
1994 W. E. B. Du Bois : biography of a race, 1868-1919 by David Levering Lewis
1995 Harriet Beecher Stowe : a life by Joan D. Hedrick
1996 God : a biography by Jack Miles
1997 Angela's ashes : a memoir by Frank McCourt
1998 Personal history by Katharine Graham
1999 Lindbergh by A. Scott Berg
2000 Vera (Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov) by Stacy Schiff
2001 W. E. B. Du Bois--the fight for equality and the American century, 1919-1963 by David Levering Lewis
2002 John Adams by David McCullough
2003 The years of Lyndon Johnson : volume 3 : the master of the Senate by Robert Caro
2004 Khrushchev : the man and his era by William Taubman
2005 De Kooning : an American master by Mark Stevens and Annalyn Swan
2006 American Prometheus : the triumph and tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin
2007 The most famous man in America : the biography of Henry Ward Beecher by Debby Applegate
2008 Eden's outcasts : the story of Louisa May Alcott and her father by John Matteson
2009 American lion : Andrew Jackson in the White House by Jon Meacham
2010 The first tycoon : the epic life of Cornelius Vanderbilt by T. J. Stiles
2011 Washington : a life by Ron Chernow
2012 George F. Kennan : an American life by John Lewis Gaddis
2013 The black count : glory, revolution, betrayal, and the real Count of Monte Cristo by Tom Reiss
2014 Margaret Fuller : a new American life by Megan Marshall
2015 The Pope and Mussolini : the secret history of Pius XI and the rise of fascism in Europe by David I. Kertzer
2016 Barbarian days : a surfing life by William Finnegan
2017 The return : fathers, sons, and the land in between by Hisham Matar
2018 Prairie fires : the American dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder by Caroline Fraser