Fond Books
Archive Collection

Pulitzer Prize for Biography Winners

1917–2025

The Pulitzer Prize for Biography honours the year's finest biography or autobiography by an American author, awarded since 1917. Winners include acclaimed lives of figures from Abraham Lincoln to Martin Luther King, by authors such as Robert Caro and David McCullough.

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Year Title & Author Historical Context
2025 Every Living Thing: The Great and Deadly Race to Know All Life by Jason Roberts The book centers on the eighteenth century rivalry between Carl Linnaeus and Buffon, whose disagreement over how to classify nature laid foundation...
2024 Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom by Ilyon Woo The book retells the famous real escape of Ellen and William Craft, who in 1848 traveled openly across the South in one of the most celebrated fugi...
2024 King: A Life by Jonathan Eig Published in 2023, the book was the first comprehensive biography of Martin Luther King Jr. in more than thirty years and drew on government docume...
2023 G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century by Beverly Gage Gage used recently declassified records to chart Hoover's tenure as FBI director from 1924 until his death in 1972.
2022 Chasing Me to My Grave: An Artist's Memoir of the Jim Crow South by Winfred Rembert and Erin I. Kelly Rembert died in March 2021, months before the book by him and Erin I. Kelly won the prize.
2021 The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X by Les Payne and Tamara Payne Les Payne died in 2018 before finishing the project, and his daughter Tamara Payne completed the book over nearly thirty years of research.
2020 Sontag: Her Life and Work by Benjamin Moser Moser drew on Sontag's archive at UCLA and won for this authorized biography of the author of On Photography.
2019 The New Negro: The Life of Alain Locke by Jeffrey C. Stewart Locke was the first African American Rhodes Scholar and edited the 1925 anthology The New Negro.
2018 Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder by Caroline Fraser Fraser drew on Wilder's beloved Little House on the Prairie novels, which inspired a long running NBC television series.
2017 The Return: Fathers, Sons and the Land in Between by Hisham Matar Matar returned to Libya in 2012 after the fall of Muammar Qaddafi to investigate his father's disappearance.
2016 Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life by William Finnegan Finnegan, a longtime staff writer for The New Yorker, won with one of the rare surfing memoirs ever honored by the Pulitzer board.
2015 The Pope and Mussolini: The Secret History of Pius XI and the Rise of Fascism in Europe by David I. Kertzer Kertzer based the book on Vatican secret archives that Pope Benedict XVI opened to researchers in 2006.
2014 Margaret Fuller: A New American Life by Megan Marshall Fuller wrote Woman in the Nineteenth Century, an early feminist landmark, and died in a shipwreck off Fire Island in 1850.
2013 The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo by Tom Reiss The general was the father of novelist Alexandre Dumas, who drew on his story for The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers.
2012 George F. Kennan: An American Life by John Lewis Gaddis Gaddis worked on this authorized biography for roughly thirty years and published it only after Kennan died in 2005 at age one hundred and one.
2011 Washington: A Life by Ron Chernow Ron Chernow won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Biography for this single volume life of George Washington.
2010 The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt by T. J. Stiles The First Tycoon won both the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Biography and the 2009 National Book Award for Nonfiction.
2009 American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House by Jon Meacham Jon Meacham won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Biography for this account of Andrew Jackson's presidency.
2008 Eden's Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father by John Matteson Eden's Outcasts won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Biography and was John Matteson's first book.
2007 The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher by Debby Applegate Debby Applegate won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Biography for this portrait of the brother of Harriet Beecher Stowe.
2006 American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin American Prometheus won the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for Biography and became the basis for Christopher Nolan's 2023 film Oppenheimer.
2005 de Kooning: An American Master by Mark Stevens and Annalyn Swan This dual authored biography of the painter Willem de Kooning won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Biography.
2004 Khrushchev: The Man and His Era by William Taubman William Taubman won the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for Biography for this account drawn from Soviet era archives that opened after the Cold War.
2003 Master of the Senate: The Years of Lyndon Johnson by Robert Caro Master of the Senate won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Biography as the third installment of Robert Caro's multi volume work The Years of Lyndon John...
2002 John Adams by David McCullough David McCullough's John Adams won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize and inspired a 2008 HBO miniseries starring Paul Giamatti.
2001 W. E. B. Du Bois: The Fight for Equality and the American Century 1919-1963 by David Levering Lewis David Levering Lewis won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography twice for his two volume Du Bois study, taking the 2001 award for this concluding volume ...
2000 Vera, Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov by Stacy Schiff Stacy Schiff won the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography for this study of the woman behind one of the twentieth century's most cele...
1999 Lindbergh by A. Scott Berg Berg was granted exclusive access to Lindbergh's papers by his widow Anne Morrow Lindbergh for this authorized biography, which won the 1999 Pulitzer.
1998 Personal History by Katharine Graham Graham led the Post during its publication of the Pentagon Papers and its Watergate reporting, and her memoir won the Pulitzer in 1998.
1997 Angela's Ashes: A Memoir by Frank McCourt McCourt's debut book became an international bestseller and was adapted into a 1999 film directed by Alan Parker.
1996 God: A Biography by Jack Miles Miles, a former Jesuit and biblical scholar, won the 1996 Pulitzer for an unusual biography whose subject is a literary portrait of the deity.
1995 Harriet Beecher Stowe: A Life by Joan D. Hedrick Hedrick's was the first full scholarly biography of Stowe in decades when it won the Pulitzer in 1995.
1994 W. E. B. Du Bois: Biography of a Race, 1868–1919 by David Levering Lewis Lewis won a second Pulitzer for the concluding volume in 2001, making him the first author to win the biography prize twice for two parts of one life.
1993 Truman by David McCullough McCullough's biography became a bestseller and helped fuel a lasting revival of Truman's reputation among historians and the public.
1992 Fortunate Son: The Autobiography of Lewis B. Puller Jr. by Lewis B. Puller Jr. Puller died by suicide in 1994, two years after winning the Pulitzer for this memoir.
1991 Jackson Pollock: An American Saga by Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith The book later served as a basis for the 2000 film Pollock, in which Ed Harris directed and starred as the painter.
1990 Machiavelli in Hell by Sebastian de Grazia De Grazia, a political philosopher, won the 1990 Pulitzer for a biography that treats Machiavelli as much a moral thinker as a political strategist.
1989 Oscar Wilde by Richard Ellmann Ellmann died in 1987 shortly before the book appeared, and the biography won the Pulitzer posthumously in 1989.
1988 Look Homeward: A Life of Thomas Wolfe by David Herbert Donald Donald, a Harvard historian, had already won a Pulitzer for his biography of Charles Sumner before earning this second prize in 1988.
1987 Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference by David J. Garrow Garrow drew on FBI files obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests, and the book won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography in 1987.
1986 Louise Bogan: A Portrait by Elizabeth Frank Bogan served as the Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress, the post now known as Poet Laureate of the United States.
1985 The Life and Times of Cotton Mather by Kenneth Silverman Mather promoted smallpox inoculation in Boston during the 1721 epidemic, an early and controversial example of preventive medicine in the colonies.
1984 Booker T. Washington: The Wizard of Tuskegee, 1901–1915 by Louis R. Harlan Harlan also edited the multivolume Booker T. Washington Papers, and this concluding volume earned both the Pulitzer Prize and the Bancroft Prize.
1983 Growing Up by Russell Baker This autobiography won Baker the Pulitzer for Biography, distinct from the Pulitzer for Commentary he had already received for his Times column.
1982 Grant: A Biography by William S. McFeely McFeely was a historian of Reconstruction, and his book gave unusual weight to Grant's policies toward formerly enslaved Americans.
1981 Peter the Great: His Life and World by Robert K. Massie Massie's fascination with Russian history began with his earlier book Nicholas and Alexandra, written after his son was diagnosed with hemophilia, ...
1980 The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt by Edmund Morris This was the first volume of Morris's three part Roosevelt biography, and it won both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award.
1979 Days of Sorrow and Pain: Leo Baeck and the Berlin Jews by Leonard Baker Leo Baeck survived the Theresienstadt camp and later lent his name to the Leo Baeck Institute, which preserves the history of German speaking Jewry.
1978 Samuel Johnson by Walter Jackson Bate This was Bate's second Pulitzer, following his 1964 prize for a biography of the poet John Keats.
1977 A Prince of Our Disorder: The Life of T. E. Lawrence by John E. Mack Author John E. Mack was a Harvard psychiatrist, and the book applied clinical insight to the life of the man portrayed in David Lean's 1962 film La...
1976 Edith Wharton: A Biography by R. W. B. Lewis The biography won both the Pulitzer Prize for Biography and a National Book Award, and it drew on Wharton papers at Yale that scholars had been una...
1975 The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York by Robert Caro Caro's first book won the 1975 Pulitzer Prize for Biography and remains a touchstone for writing about political power.
1974 O'Neill, Son and Artist by Louis Sheaffer The second volume of Sheaffer's biography of the playwright won the 1974 Pulitzer Prize for Biography.
1973 Luce and His Empire by W. A. Swanberg Swanberg took the 1973 Pulitzer Prize for Biography for this study of the Time Inc. founder.
1972 Eleanor and Franklin by Joseph P. Lash Lash's book won the 1972 Pulitzer Prize for Biography and the National Book Award and was later adapted for television.
1971 Robert Frost: The Years of Triumph, 1915–1938 by Lawrance Thompson This middle volume of Thompson's three part biography won the 1971 Pulitzer Prize for Biography.
1970 Huey Long by Thomas Harry Williams Williams built the book on a large oral history project and won both the 1970 Pulitzer Prize for Biography and the National Book Award.
1969 The Man from New York: John Quinn and His Friends by Benjamin Lawrence Reid Reid's biography of the patron Quinn earned the 1969 Pulitzer Prize for Biography.
1968 Memoirs by George F. Kennan This first volume of Kennan's memoirs, covering the years 1925 to 1950, won the 1968 Pulitzer Prize for Biography and the National Book Award.
1967 Mr. Clemens and Mark Twain by Justin Kaplan Kaplan's first book won both the 1967 Pulitzer Prize for Biography and the National Book Award.
1966 A Thousand Days: John F. Kennedy in the White House by Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. Schlesinger, who had already won a Pulitzer in 1946 for history, took the 1966 Biography prize for this account written soon after Kennedy's assass...
1965 Henry Adams by Ernest Samuels The award honored the final volume of Samuels's three part biography, a project he pursued across roughly two decades.
1964 John Keats by Walter Jackson Bate Bate, a Harvard professor, won the 1964 Pulitzer Prize for Biography for this study and later won a second Pulitzer in 1978 for his life of Samuel ...
1963 Henry James by Leon Edel The prize recognized the second and third volumes of Edel's five part biography, a project he worked on for decades.
1962 No Award No Award
1961 Charles Sumner and the Coming of the Civil War by David Donald This volume covered Sumner's life up to 1861, with Donald later publishing a second volume on the war and Reconstruction years.
1960 John Paul Jones by Samuel Eliot Morison Morison was a Harvard historian and rear admiral whose sailing experience informed his account of naval combat.
1959 Woodrow Wilson, American Prophet by Arthur Walworth The award honored the opening volume of Walworth's two part biography of the twenty eighth president.
1958 George Washington, Vols. I-VII by Douglas Southall Freeman, John Alexander Carroll, and Mary Wells Ashworth Freeman died in 1953 before finishing the series, which colleagues completed and which earned the prize after his death.
1957 Profiles in Courage by John F. Kennedy It remains the only Pulitzer winning book written by a future president of the United States.
1956 Benjamin Henry Latrobe by Talbot Faulkner Hamlin Hamlin was himself an architect and Columbia professor who wrote the first major full length study of Latrobe.
1955 The Taft Story by William S. White White was a longtime New York Times congressional correspondent who knew Taft personally from the Senate beat.
1954 The Spirit of St. Louis by Charles A. Lindbergh The book became a 1957 film of the same name starring James Stewart as Lindbergh.
1953 Edmund Pendleton 1721–1803 by David J. Mays Mays spent decades researching the biography of a founder whose papers had largely been lost in a courthouse fire.
1952 Charles Evans Hughes by Merlo J. Pusey Pusey was a Washington Post editorial writer who based the work on extensive access to Hughes personal papers and recollections.
1951 John C. Calhoun: American Portrait by Margaret Louise Coit Coit completed this first book while in her twenties, and it won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography in 1951.
1950 John Quincy Adams and the Foundations of American Foreign Policy by Samuel Flagg Bemis Bemis later won a second Pulitzer Prize for Biography for his sequel volume on Adams, completing a two part study of his subject.
1949 Roosevelt and Hopkins by Robert E. Sherwood Sherwood worked as a speechwriter in the Roosevelt administration, which gave him direct access to the figures and papers behind this account.
1948 Forgotten First Citizen: John Bigelow by Margaret Clapp As United States consul and minister in Paris during the Civil War, Bigelow worked to keep France from supporting the Confederacy.
1947 The Autobiography of William Allen White by William Allen White White was a celebrated newspaper editor whose autobiography appeared after his death and earned the Pulitzer in 1947.
1946 Son of the Wilderness: The Life of John Muir by Linnie Marsh Wolfe Muir founded the Sierra Club and championed Yosemite, making him a central figure in the history of American conservation.
1945 George Bancroft: Brahmin Rebel by Russel Blaine Nye Bancroft wrote a monumental multivolume History of the United States and helped found the United States Naval Academy during his time as secretary ...
1944 The American Leonardo: The Life of Samuel F. B. Morse by Carleton Mabee Morse's invention of the telegraph and the code that bears his name transformed long distance communication in the nineteenth century.
1943 Admiral of the Ocean Sea by Samuel Eliot Morison Morison sailed the actual routes Columbus had followed before writing the book, an unusual research method that shaped its nautical accuracy.
1942 Crusader in Crinoline: The Life of Harriet Beecher Stowe by Forrest Wilson Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin became the best selling novel of the nineteenth century, a fact central to Wilson's account of her influence.
1941 Jonathan Edwards, 1703–1758: A Biography by Ola Elizabeth Winslow Winslow was one of the early women to win the Pulitzer Prize for Biography, taking the award in 1941.
1940 Woodrow Wilson, Life and Letters, Vols. VII and VIII by Ray Stannard Baker Baker served as Wilson's press secretary during the Paris Peace Conference, which gave him firsthand access to the events these volumes describe.
1939 Benjamin Franklin by Carl Van Doren Carl Van Doren was a leading literary critic and editor whose Franklin biography is still cited among the definitive lives of the founder.
1938 Pedlar's Progress: The Life of Bronson Alcott by Odell Shepard The Pulitzer Prize for Biography was awarded to two books in 1938, this life of Bronson Alcott and Marquis James's biography of Andrew Jackson.
1938 The Life of Andrew Jackson by Marquis James This volume combined two earlier books by James and earned him his second Pulitzer Prize for Biography after his 1930 life of Sam Houston.
1937 Hamilton Fish by Allan Nevins This was Allan Nevins's second Pulitzer Prize for Biography, following his 1933 study of Grover Cleveland.
1936 The Thought and Character of William James by Ralph Barton Perry Perry was a Harvard philosopher and a former student of William James, which gave him access to private correspondence used throughout the two volu...
1935 R. E. Lee by Douglas S. Freeman Freeman spent roughly twenty years on the four volume work and won a second Pulitzer posthumously in 1958 for his biography of George Washington.
1934 John Hay by Tyler Dennett John Hay witnessed both Lincoln's presidency and the rise of the United States as an international power, a span the book uses to frame an era.
1933 Grover Cleveland: A Study in Courage by Allan Nevins Allan Nevins won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography twice, first for this book and again in 1937 for his life of Hamilton Fish.
1932 Theodore Roosevelt: A Biography by Henry F. Pringle Pringle later won a second Pulitzer in 1940 for his biography of William Howard Taft.
1931 Charles W. Eliot, President of Harvard University, 1869–1901 by Henry James The author was Henry James the lawyer and biographer, son of philosopher William James, not the more famous novelist of the same name.
1930 The Raven: A Biography of Sam Houston by Marquis James Marquis James won a second Pulitzer Prize for Biography in 1938 for his life of Andrew Jackson.
1929 The Training of an American by Burton J. Hendrick The book covers the years before 1913 and served as a companion to Hendrick's earlier Pulitzer winning collection of Page's wartime letters.
1928 The American Orchestra and Theodore Thomas by Charles Edward Russell Theodore Thomas founded the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and pioneered the touring orchestra in nineteenth century America.
1927 Whitman by Emory Holloway Emory Holloway was a Whitman scholar who had earlier recovered and edited uncollected writings by the poet.
1926 The Life of Sir William Osler by Harvey Cushing Harvey Cushing, himself a pioneering brain surgeon, won the Pulitzer for this life of his friend and fellow physician.
1925 Barrett Wendell and His Letters by M. A. De Wolfe Howe Barrett Wendell was a Harvard scholar whose teaching helped establish American literature as a subject of serious study.
1924 From Immigrant to Inventor by Michael I. Pupin Michael I. Pupin was a Columbia University physicist whose inventions improved long distance telephone transmission.
1923 The Life and Letters of Walter H. Page by Burton J. Hendrick Burton J. Hendrick built the book around Walter H. Page's wartime letters from London, won the Pulitzer for biography in 1923.
1922 A Daughter of the Middle Border by Hamlin Garland This volume followed Hamlin Garland's earlier memoir A Son of the Middle Border and completed the Pulitzer winning sequence.
1921 The Americanization of Edward Bok by Edward Bok Edward Bok wrote this autobiography in the third person, presenting his American self as a separate figure he had become.
1920 The Life of John Marshall by Albert J. Beveridge Albert J. Beveridge, a former United States Senator from Indiana, won the Pulitzer for this study of the chief justice.
1919 The Education of Henry Adams by Henry Adams The book was awarded the Pulitzer in 1919, the year after Henry Adams died, and had circulated privately before its public release.
1918 Benjamin Franklin, Self-Revealed by William Cabell Bruce William Cabell Bruce, a United States Senator from Maryland, won the Pulitzer for this two volume study.
1917 Julia Ward Howe by Laura E. Richards and Maud Howe Elliott This was the very first biography to receive the Pulitzer Prize, shared by sisters who wrote about their own mother.