Archive Collection
Pulitzer Prize for Biography Winners
1917–2026
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.
About the Pulitzer Prize for Biography
- Awarded by
- Columbia University
- First awarded
- 1917
- Country
- United States
- Winner receives
- $15,000
When it is announced
Winners and finalists in every category are announced together in early May. See the full announcement calendar.
How to enter
Anyone may enter a book, including the author, for a fee. Books published in the first half of the year are due by mid June and those published in the second half by mid October.
Official prize site · Checked August 2026. Dates move year to year, so confirm on the official site before entering.
| Year | Title & Author | Historical Context |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | Pride and Pleasure: The Schuyler Sisters in an Age of Revolution | The Pulitzer board gave Pride and Pleasure the 2026 Prize for Biography on May 4, 2026, with James McWilliams's The Life and Poetry of Frank Stanford… |
| 2025 | Every Living Thing: The Great and Deadly Race to Know All Life | Every Living Thing won the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Biography and the PEN/E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award, the second major biography from… |
| 2024 | Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom | Master Slave Husband Wife shared the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for Biography with Jonathan Eig's King: A Life, and the Pulitzer citation described it as a… |
| 2024 | King: A Life | King: A Life shared the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for Biography with Ilyon Woo's Master Slave Husband Wife, and it was also a National Book Critics Circle… |
| 2023 | G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century | G-Man won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Biography, the 2023 Bancroft Prize and the Barbara and David Zalaznick Book Prize in American History for… |
| 2022 | Chasing Me to My Grave: An Artist's Memoir of the Jim Crow South | Chasing Me to My Grave won the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography, the last year the prize covered memoir and biography together… |
| 2021 | The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X | The Dead Are Arising won the 2020 National Book Award for Nonfiction and the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography, an unusual double… |
| 2020 | Sontag: Her Life and Work | Sontag: Her Life and Work won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography for Benjamin Moser, who had already established himself as a… |
| 2019 | The New Negro: The Life of Alain Locke | The New Negro won both the 2018 National Book Award for Nonfiction and the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography for Jeffrey Stewart, a… |
| 2018 | Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder | Prairie Fires won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography, the National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography and the Chicago… |
| 2017 | The Return: Fathers, Sons and the Land in Between | The Return won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography as well as the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award and France's Prix du Livre Étranger,… |
| 2016 | Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life | Barbarian Days won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography for Finnegan, published in 2015 after decades in which surfing ran as a… |
| 2015 | The Pope and Mussolini: The Secret History of Pius XI and the Rise of Fascism in Europe | The Pope and Mussolini won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography for David Kertzer, a Brown University historian and anthropologist… |
| 2014 | Margaret Fuller: A New American Life | Margaret Fuller: A New American Life won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Biography for Megan Marshall, who had already spent nearly two decades on her… |
| 2013 | The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo | The Black Count won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography and the PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography, and it was a… |
| 2012 | George F. Kennan: An American Life | The 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography went to Gaddis for a book that arrived six years after Kennan's own death in 2005 at the age… |
| 2011 | Washington: A Life | Washington: A Life won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography over finalists Alan Brinkley's The Publisher, a life of Henry Luce, and… |
| 2010 | The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt | The First Tycoon was published by Knopf in April 2009 and won both the National Book Award for Nonfiction that year and the Pulitzer Prize for… |
| 2009 | American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House | American Lion won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography over finalists H. W. Brands's Traitor to His Class, a life of Franklin… |
| 2008 | Eden's Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father | Eden's Outcasts won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography over finalists Martin Duberman's The Worlds of Lincoln Kirstein and… |
| 2007 | The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher | The Most Famous Man in America won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography over finalists Arthur H. Cash's John Wilkes and David… |
| 2006 | American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer | American Prometheus won the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography over finalists Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking and Megan… |
| 2005 | de Kooning: An American Master | de Kooning: An American Master won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography over finalists Stephen Greenblatt's Will in the World and… |
| 2004 | Khrushchev: The Man and His Era | Khrushchev: The Man and His Era won the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography over finalists James Gleick's Isaac Newton and Hayden… |
| 2003 | Master of the Senate: The Years of Lyndon Johnson | Master of the Senate won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography over finalists Nicholas Dawidoff's The Fly Swatter and Lewis… |
| 2002 | John Adams | John Adams won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography over finalists Jimmy Carter's memoir An Hour Before Daylight and Jean Edward… |
| 2001 | W. E. B. Du Bois: The Fight for Equality and the American Century 1919-1963 | This concluding volume won the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography over finalists H. W. Brands's The First American, a life of… |
| 2000 | Vera, Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov | Vera won the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography over finalists Bobbie Ann Mason's Clear Springs and Dava Sobel's Galileo's Daughter.… |
| 1999 | Lindbergh | Lindbergh won the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography over finalists Francine du Plessix Gray's At Home with the Marquis de Sade and… |
| 1998 | Personal History | Personal History won the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography over finalists James H. Jones's Alfred C. Kinsey: A Public Private Life… |
| 1997 | Angela's Ashes: A Memoir | Angela's Ashes won the 1997 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography and the National Book Critics Circle Award the year before, beating… |
| 1996 | God: A Biography | God: A Biography won the 1996 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography, an unusual choice for a category built around human lives, over… |
| 1995 | Harriet Beecher Stowe: A Life | Hedrick's biography won the 1995 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography over two finalists the board named that year, Roger K. Newman's Hugo… |
| 1994 | W. E. B. Du Bois: Biography of a Race, 1868–1919 | W. E. B. Du Bois: Biography of a Race won the 1994 Pulitzer Prize for Biography; that year's finalists were Deborah Baker for In Extremis: The Life… |
| 1993 | Truman | Truman won the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for Biography and the Francis Parkman Prize; that year's finalists were James Gleick for Genius: The Life and… |
| 1992 | Fortunate Son: The Autobiography of Lewis B. Puller Jr. | Fortunate Son won the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for Biography; that year's finalists were William S. McFeely, already a Pulitzer winner himself for his… |
| 1991 | Jackson Pollock: An American Saga | Jackson Pollock: An American Saga won the 1991 Pulitzer Prize for Biography and was a finalist for the National Book Award; that year's other… |
| 1990 | Machiavelli in Hell | Machiavelli in Hell won the 1990 Pulitzer Prize for Biography; that year's finalists were Jill Ker Conway for The Road from Coorain, Reynolds Price… |
| 1989 | Oscar Wilde | Ellmann finished the manuscript shortly before he died in Oxford in May 1987; the book appeared in Britain later that year and from Knopf in the… |
| 1988 | Look Homeward: A Life of Thomas Wolfe | Look Homeward: A Life of Thomas Wolfe won the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for Biography; that year's finalists were Kenneth S. Lynn for Hemingway and John… |
| 1987 | Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference | Bearing the Cross won the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for Biography and the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award; that year's finalists were Joseph Frank for… |
| 1986 | Louise Bogan: A Portrait | Louise Bogan: A Portrait was published in 1985 and won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography in 1986. Elizabeth Frank has taught literature at Bard… |
| 1985 | The Life and Times of Cotton Mather | The Life and Times of Cotton Mather won the 1985 Pulitzer Prize for Biography and the Bancroft Prize; that year's finalists were Howard M. Feinstein… |
| 1984 | Booker T. Washington: The Wizard of Tuskegee, 1901–1915 | Booker T. Washington: The Wizard of Tuskegee won the 1984 Pulitzer Prize for Biography and the Bancroft Prize; that year's finalists were Fred Kaplan… |
| 1983 | Growing Up | Growing Up won the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Biography; that year's finalists were Ted Morgan for Churchill: Young Man in a Hurry, 1874 to 1915, and… |
| 1982 | Grant: A Biography | Grant: A Biography won the 1982 Pulitzer Prize for Biography and the Francis Parkman Prize; that year's finalists were Gay Wilson Allen for Waldo… |
| 1981 | Peter the Great: His Life and World | Peter the Great won the 1981 Pulitzer Prize for Biography; that year's finalists were Justin Kaplan for Walt Whitman: A Life and Ronald Steel for… |
| 1980 | The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt | The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt won the 1980 Pulitzer Prize for Biography, the first year finalists were published alongside the winner; that year's… |
| 1979 | Days of Sorrow and Pain: Leo Baeck and the Berlin Jews | Days of Sorrow and Pain won the 1979 Pulitzer Prize for Biography, one of the last two years before the board began publishing a list of finalists… |
| 1978 | Samuel Johnson | Samuel Johnson won the 1978 Pulitzer Prize for Biography, a year in which the board published no list of finalists; that practice began two years… |
| 1977 | A Prince of Our Disorder: The Life of T. E. Lawrence | Little, Brown published A Prince of Our Disorder in 1976, and it won the 1977 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography. Mack, a Harvard… |
| 1976 | Edith Wharton: A Biography | Harper and Row published Edith Wharton: A Biography in 1975, and it won the 1976 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography as well as the 1976… |
| 1975 | The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York | Alfred A. Knopf published The Power Broker in 1974, and it won both the 1975 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography and the Francis Parkman… |
| 1974 | O'Neill, Son and Artist | Little, Brown published O'Neill: Son and Artist in 1973, completing the two volume biography Sheaffer had begun with Son and Playwright in 1968, and… |
| 1973 | Luce and His Empire | Charles Scribner's Sons published Luce and His Empire in 1972, and it won the 1973 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography, Swanberg's first… |
| 1972 | Eleanor and Franklin | The book appeared in 1971, when Eleanor Roosevelt was widely admired but not yet seriously documented, and its revelation of the Lucy Mercer affair,… |
| 1971 | Robert Frost: The Years of Triumph, 1915–1938 | Holt, Rinehart and Winston published Robert Frost: The Years of Triumph in 1970, and it won the 1971 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography,… |
| 1970 | Huey Long | Alfred A. Knopf published Huey Long in 1969, and it won the 1970 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography as well as the 1970 National Book… |
| 1969 | The Man from New York: John Quinn and His Friends | Oxford University Press published The Man from New York in 1968, and it won the 1969 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography. Its publication… |
| 1968 | Memoirs | Little, Brown published Memoirs: 1925 to 1950 in 1967, and it won both the 1968 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography and the 1968 National… |
| 1967 | Mr. Clemens and Mark Twain | Simon and Schuster published Mr. Clemens and Mark Twain in 1966, Kaplan's first book, and it won both the 1967 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or… |
| 1966 | A Thousand Days: John F. Kennedy in the White House | Houghton Mifflin published A Thousand Days in 1965, and it won both the 1966 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography and the 1966 National Book… |
| 1965 | Henry Adams | Harvard University Press published the three volumes of Samuels's Henry Adams across sixteen years, The Young Henry Adams in 1948, Henry Adams: The… |
| 1964 | John Keats | The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press published John Keats in 1963, and it won the 1964 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography. Bate… |
| 1963 | Henry James | J. B. Lippincott published the five volumes of Edel's Henry James between 1953 and 1972, and the second and third, published together in 1962, won… |
| 1962 | No Award | No Award |
| 1961 | Charles Sumner and the Coming of the Civil War | Alfred A. Knopf published Charles Sumner and the Coming of the Civil War in 1960, and it won the 1961 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography.… |
| 1960 | John Paul Jones | Little, Brown published John Paul Jones: A Sailor's Biography in 1959, and it won Morison a second Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography in… |
| 1959 | Woodrow Wilson, American Prophet | Woodrow Wilson appeared in two volumes in 1958, and the first, American Prophet, won the 1959 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography. Walworth… |
| 1958 | George Washington, Vols. I-VII | Charles Scribner's Sons published the completed seven volumes between 1948 and 1957, and the set won the 1958 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or… |
| 1957 | Profiles in Courage | Harper and Brothers published Profiles in Courage on January 1, 1956, and it became an immediate bestseller before winning the 1957 Pulitzer Prize… |
| 1956 | Benjamin Henry Latrobe | Oxford University Press published Benjamin Henry Latrobe in 1955, and it won both the Society of Architectural Historians' Alice Davis Hitchcock… |
| 1955 | The Taft Story | The Taft Story won the 1955 Pulitzer Prize for Biography, awarded a little less than two years after Taft's own death in July 1953. William S. White… |
| 1954 | The Spirit of St. Louis | Scribner published The Spirit of St. Louis in September 1953, more than a quarter century after the flight it describes, and it won the 1954 Pulitzer… |
| 1953 | Edmund Pendleton 1721–1803 | Edmund Pendleton, covering his life from 1721 to 1803, won the 1953 Pulitzer Prize for Biography for David Mays, a Richmond attorney who researched… |
| 1952 | Charles Evans Hughes | Pusey's two volume Charles Evans Hughes won both the 1952 Pulitzer Prize for Biography and that year's Bancroft Prize, an unusual double for a single… |
| 1951 | John C. Calhoun: American Portrait | John C. Calhoun: American Portrait won the 1951 Pulitzer Prize for Biography for Margaret Coit, who had spent nine years researching the book after… |
| 1950 | John Quincy Adams and the Foundations of American Foreign Policy | John Quincy Adams and the Foundations of American Foreign Policy won the 1950 Pulitzer Prize for Biography, Bemis's second Pulitzer after he had… |
| 1949 | Roosevelt and Hopkins | Roosevelt and Hopkins won the 1949 Pulitzer Prize for Biography and the Bancroft Prize the same year, honoring a book written by a man already… |
| 1948 | Forgotten First Citizen: John Bigelow | Forgotten First Citizen won the 1948 Pulitzer Prize for Biography for Margaret Clapp, who had spent twelve years teaching English literature at a New… |
| 1947 | The Autobiography of William Allen White | White died in January 1944 while still working on his memoir, and the Macmillan Company published the finished manuscript posthumously in 1946, which… |
| 1946 | Son of the Wilderness: The Life of John Muir | Son of the Wilderness won the 1946 Pulitzer Prize for Biography, but Linnie Marsh Wolfe never learned of it. She died in a Berkeley nursing home in… |
| 1945 | George Bancroft: Brahmin Rebel | George Bancroft: Brahmin Rebel won the 1945 Pulitzer Prize for Biography for Russel Blaine Nye, a young Michigan State professor of English who would… |
| 1944 | The American Leonardo: The Life of Samuel F. B. Morse | The American Leonardo won the 1944 Pulitzer Prize for Biography for Carleton Mabee, then early in a long career as a historian that would eventually… |
| 1943 | Admiral of the Ocean Sea | Admiral of the Ocean Sea won the 1943 Pulitzer Prize for Biography, honoring a research method, retracing a fifteenth century mariner's actual routes… |
| 1942 | Crusader in Crinoline: The Life of Harriet Beecher Stowe | Crusader in Crinoline won the 1942 Pulitzer Prize for Biography, arriving from a writer, Forrest Wilson, whose own career had ranged from newspaper… |
| 1941 | Jonathan Edwards, 1703–1758: A Biography | Winslow's biography of Jonathan Edwards, covering his life from 1703 to 1758, won the 1941 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography, making her… |
| 1940 | Woodrow Wilson, Life and Letters, Vols. VII and VIII | The Pulitzer board recognized volumes VII and VIII of Baker's Life and Letters with the 1940 Prize for Biography, honoring the culmination of a… |
| 1939 | Benjamin Franklin | Benjamin Franklin won the 1939 Pulitzer Prize for Biography, arriving after Van Doren had already built a substantial reputation as a critic rather… |
| 1938 | Pedlar's Progress: The Life of Bronson Alcott | Pedlar's Progress shared the 1938 Pulitzer Prize for Biography with Marquis James's The Life of Andrew Jackson, an unusual year in which the board… |
| 1938 | The Life of Andrew Jackson | The Life of Andrew Jackson won the 1938 Pulitzer Prize for Biography in a year the board split between two books, this one and Odell Shepard's… |
| 1937 | Hamilton Fish | The 1937 Pulitzer Prize for Biography went to Nevins for a book whose full title, Hamilton Fish: The Inner History of the Grant Administration,… |
| 1936 | The Thought and Character of William James | Little, Brown published Perry's two volumes in 1935, and the completed work won the 1936 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography, closing out… |
| 1935 | R. E. Lee | Charles Scribner's Sons published Freeman's four volumes across 1934 and 1935, and the completed work won the 1935 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or… |
| 1934 | John Hay | Dodd, Mead published John Hay: From Poetry to Politics in 1933, and it won the 1934 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography for Dennett, a… |
| 1933 | Grover Cleveland: A Study in Courage | Dodd, Mead published Grover Cleveland: A Study in Courage in 1932, and it won the 1933 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography, an early… |
| 1932 | Theodore Roosevelt: A Biography | Harcourt, Brace published Pringle's biography in 1931, and it won the 1932 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography, recognition for a book… |
| 1931 | Charles W. Eliot, President of Harvard University, 1869–1909 | Houghton Mifflin published James's two volumes in 1930, and the book won the 1931 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography. James had already… |
| 1930 | The Raven: A Biography of Sam Houston | The Bobbs Merrill Company published The Raven in 1929, and it won the 1930 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography, establishing Marquis James,… |
| 1929 | The Training of an American | Houghton Mifflin published The Training of an American in 1928, and it won the 1929 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography, giving Hendrick… |
| 1928 | The American Orchestra and Theodore Thomas | Doubleday, Page and Company published The American Orchestra and Theodore Thomas in 1927, and it won the 1928 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or… |
| 1927 | Whitman | Alfred A. Knopf published Holloway's Whitman: An Interpretation in Narrative in 1926, and it won the 1927 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or… |
| 1926 | The Life of Sir William Osler | Oxford University Press published Cushing's two volumes in 1925, and the book won the 1926 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography, an unusual… |
| 1925 | Barrett Wendell and His Letters | The Atlantic Monthly Press published Barrett Wendell and His Letters in 1924, and it won the 1925 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography for… |
| 1924 | From Immigrant to Inventor | Charles Scribner's Sons published From Immigrant to Inventor in 1923, and it won the 1924 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography, one of the… |
| 1923 | The Life and Letters of Walter H. Page | Doubleday, Page and Company published Hendrick's biography in two volumes in 1922, with a third volume of Page's letters to Woodrow Wilson following… |
| 1922 | A Daughter of the Middle Border | Macmillan published A Daughter of the Middle Border in 1921, a direct sequel prompted by the surprise commercial and critical success of A Son of the… |
| 1921 | The Americanization of Edward Bok | Charles Scribner's Sons published the book in 1920, and it won the 1921 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography, recognition for a book that… |
| 1920 | The Life of John Marshall | Houghton Mifflin published the four volumes between 1916 and 1919, and the completed work won the 1920 Pulitzer Prize for Biography, a major honor… |
| 1919 | The Education of Henry Adams | Adams privately printed a small run of the book in 1907 for friends and never released it commercially in his lifetime. He died in March 1918, and… |
| 1918 | Benjamin Franklin, Self-Revealed | Bruce published his two volumes in 1917, and the book won the 1918 Pulitzer Prize for Biography, only the award's second year, going to a Maryland… |
| 1917 | Julia Ward Howe | The Pulitzer board gave its first ever biography prize in 1917 to this joint life of Julia Ward Howe, written by daughters honoring a mother who had… |