Crow's Reads

Pulitzer Prize for Biography

The Pulitzer Prize for Biography is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes annually awarded for Letters, Drama, and Music.

109 years · 1917–2026 Official site Data source

  1. 2026

    Winner

    Pride and Pleasure

    Amanda Vaill

    Also on the finalist

    All 3 books from 2026

  2. 2025
    Cover of Every Living Thing

    Winner

    Every Living Thing

    Jason Roberts

    Also on the finalist

    All 3 books from 2025

  3. 2024
    Cover of King

    Winner

    King

    Jonathan Eig

    Also on the finalist

    All 3 books from 2024

  4. 2023
    Cover of G-Man

    Winner

    G-Man

    Beverly Gage

    Also on the finalist

    All 3 books from 2023

  5. 2022
    Cover of Chasing Me to My Grave

    Winner

    Chasing Me to My Grave

    Winfred Rembert and Erin I. Kelly

    Also on the finalist

    All 3 books from 2022

  6. 2021
    Cover of The Dead Are Arising

    Winner

    The Dead Are Arising

    Les Payne and Tamara Payne

    Also on the finalist

    All 3 books from 2021

  7. 2020
    Cover of Sontag

    Winner

    Sontag

    Benjamin Moser

    Also on the finalist

    All 3 books from 2020

  8. 2019
    Cover of The New Negro

    Winner

    The New Negro

    Jeffrey C. Stewart

    Also on the finalist

    All 3 books from 2019

  9. 2018
    Cover of Prairie Fires

    Winner

    Prairie Fires

    Caroline Fraser

    Also on the finalist

    All 3 books from 2018

  10. 2017
    Cover of The Return

    Winner

    The Return

    Hisham Matar

    Also on the finalist

    All 3 books from 2017

  11. 2016
    Cover of Barbarian Days

    Winner

    Barbarian Days

    William Finnegan

    Also on the finalist

    All 3 books from 2016

  12. 2015
    Cover of The Pope and Mussolini

    Winner

    The Pope and Mussolini

    David I. Kertzer

    Also on the finalist

    All 3 books from 2015

  13. 2014

    Winner

    Margaret Fuller

    Megan Marshall

    Also on the finalist

    All 3 books from 2014

  14. 2013
    Cover of The Black Count

    Winner

    The Black Count

    Tom Reiss

    Also on the finalist

    All 3 books from 2013

  15. 2012
    Cover of George F. Kennan

    Winner

    George F. Kennan

    John Lewis Gaddis

    Also on the finalist

    All 3 books from 2012

  16. 2011
    Cover of Washington

    Winner

    Washington

    Ron Chernow

    Also on the finalist

    All 3 books from 2011

  17. 2010
    Cover of The First Tycoon

    Winner

    The First Tycoon

    T. J. Stiles

    Also on the finalist

    All 3 books from 2010

  18. 2009
    Cover of American Lion

    Winner

    American Lion

    Jon Meacham

    Also on the finalist

    All 3 books from 2009

  19. 2008
    Cover of Eden's Outcasts

    Winner

    Eden's Outcasts

    John Matteson

    Also on the finalist

    All 3 books from 2008

  20. 2007

    Winner

    The Most Famous Man in America

    Debby Applegate

    Also on the finalist

    All 3 books from 2007

  21. 2006

    Winner

    American Prometheus

    Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin

    Also on the finalist

    All 3 books from 2006

  22. 2005

    Winner

    de Kooning

    Mark Stevens and Annalyn Swan

    Also on the finalist

    All 3 books from 2005

  23. 2004

    Winner

    Khrushchev

    William Taubman

    Also on the finalist

    All 3 books from 2004

  24. 2003

    Winner

    Master of the Senate

    Robert Caro

    Also on the finalist

    All 3 books from 2003

  25. 2002

    Winner

    John Adams

    David McCullough

    Also on the finalist

    All 3 books from 2002

  26. 2001

    Winner

    W. E. B. Du Bois

    David Levering Lewis

    Also on the finalist

    All 3 books from 2001

  27. 2000

    Winner

    Vera, Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov

    Stacy Schiff

    Also on the finalist

    All 3 books from 2000

  28. 1999

    Winner

    Lindbergh

    A. Scott Berg

    Also on the finalist

    All 3 books from 1999

  29. 1998

    Winner

    Personal History

    Katharine Graham

    Also on the finalist

    All 3 books from 1998

  30. 1997

    Winner

    Angela's Ashes

    Frank McCourt

    Also on the finalist

    All 3 books from 1997

  31. 1996

    Winner

    God

    Jack Miles

    Also on the finalist

    All 3 books from 1996

  32. 1995

    Winner

    Harriet Beecher Stowe

    Joan D. Hedrick

    Also on the finalist

    All 3 books from 1995

  33. 1994

    Winner

    W. E. B. Du Bois

    David Levering Lewis

    Also on the finalist

    All 3 books from 1994

  34. 1993

    Winner

    Truman

    David McCullough

    Also on the finalist

    All 3 books from 1993

  35. 1992

    Winner

    Fortunate Son

    Lewis B. Puller

    Also on the finalist

    All 3 books from 1992

  36. 1991

    Winner

    Jackson Pollock

    Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith

    Also on the finalist

    All 3 books from 1991

  37. 1990

    Winner

    Machiavelli in Hell

    Sebastian de Grazia

    Also on the finalist

    All 4 books from 1990

  38. 1989

    Winner

    Oscar Wilde

    Richard Ellmann

    Also on the finalist

    All 4 books from 1989

  39. 1988

    Winner

    Look Homeward

    David Herbert Donald

    Also on the finalist

    All 3 books from 1988

  40. 1987

    Winner

    Bearing The Cross

    David J. Garrow

    Also on the finalist

    All 4 books from 1987

  41. 1986

    Winner

    Louise Bogan

    Elizabeth Frank

    Also on the finalist

    All 3 books from 1986

  42. 1985

    Winner

    The Life and Times of Cotton Mather

    Kenneth Silverman

    Also on the finalist

    All 3 books from 1985

  43. 1984

    Winner

    Booker T. Washington

    Louis R. Harlan

    Also on the finalist

    All 3 books from 1984

  44. 1983

    Winner

    Growing Up

    Russell Baker

    Also on the finalist

    All 3 books from 1983

  45. 1982

    Winner

    Grant

    William S. McFeely

    Also on the finalist

    All 3 books from 1982

  46. 1981

    Winner

    Peter the Great

    Robert K. Massie

    Also on the finalist

    All 3 books from 1981

  47. 1980

    Winner

    The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt

    Edmund Morris

    Also on the finalist

    All 4 books from 1980

  48. 1979

    Days of Sorrow and Pain

    Leonard Baker
  49. 1978

    Samuel Johnson

    Walter Jackson Bate
  50. 1977

    A Prince of Our Disorder

    John E. Mack
  51. 1976

    Edith Wharton

    R. W. B. Lewis
  52. 1975

    The Power Broker

    Robert Caro
  53. 1974

    O'Neill, Son and Artist

    Louis Sheaffer
  54. 1973

    Luce and His Empire

    W. A. Swanberg
  55. 1972

    Eleanor and Franklin

    Joseph P. Lash
  56. 1971

    Robert Frost

    Lawrance Thompson
  57. 1970

    Huey Long

    Thomas Harry Williams
  58. 1969

    The Man from New York

    Benjamin Lawrence Reid
  59. 1968

    Memoirs

    George F. Kennan
  60. 1967

    Mr. Clemens and Mark Twain

    Justin Kaplan
  61. 1966

    A Thousand Days

    Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.
  62. 1965

    Henry Adams, 3 vols.

    Ernest Samuels
  63. 1964

    John Keats

    Walter Jackson Bate
  64. 1963

    Henry James

    Leon Edel
  65. 1961

    Charles Sumner and the Coming of the Civil War

    David Donald
  66. 1960

    John Paul Jones

    Samuel Eliot Morison
  67. 1959

    Woodrow Wilson

    Arthur Walworth
  68. 1958

    George Washington, vols. I-VII

    Douglas Southall Freeman, John Alexander Carroll and Mary Wells Ashworth
  69. 1957

    Profiles in Courage

    John F. Kennedy
  70. 1956

    Benjamin Henry Latrobe

    Talbot Faulkner Hamlin
  71. 1955

    The Taft Story

    William S. White
  72. 1954

    The Spirit of St. Louis

    Charles A. Lindbergh
  73. 1953

    Edmund Pendleton 1721–1803

    David J. Mays
  74. 1952

    Charles Evans Hughes

    Merlo J. Pusey
  75. 1951

    John C. Calhoun

    Margaret Louise Coit
  76. 1950

    John Quincy Adams and the Foundations of American Foreign Policy

    Samuel Flagg Bemis
  77. 1949

    Roosevelt and Hopkins

    Robert E. Sherwood
  78. 1948

    Forgotten First Citizen

    Margaret Clapp
  79. 1947

    The Autobiography of William Allen White

    William Allen White
  80. 1946

    Son of the Wilderness

    Linnie Marsh Wolfe
  81. 1945

    George Bancroft

    Russel Blaine Nye
  82. 1944

    The American Leonardo

    Carleton Mabee
  83. 1943

    Admiral of the Ocean Sea

    Samuel Eliot Morison
  84. 1942

    Crusader in Crinoline

    Forrest Wilson
  85. 1941

    Jonathan Edwards, 1703–1758

    Ola Elizabeth Winslow
  86. 1940

    Woodrow Wilson, Life and Letters. Vols. VII and VIII

    Ray Stannard Baker
  87. 1939

    Benjamin Franklin

    Carl Van Doren
  88. 1938

    Winner

    Pedlar's Progress

    Odell Shepard

    All 2 books from 1938

  89. 1937

    Hamilton Fish

    Allan Nevins
  90. 1936

    The Thought and Character of William James

    Ralph Barton Perry
  91. 1935

    R. E. Lee

    Douglas S. Freeman
  92. 1934

    John Hay

    Tyler Dennett
  93. 1933

    Grover Cleveland

    Allan Nevins
  94. 1932

    Theodore Roosevelt

    Henry F. Pringle
  95. 1931

    Charles W. Eliot, President of Harvard University, 1869–1901

    Henry James
  96. 1930

    The Raven

    Marquis James
  97. 1929

    The Training of an American

    Burton J. Hendrick
  98. 1928

    The American Orchestra and Theodore Thomas

    Charles Edward Russell
  99. 1927

    Whitman

    Emory Holloway
  100. 1926

    The Life of Sir William Osler, 2 vols.

    Harvey Cushing
  101. 1925

    Barrett Wendell and His Letters

    M. A. De Wolfe Howe
  102. 1924

    From Immigrant to Inventor

    Michael I. Pupin
  103. 1923

    The Life and Letters of Walter H. Page

    Burton J. Hendrick
  104. 1922

    A Daughter of the Middle Border

    Hamlin Garland
  105. 1921

    The Americanization of Edward Bok

    Edward Bok
  106. 1920

    The Life of John Marshall, 4 vols.

    Albert J. Beveridge
  107. 1919

    The Education of Henry Adams

    Henry Adams
  108. 1918

    Benjamin Franklin, Self-Revealed

    William Cabell Bruce
  109. 1917

    Julia Ward Howe

    Laura E. Richards, Maud Howe Elliott and assisted by Florence Howe Hall

Earlier years list the winner only.