National Book Award for Fiction

National Book Award for Fiction
Awarded for	Outstanding literary work by U.S. citizens.
Location	New York City
First awarded	1950
Official website	National Book Foundation

The National Book Award for Fiction is one of four annual National Book Awards, which recognize outstanding literary work by United States citizens. Since 1987 the awards have been administered and presented by the National Book Foundation, but they are awards "by writers to writers".^[1] The panelists are five "writers who are known to be doing great work in their genre or field".^[2]

General fiction was one of four categories when the awards were re-established in 1950. For several years beginning 1980, prior to the Foundation, there were multiple fiction categories: hardcover, paperback, first novel or first work of fiction; from 1981 to 1983 hardcover and paperback children's fiction; and only in 1980 five awards to mystery fiction, science fiction, and western fiction.^[3] When the Foundation celebrated the 60th postwar awards in 2009, all but three of the 77 previous winners in fiction categories were in print.^[4] The 77 included all eight 1980 winners but excluded the 1981 to 1983 children's fiction winners.^[5]

The award recognizes one book written by a U.S. citizen and published in the U.S. from December 1 to November 30. The National Book Foundation accepts nominations from publishers until June 15, requires mailing nominated books to the panelists by August 1, and announces five finalists in October. The winner is announced on the day of the final ceremony in November. The award is $10,000 and a bronze sculpture; other finalists get $1000, a medal, and a citation written by the panel.^[6]

There were 315 books nominated for the 2011 award in the fiction category.^[7]

National Book Awards for Fiction

From 1935 to 1941 there were six annual awards for general fiction and the "Bookseller Discovery" or "Most Original Book" was sometimes a novel. From 1980 to 1985 there were six annual awards to first novels or first works of fiction. In 1980 there were five awards to mystery, western, or science fiction. There have been many awards to fiction in the Children's or Young People's categories.^[3]

Finalists, general fiction

This list covers only the post-war awards (pre-war awards follow) to general fiction for adult readers: one annual winner from 1950 except two undifferentiated winners 1973 to 1975, dual hardcover and paperback winners 1980 to 1983.

For each award the winner is listed first followed by the runners up, currently (from 1987) four losing finalists.

1950 to 1959 ^[8]

Published 1949 to 1958

1950: Nelson Algren — The Man with the Golden Arm

No runners up were recognized. There were five honorable mentions in the non-fiction category only.^[9][10]

1951: William Faulkner — Collected Stories of William Faulkner

No runners up were recognized.^[11]

1952: James Jones — From Here to Eternity

• James Agee — The Morning Watch
• Truman Capote — The Grass Harp
• William Faulkner — Requiem for a Nun
• Caroline Gordon — The Strange Children
• Thomas Mann — The Holy Sinner
• John P. Marquand — Melville Goodwin USA
• J.D. Salinger — The Catcher in the Rye
• William Styron — Lie Down in Darkness
• Jessamyn West — The Witch Diggers
• Herman Wouk — The Caine Mutiny

1953: Ralph Ellison — Invisible Man

• Isabel Bolton — Many Mansions
• H.L. Davis — Winds of Morning
• Thomas Gallagher — The Gathering Darkness
• Ernest Hemingway — The Old Man and the Sea
• Carl Jonas — Jefferson Selleck
• Peter Martin — The Landsman
• May Sarton — A Shower of Summer Days
• Jean Stafford — The Catherine Wheel
• John Steinbeck — East of Eden
• William Carlos Williams — The Build-Up

1954: Saul Bellow — The Adventures of Augie March

No runners up were recognized.^[12]

1955: William Faulkner — A Fable

• Harriette Arnow — The Dollmaker
• Hamilton Basso — The View from Pompey's Head
• Davis Grubb — The Night of the Hunter
• Randall Jarrell — Pictures from an Institution
• Milton Lott — The Last Hunt
• Frederick Manfred — Lord Grizzly
• William March — The Bad Seed
• Wright Morris — The Huge Season
• Frank Rooney — The Courts of Memory
• John Steinbeck — Sweet Thursday

1956: John O'Hara — Ten North Frederick

• Paul Bowles — The Spider's House
• Shirley Ann Grau — The Black Prince, and Other Stories
• MacKinlay Kantor — Andersonville
• Flannery O'Connor — A Good Man is Hard to Find
• May Sarton — Faithful Are the Wounds
• Robert Penn Warren — Band of Angels
• Eudora Welty — The Bride of the Innisfallen
• Herman Wouk — Marjorie Morningstar

1957: Wright Morris — The Field of Vision

• Nelson Algren — A Walk on the Wild Side
• James Baldwin — Giovanni's Room
• Saul Bellow — Seize the Day
• B.J. Chute — Greenwillow
• A.B. Guthrie – These Thousand Hills
• John Hersey — A Single Pebble
• John Hunt — Generations of Men
• Edwin O'Connor — The Last Hurrah
• J.F. Powers — The Presence of Grace
• Elizabeth Spencer — The Voice at the Back Door
• James Thurber — Further Fables for Our Time

1958: John Cheever — The Wapshot Chronicle

• James Agee — A Death in the Family
• James Gould Cozzens — By Love Possessed
• Mark Harris — Something About a Soldier
• Andrew Lytle — The Velvet Horn
• Bernard Malamud — The Assistant
• Wright Morris — Love Among the Cannibals
• Vladimir Nabokov — Pnin
• Ayn Rand — Atlas Shrugged
• Nancy Wilson Ross — The Return of Lady Brace
• May Sarton — The Birth of a Grandfather

1959: Bernard Malamud — The Magic Barrel

• J.P. Donleavy — The Ginger Man
• William Humphrey — Home from the Hill
• Vladimir Nabokov — Lolita
• John O'Hara — From the Terrace
• J.R. Salamanca — The Lost Country
• Anya Seton — The Winthrop Woman
• Robert Traver — Anatomy of a Murder

1960 to 1969 ^[13]

Published 1959 to 1968

1960: Philip Roth — Goodbye, Columbus^[14]

• Louis Auchincloss — Pursuit of the Prodigal
• Hamilton Basso — The Light Infantry Ball
• Saul Bellow — Henderson the Rain King
• Evan S. Connell, Jr. — Mrs. Bridge
• William Faulkner — The Mansion
• Mark Harris — Wake Up, Stupid
• John Hersey — The War Lover
• H.L. Humes — Men Die
• Shirley Jackson — The Haunting of Hill House
• Elizabeth Janeway — The Third Choice
• James Jones — The Pistol
• Warren Miller — The Cool World
• James Purdy — Malcolm
• Leo Rosten — The Return of H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N (2nd of two short story collections; see 1937)
• John Updike — The Poorhouse Fair
• Robert Penn Warren — The Cave
• Morris West — The Devil's Advocate

1961: Conrad Richter — The Waters of Kronos

• Louis Auchincloss — The House of Five Talents
• Kay Boyle — Generation Without Farewell
• John Hersey — The Child Buyer
• John Knowles — A Separate Peace
• Harper Lee — To Kill a Mockingbird
• Wright Morris — Ceremony in Lone Tree
• Flannery O'Connor — The Violent Bear It Away
• Elizabeth Spencer — The Light in the Piazza and Other Italian Tales
• Francis Steegmuller — The Christening Party
• John Updike — Rabbit, Run
• Mildred Walker — The Body of a Young Man

1962: Walker Percy — The Moviegoer

• Hortense Calisher — False Entry
• George P. Elliott — Among the Dangs
• Joseph Heller — Catch-22
• Bernard Malamud — A New Life
• William Maxwell — The Chateau
• J.D. Salinger — Franny and Zooey
• Isaac Bashevis Singer — The Spinoza of Market Street and Other Stories
• Edward Lewis Wallant — The Pawnbroker
• Joan Williams — The Morning and the Evening
• Richard Yates — Revolutionary Road

1963: J. F. Powers — Morte d'Urban

• Vladimir Nabokov — Pale Fire
• Katherine Anne Porter — Ship of Fools
• Dawn Powell — The Golden Spur
• Clancy Sigal — Going Away
• John Updike — Pigeon Feathers and Other Stories

1964: John Updike — The Centaur

• Bernard Malamud — Idiots First
• Mary McCarthy — The Group
• Thomas Pynchon — V.
• Harvey Swados — The Will

1965: Saul Bellow — Herzog

• Louis Auchincloss — The Rector of Justin
• John Hawkes — Second Skin
• Richard E. Kim — The Martyred
• Wallace Markfield — To an Early Grave
• Vladimir Nabokov — The Defense
• Isaac Bashevis Singer — Short Friday

1966: Katherine Anne Porter — The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter

• Jesse Hill Ford — The Liberation of Lord Byron Jones
• Peter Matthiessen — At Play in the Fields of the Lord
• James Merrill — The (Diblos) Notebook
• Flannery O'Connor — Everything That Rises Must Converge
• Harry Mark Petrakis — Pericles on 31st Street

1967: Bernard Malamud — The Fixer

• Louis Auchincloss — The Embezzler
• Edwin O'Connor — All in the Family
• Walker Percy — The Last Gentleman
• Harry Mark Petrakis — A Dream of Kings
• Wilfrid Sheed — Office Politics

1968: Thornton Wilder — The Eighth Day

• Norman Mailer — Why Are We in Vietnam?
• Joyce Carol Oates — A Garden of Earthly Delights
• Chaim Potok — The Chosen
• William Styron — Confessions of Nat Turner

1969: Jerzy Kosinski — Steps

• John Barth — Lost in the Funhouse
• Frederick Exley — A Fan's Notes
• Joyce Carol Oates — Expensive People
• Thomas Rogers — The Pursuit of Happiness

1970 to 1979 ^[15]

Published 1969 to 1978

1970: Joyce Carol Oates — them

• Leonard Gardner — Fat City
• Leonard Michaels — Going Places
• Jean Stafford — The Collected Stories of Jean Stafford
• Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. — Slaughterhouse Five or The Children's Crusade

1971: Saul Bellow — Mr. Sammler's Planet

• James Dickey — Deliverance
• Shirley Hazzard — The Bay of Noon
• John Updike – Bech: A Book
• Eudora Welty — Losing Battles

1972: Flannery O'Connor — The Complete Stories

The Complete Stories was named the "Best of the National Book Awards"^[16] as part of the Fiction Award's 60th anniversary celebration in 2009, by internet visitors voting on a ballot of the best six award winners selected by writers associated with the Foundation.^[4]

• Frederick Buechner, Lion Country
• E.L. Doctorow, The Book of Daniel
• Stanley Elkin, The Dick Gibson Show
• Tom McHale, Farragan's Retreat
• Joyce Carol Oates, Wonderland
• Cynthia Ozick, The Pagan Rabbi and Other Stories
• Walker Percy, Love in the Ruins
• Earl Thompson, A Garden of Sand
• John Updike, Rabbit Redux

1973: John Barth — Chimera^[17]

1973: John Edward Williams — Augustus^[18]

Split award.^{[lower-alpha 1]}

There were twelve winners in ten categories this year.^[19]

• Brock Brower — The Late Great Creature
• Alan H. Friedman — Hermaphrodeity
• Barry Hannah — Geronimo Rex
• George V. Higgins — The Friends of Eddie Coyle
• R.M. Koster — The Prince
• Vladimir Nabokov — Transparent Things
• Ishmael Reed — Mumbo Jumbo
• Thomas Rogers — The Confessions of a Child of the Century
• Isaac Bashevis Singer — Enemies, A Love Story
• Eudora Welty — The Optimist's Daughter

1974: Thomas Pynchon — Gravity's Rainbow^[20]

1974: Isaac Bashevis Singer — A Crown of Feathers and Other Stories^[21]

Split award.^{[lower-alpha 1]} There were fourteen winners in ten categories this year.^[22]

• Doris Betts — Beasts of the Southern Wild and Other Stories
• John Cheever — The World of Apples
• Ellen Douglas — Apostles of Light
• Stanley Elkin — Searches and Seizures
• John Gardner — Nickel Mountain
• John Leonard — Black Conceit
• Thomas McGuane — Ninety-Two in the Shade
• Wilfrid Sheed — People Will Always Be Kind
• Gore Vidal — Burr
• Joy Williams — State of Grace

1975: Robert Stone — Dog Soldiers^[23]

1975: Thomas Williams — The Hair of Harold Roux^[24]

Split award.^{[lower-alpha 1]} There were twelve winners in ten categories this year.^[25]

• Donald Barthelme — Guilty Pleasures
• Gail Godwin — The Odd Woman
• Joseph Heller — Something Happened
• Toni Morrison — Sula
• Vladimir Nabokov — Look at the Harlequins!
• Grace Paley — Enormous Changes at the Last Minute
• Philip Roth — My Life As a Man
• Mark Smith — The Death of a Detective

1976: William Gaddis — J R

• Saul Bellow — Humboldt's Gift
• Hortense Calisher — The Collected Stories of Hortense Calisher
• Johanna Kaplan — Other People's Lives
• Vladimir Nabokov — Tyrants Destroyed and Other Stories
• Larry Woiwode — Beyond the Bedroom Wall

1977: Wallace Stegner — The Spectator Bird

• Raymond Carver — Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?
• MacDonald Harris — The Balloonist
• Ursula K. Le Guin — Orsinian Tales
• Cynthia Propper Seton — A Fine Romance

1978: Mary Lee Settle — Blood Tie

• Robert Coover — The Public Burning
• Peter De Vries — Madder Music
• James Alan McPherson — Elbow Room
• John Sayles — Union Dues

1979: Tim O'Brien — Going After Cacciato

• John Cheever — The Stories of John Cheever
• John Irving — The World According to Garp
• Diane Johnson — Lying Low
• David Plante — The Family

1980 to 1989^[26]

1980 to 1983 winners published 1979 to 1982.

For 1980 to 1983 this list covers the paired "Fiction (hardcover)" and "Fiction (paperback)" awards in that order. Hard and paper editions were distinguished only in these four years; none of the paperback winners were original; in their first editions all had been losing finalists in 1979 or 1981.

From 1980 to 1985 there was also one award for first novel or first work of fiction and in 1980 there were five more awards for mystery, western, and science fiction.^[3] None of those are covered here.

1980 hardcover:^[27] William Styron — Sophie's Choice

• James Baldwin — Just Above My Head
• Norman Mailer — The Executioner's Song
• Philip Roth — The Ghost Writer
• Scott Spencer — Endless Love

1980 paperback:^[28] John Irving — The World According to Garp

Paul Bowles — Collected Stories

Gail Godwin — Violet Clay

John Updike — Too Far to Go

Marguerite Young — Miss MacIntosh, My Darling, Volumes 1 and 2

1981 hardcover:^[29] Wright Morris — Plains Song: For Female Voices

• Shirley Hazzard — The Transit of Venus
• William Maxwell — So Long, See You Tomorrow
• Walker Percy — The Second Coming
• Eudora Welty — The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty

1981 paperback:^[30] John Cheever — The Stories of John Cheever

Thomas Flanagan — The Year of the French

Norman Mailer — The Executioner's Song

Scott Spencer — Endless Love

Herman Wouk — War and Remembrance

1982 hardcover:^[31] John Updike — Rabbit is Rich

• Mark Helprin — Ellis Island and Other Stories
• John Irving — The Hotel New Hampshire
• Robert Stone — A Flag for Sunrise
• William Wharton – Dad

1982 paperback:^[32] William Maxwell — So Long, See You Tomorrow

E.L. Doctorow — Loon Lake

Shirley Hazzard — The Transit of Venus

Walker Percy — The Second Coming

Anne Tyler — Morgan's Passing

1983 hardcover:^[33] Alice Walker — The Color Purple

• Gail Godwin — A Mother and Two Daughters
• Bobbie Ann Mason — Shiloh and Other Stories
• Paul Theroux — The Mosquito Coast
• Anne Tyler — Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant

1983 paperback:^[34] Eudora Welty — The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty

David Bradley — The Chaneysville Incident

Mary Gordon — The Company of Women

Marilynne Robinson — Housekeeping

Robert Stone — A Flag for Sunrise

1983 entries were published during 1982; winners in 27 categories were announced April 13 and privately celebrated April 28, 1983.^[35]

1984 entries for the "revamped" awards in three categories were published November 1983 to October 1984; eleven finalists were announced October 17.^[36] Winners were announced and celebrated November 15, 1984.^[37]

1984: Ellen Gilchrist — Victory Over Japan: A Book of Stories

• Alison Lurie — Foreign Affairs
• Philip Roth — The Anatomy Lesson

1985: Don DeLillo — White Noise

• Ursula K. Le Guin — Always Coming Home
• Hugh Nissenson — The Tree of Life

1986: E.L. Doctorow — World's Fair

• Norman Rush — Whites
• Peter Taylor — A Summons to Memphis

1987: Larry Heinemann — Paco's Story

• Alice McDermott — That Night
• Toni Morrison — Beloved
• Howard Norman — The Northern Lights
• Philip Roth — The Counterlife

1988: Pete Dexter — Paris Trout

• Don DeLillo — Libra
• Mary McGarry Morris — Vanished
• J. F. Powers — Wheat That Springeth Green
• Anne Tyler — Breathing Lessons

1989: John Casey — Spartina

• E.L. Doctorow — Billy Bathgate
• Katherine Dunn — Geek Love
• Oscar Hijuelos — Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love
• Amy Tan — The Joy Luck Club

1990 to 1999^[38]

Published 1990 to 1999

1990: Charles Johnson — Middle Passage

• Felipe Alfau — Chromos
• Elena Castedo — Paradise
• Jessica Hagedorn — Dogeaters
• Joyce Carol Oates — Because It Is Bitter, and Because It Is My Heart

1991: Norman Rush — Mating

• Louis Begley — Wartime Lies
• Stephen Dixon — Frog
• Stanley Elkin — The MacGuffin
• Sandra Scofield — Beyond Deserving

1992: Cormac McCarthy — All the Pretty Horses

• Dorothy Allison — Bastard Out of Carolina
• Cristina García — Dreaming in Cuban
• Edward P. Jones — Lost in the City
• Robert Stone — Outerbridge Reach

1993: E. Annie Proulx — The Shipping News

• Amy Bloom — Come to Me: Stories
• Thom Jones — The Pugilist at Rest
• Richard Powers — Operation Wandering Soul
• Bob Shacochis — Swimming in the Volcano

1994: William Gaddis — A Frolic of His Own

• Ellen Currie — Moses Supposes
• Richard Dooling — White Man's Grave
• Howard Norman — The Bird Artist
• Grace Paley — The Collected Stories

1995: Philip Roth — Sabbath's Theater

• Madison Smartt Bell — All Souls' Rising
• Edwidge Danticat — Krik? Krak!
• Stephen Dixon — Interstate
• Rosario Ferré — The House on the Lagoon

1996: Andrea Barrett — Ship Fever and Other Stories

• Ron Hansen — Atticus
• Elizabeth McCracken — The Giant's House
• Steven Millhauser — Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer
• Janet Peery — The River Beyond the World

1997: Charles Frazier — Cold Mountain

• Don DeLillo — Underworld
• Diane Johnson — Le Divorce
• Ward Just — Echo House
• Cynthia Ozick — The Puttermesser Papers

1998: Alice McDermott — Charming Billy

• Allegra Goodman — Kaaterskill Falls
• Gayl Jones — The Healing
• Robert Stone — Damascus Gate
• Tom Wolfe — A Man in Full

1999: Ha Jin — Waiting

• Andre Dubus III — House of Sand and Fog
• Kent Haruf — Plainsong
• Patricia Henley — Hummingbird House
• Jean Thompson — Who Do You Love

2000 to 2009^[39]

Published 2000 to 2009

2000: Susan Sontag — In America

• Charles Baxter — The Feast of Love
• Alan Lightman — The Diagnosis
• Joyce Carol Oates — Blonde
• Francine Prose — Blue Angel

2001: Jonathan Franzen — The Corrections

• Dan Chaon — Among the Missing
• Jennifer Egan — Look at Me
• Louise Erdrich — The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse
• Susan Straight — Highwire Moon

2002: Julia Glass — Three Junes

• Mark Costello — Big If
• Adam Haslett — You Are Not a Stranger Here
• Martha McPhee — Gorgeous Lies
• Brad Watson — The Heaven of Mercury

2003: Shirley Hazzard — The Great Fire

• T.C. Boyle — Drop City
• Edward P. Jones — The Known World
• Scott Spencer — A Ship Made of Paper
• Marianne Wiggins — Evidence of Things Unseen: A Novel

2004: Lily Tuck — The News from Paraguay

• Sarah Shun-lien Bynum — Madeleine is Sleeping
• Christine Schutt — Florida
• Joan Silber — Ideas of Heaven: A Ring of Stories
• Kate Walbert — Our Kind

2005: William Vollmann — Europe Central

• E.L. Doctorow — The March
• Mary Gaitskill — Veronica
• Christopher Sorrentino — Trance
• Rene Steinke — Holy Skirts

2006: Richard Powers — The Echo Maker

• Mark Z. Danielewski — Only Revolutions
• Ken Kalfus — A Disorder Peculiar to the Country
• Dana Spiotta — Eat the Document
• Jess Walter — The Zero

2007: Denis Johnson — Tree of Smoke

• Mischa Berlinski — Fieldwork
• Lydia Davis — Varieties of Disturbance
• Joshua Ferris — Then We Came to the End
• Jim Shepard — Like You'd Understand, Anyway

2008: Peter Matthiessen — Shadow Country

• Aleksandar Hemon — The Lazarus Project
• Rachel Kushner — Telex from Cuba
• Marilynne Robinson — Home
• Salvatore Scibona — The End

2009: Colum McCann — Let the Great World Spin

• Bonnie Jo Campbell — American Salvage
• Daniyal Mueenuddin — In Other Rooms, Other Wonders
• Jayne Anne Phillips — Lark and Termite
• Marcel Theroux — Far North

2010 to date^[40]

Published during the award year.

2010: Jaimy Gordon — Lord of Misrule

• Peter Carey — Parrot and Olivier in America
• Nicole Krauss — Great House
• Lionel Shriver — So Much for That
• Karen Tei Yamashita — I Hotel

2011: Jesmyn Ward — Salvage the Bones

• Andrew Krivak — The Sojourn
• Téa Obreht — The Tiger's Wife
• Julie Otsuka — The Buddha in the Attic
• Edith Pearlman — Binocular Vision

2012:^[41] Louise Erdrich — The Round House^[42][43]

• Junot Díaz — This Is How You Lose Her
• Dave Eggers — A Hologram for the King
• Ben Fountain — Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk
• Kevin Powers — The Yellow Birds

2013:^[44][45] James McBride — The Good Lord Bird

• Rachel Kushner — The Flamethrowers
• Jhumpa Lahiri — The Lowland
• Thomas Pynchon — Bleeding Edge
• George Saunders — Tenth of December: Stories

2014:^[46] Phil Klay — Redeployment'^[47]

• Rabih Alameddine — An Unnecessary Woman
• Anthony Doerr — All the Light We Cannot See
• Emily St. John Mandel — Station Eleven
• Marilynne Robinson — Lila

Early awards for fiction

The National Book Awards for 1935 to 1940 annually recognized the "Most Distinguished Novel" or "Favorite Fiction" (one award). Furthermore, works of fiction were eligible for the "Bookseller Discovery" and "Most Original Book" (two awards); fiction winners are listed here. In 1937 and 1939 alone, the New York Times reported close seconds and runners up respectively.^{[48][49][50][51][52][53]}

There was only one National Book Award for 1941, the Bookseller Discovery, which recognized a novel;^[54] then none until their 1950 revival for 1949 books in three categories including Fiction.

Novel

1935:^[48] Rachel Field, Time Out of Mind

1936:^[49] Margaret Mitchell, Gone With the Wind

Fiction

1937:^[50] A. J. Cronin, The Citadel

• Conrad Richter, The Sea of Grass^{[lower-alpha 2]}
• Kenneth Roberts, Northwest Passage^{[lower-alpha 2]}
• Leonard Q. Ross (Leo Rosten), The Education of H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N^{[lower-alpha 2]} (short stories)

1938:^[51] Daphne Du Maurier, Rebecca

1939:^[52] John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath

• Sholom Asch, The Nazarene

1940:^[53] Richard Llewellyn, How Green Was My Valley

Bookseller Discovery, 1936 to 1941

Works of fiction constituted four winners and the only other known finalists, 1937 and 1939.

1936:^[49] Norah Lofts, I Met a Gypsy (short stories)

1937:^[50] Lawrence Watkin, On Borrowed Time (novel)

• see 1937 Fiction^{[lower-alpha 2]}

1938: see nonfiction

1939:^[52] Elgin Groseclose, Ararat (novel)

• Chard Powers Smith, Artillery of Time, I

1940: see nonfiction

1941:^[54] George Sessions Perry, Hold Autumn in Your Hand (novel)

Most Original Book, 1935 to 1939

Works of fiction constituted two winners and the only other known finalists, 1937 and 1939.

1935:^[48] Charles G. Finney, The Circus of Dr. Lao (novel)

1936: see nonfiction

1937: see nonfiction

• see 1937 Fiction^{[lower-alpha 2]}

1938: see nonfiction

1939:^[52] Dalton Trumbo, Johnny Got His Gun (novel)

• Geoffrey Household, Rogue Male

Repeat winners

See Winners of multiple U.S. National Book Awards

Notes

References

External links

• The Contenders: 61 Years of National Book Award Fiction Finalists, special exhibit, June 2012. "Down Memory Lane With the National Book Awards (and Not Just the Winners), New York Times, June 22, 2012.

National Book Award for Fiction 1950–1974 The Man with the Golden Arm by Nelson Algren (1950) Collected Stories of William Faulkner by William Faulkner (1951) From Here to Eternity by James Jones (1952) Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison (1953) The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow (1954) A Fable by William Faulkner (1955) Ten North Frederick by John O'Hara (1956) The Field of Vision by Wright Morris (1957) The Wapshot Chronicle by John Cheever (1958) The Magic Barrel by Bernard Malamud (1959) Goodbye, Columbus by Philip Roth (1960) The Waters of Kronos by Conrad Richter (1961) The Moviegoer by Walker Percy (1962) Morte d'Urban by J. F. Powers (1963) The Centaur by John Updike (1964) Herzog by Saul Bellow (1965) The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter by Katherine Anne Porter (1966) The Fixer by Bernard Malamud (1967) The Eighth Day by Thornton Wilder (1968) Steps by Jerzy Kosiński (1969) them by Joyce Carol Oates (1970) Mr. Sammler's Planet by Saul Bellow (1971) The Complete Stories by Flannery O'Connor (1972) Chimera by John Barth (1973) Augustus by John Williams (1973) Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon (1974) A Crown of Feathers and Other Stories by Isaac Bashevis Singer (1974) 1975–1999 Dog Soldiers by Robert Stone (1975) The Hair of Harold Roux by Thomas Williams (1975) J R by William Gaddis (1976) The Spectator Bird by Wallace Stegner (1977) Blood Tie by Mary Lee Settle (1978) Going After Cacciato by Tim O'Brien (1979) Sophie's Choice by William Styron (1980) The World According to Garp by John Irving (1980) Plains Song: For Female Voices by Wright Morris (1981) The Stories of John Cheever by John Cheever (1981) Rabbit Is Rich by John Updike (1982) So Long, See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell (1982) The Color Purple by Alice Walker (1983) The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty by Eudora Welty (1983) Victory Over Japan by Ellen Gilchrist (1984) White Noise by Don DeLillo (1985) World's Fair by E. L. Doctorow (1986) Paco's Story by Larry Heinemann (1987) Paris Trout by Pete Dexter (1988) Spartina by John Casey (1989) Middle Passage by Charles Johnson (1990) Mating by Norman Rush (1991) All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy (1992) The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx (1993) A Frolic of His Own by William Gaddis (1994) Sabbath's Theater by Philip Roth (1995) Ship Fever and Other Stories by Andrea Barrett (1996) Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier (1997) Charming Billy by Alice McDermott (1998) Waiting by Ha Jin (1999) 2000–2024 In America by Susan Sontag (2000) The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen (2001) Three Junes by Julia Glass (2002) The Great Fire by Shirley Hazzard (2003) The News from Paraguay by Lily Tuck (2004) Europe Central by William T. Vollmann (2005) The Echo Maker by Richard Powers (2006) Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson (2007) Shadow Country by Peter Matthiessen (2008) Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann (2009) Lord of Misrule by Jaimy Gordon (2010) Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward (2011) The Round House by Louise Erdrich (2012) The Good Lord Bird by James McBride (2013) Redeployment by Phil Klay (2014) Complete list (1950–1974) (1975–1999) (2000–2024)