| Year
|
Author(s)
|
Title
|
Result
|
Ref.
|
| 2013
|
Robert Caro
|
The Passage of Power
|
Winner
|
[1]
|
| Deirdre Bair
|
Saul Steinberg: A Biography
|
Nominee
|
[2][3]
|
| Lisa Cohen
|
All We Know: Three Lives
|
Nominee
|
[2][3]
|
| Timothy Egan
|
Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher: The Epic Life and Immortal Photographs of Edward Curtis
|
Nominee
|
[2][3]
|
| Alice Kessler-Harris
|
A Difficult Woman: The Challenging Life and Times of Lillian Hellman
|
Nominee
|
[2][3]
|
| David Maraniss
|
Barack Obama: The Story
|
Nominee
|
[2][3]
|
| John Matteson
|
The Lives of Margaret Fuller
|
Nominee
|
[2][3]
|
| Tom Reiss
|
The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo
|
Nominee
|
[2][3]
|
| William Souder
|
On a Farther Shore: The Life and Legacy of Rachel Carson
|
Nominee
|
[2][3]
|
| Rachel L. Swarns
|
American Tapestry: The Story of the Black, White and Multiracial Ancestors of Michelle Obama
|
Nominee
|
[2][3]
|
| 2014
|
Linda Leavell
|
Holding On Upside Down: The Life and Work of Marianne Moore
|
Winner
|
[4]
|
| Scott Anderson
|
Lawrence in Arabia
|
Nominee
|
[5]
|
| Marie Arana
|
Bolivar: American Liberator
|
Nominee
|
[5]
|
| A. Scott Berg
|
Wilson
|
Nominee
|
[5]
|
| Ben Bradlee Jr.
|
The Kid: The Immortal Life of Ted Williams
|
Nominee
|
[5]
|
| Leo Damrosch
|
Jonathan Swift: His Life and His World
|
Nominee
|
[5]
|
| Lucy Hughes-Hallett
|
Gabriele D'Annunzio: Poet, Seducer, and Preacher of War
|
Nominee
|
[5]
|
| Brian Jay Jones
|
Jim Henson: The Biography
|
Nominee
|
[5]
|
| Jill Lepore
|
Book of Ages: The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin
|
Nominee
|
[5]
|
| Ray Monk
|
Robert Oppenheimer: A Life Inside the Center
|
Nominee
|
[5]
|
| 2015
|
Hermione Lee
|
Penelope Fitzgerald: A Life
|
Winner
|
[6]
|
| Helen Rappaport
|
The Romanov Sisters: The Lost Lives of Daughters of Nicholas and Alexandria
|
Finalist
|
[6]
|
| Nigel Hamilton
|
The Mantle of Command: FDR at War, 1941-1942
|
Finalist
|
[6]
|
| John Lahr
|
Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh
|
Finalist
|
[6]
|
| 2016
|
Rosemary Sullivan
|
Stalin’s Daughter: The Extraordinary and Tumultuous Life of Svetlana Alliluyeva
|
Winner
|
|
| Sonia Purnell
|
Clementine: The Life of Mrs. Winston Churchill
|
Nominee
|
[7]
|
| T. J. Stiles
|
Custer's Trials: A Life on the Frontier of a New America
|
Nominee
|
[7]
|
| Jay Parini
|
Empire of Self: A Life of Gore Vidal
|
Nominee
|
[7]
|
| Anne Heller
|
Hannah Arendt: A Life in Dark Times
|
Nominee
|
[7]
|
| Emily Bingham
|
Irrepressible: A Jazz Age Life of Henrietta Bingham
|
Nominee
|
[7]
|
| Betty Boyd Caroli
|
Lady Bird and Lyndon: The Hidden Story of a Marriage
|
Nominee
|
[7]
|
| Irwin F. Gellman
|
The President and the Apprentice: Eisenhower and Nixon 1952-1961
|
Nominee
|
[7]
|
| Cathy Curtis
|
Restless Ambition: Grace Hartigan, Painter
|
Nominee
|
[7]
|
| Peter Guralnick
|
Sam Phillips: The Man Who Invented Rock 'n' Roll
|
Nominee
|
[7]
|
| 2017
|
Ruth Franklin
|
Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life
|
Winner
|
[8]
|
| Frances Wilson
|
Guilty Thing: A Life of Thomas De Quincey
|
Finalist
|
[9]
|
| Volker Ullrich, trans. by Jefferson Chase
|
Hitler: Ascent, 1889-1939
|
Finalist
|
[9]
|
| Louisa Thomas
|
Louisa: The Extraordinary Life of Mrs. Adams
|
Finalist
|
[9]
|
| Larry Tye
|
Bobby Kennedy: The Making of a Liberal Icon
|
Nominee
|
[10]
|
| Alex Beam
|
The Feud: Vladimir Nabokov, Edmund Wilson, and the End of a Beautiful Friendship
|
Nominee
|
[10]
|
| Joseph Lelyveld
|
His Final Battle: The Last Months of Franklin Roosevelt
|
Nominee
|
[10]
|
| Ruth Scurr
|
John Aubrey, My Own Life
|
Nominee
|
[10]
|
| Reiner Stach, trans. by Shelley Frisch
|
Kafka: The Early Years
|
Nominee
|
[10]
|
| Simon Callow
|
Orson Welles, Volume 3: One-Man Band
|
Nominee
|
[10]
|
| 2018
|
Caroline Fraser
|
Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder
|
Winner
|
|
|
|
Ron Chernow
|
Grant
|
Nominee
|
[11]
|
| Jonathan Eig
|
Ali: A Life
|
Nominee
|
[11]
|
| John Farrell
|
Richard Nixon: The Life
|
Nominee
|
[11]
|
| Andrzej Franaszek, trans. by Aleksandra Parker and Michael Parker
|
Milosz: A Biography
|
Nominee
|
[11]
|
| Francine Klagsbrun
|
Lioness: Golda Meir and the Nation of Israel
|
Nominee
|
[11]
|
| Megan Marshall
|
Elizabeth Bishop: A Miracle for Breakfast
|
Nominee
|
[11]
|
| Rosalind Rosenberg
|
Jane Crow: The Life of Pauli Murray
|
Nominee
|
[11]
|
| Victor Sebestyen
|
Lenin: The Man, the Dictator, and the Master of Terror
|
Nominee
|
[11]
|
| William Taubman
|
Gorbachev: His Life and Times
|
Nominee
|
[11]
|
| 2019
|
David W. Blight
|
Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom
|
Winner
|
|
| Craig Brown
|
Ninety-Nine Glimpses of Princess Margaret
|
Nominee
|
[12]
|
| Julie Dobrow
|
After Emily: Two Remarkable Women and the Legacy of America's Greatest Poet
|
Nominee
|
[12]
|
| Lindsey Hilsum
|
In Extremis: The Life and Death of the War Correspondent Marie Colvin
|
Nominee
|
[12]
|
| Victor Sebestyen
|
Inseparable: The Original Siamese Twins and Their Rendezvous with American History
|
Nominee
|
[12]
|
| David Levering Lewis
|
The Improbable Wendell Wilkie: The Businessman Who Saved the Republican Party and Conceived a New World Order
|
Nominee
|
[12]
|
| Patricia O'Toole
|
The Moralist: Woodrow Wilson and the World He Made
|
Nominee
|
[12]
|
| Andrew Roberts
|
Churchill: Walking with Destiny
|
Nominee
|
[12]
|
| Hilary Spurling
|
Anthony Powell: Dancing to the Music of Time
|
Nominee
|
[12]
|
| Jeffrey C. Stewart
|
The New Negro: The Life of Alain Locke
|
Nominee
|
[12]
|
| 2020
|
Sonia Purnell
|
A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II
|
Winner
|
[13][14]
|
| Sidney Blumenthal
|
All the Powers of Earth: The Political Life of Abraham Lincoln, 1856-1860
|
Finalist
|
[15]
|
| Jacquelyn Dowd Hall
|
Sisters and Rebels: A Struggle for the Soul of America
|
Finalist
|
[15]
|
| Charles King
|
Gods of the Upper Air: How a Circle of Renegade Anthropologists Reinvented Race, Sex, and Gender in the Twentieth Century
|
Finalist
|
[15]
|
| George Packer
|
Our Man: Richard Holbrooke and the End of the American Century
|
Finalist
|
[15]
|
| 2021
|
A. N. Wilson
|
The Mystery of Charles Dickens
|
Winner
|
[16][17]
|
| Les Payne and Tamara Payne
|
The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X
|
Finalist
|
[18]
|
| Jonathan Alter
|
His Very Best: Jimmy Carter: A Life
|
Finalist
|
[18]
|
| Ted Widmer
|
Lincoln on the Verge: Thirteen Days to Washington
|
Finalist
|
[18]
|
| Martha Ackmann
|
These Fevered Days: Ten Pivotal Moments in the Making of Emily Dickinson
|
Finalist
|
[18]
|
| Steven Heyman
|
The Planter of Modern Life: Louis Bromfield and the Seeds of a Food Revolution
|
Longlist
|
[19]
|
| Hilary Holladay
|
The Power of Adrienne Rich: A Biography
|
Longlist
|
[19]
|
| David S. Reynolds
|
Abe: Abraham Lincoln in His Times
|
Longlist
|
[19]
|
| Steven C. Smith
|
Music by Max Steiner: The Epic Life of Hollywood's Most Influential Composer
|
Longlist
|
[19]
|
| Volker Ullrich, trans. by Jefferson Chase
|
Hitler: Downfall 1939-1945
|
Longlist
|
[19]
|
| 2022
|
Frances Wilson
|
Burning Man: The Trials of D. H. Lawrence
|
Winner
|
[20]
|
| Rebecca Donner
|
All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days: The True Story of the American Woman at the Heart of the German Resistance to Hitler
|
Shortlist
|
[21]
|
| Robert Elder
|
Calhoun: American Heretic
|
Shortlist
|
[21]
|
| Fiona Sampson
|
Two-Way Mirror: The Life of Elizabeth Barrett Browning
|
Shortlist
|
[21]
|
| Mark Stevens and Annalyn Swan
|
Francis Bacon: Revelations
|
Shortlist
|
[21]
|
| Claude A. Clegg III
|
The Black President: Hope and Fury in the Age of Obama
|
Longlist
|
[22]
|
| Janice P. Nimura
|
The Doctors Blackwell: How Two Pioneering Sisters Brought Medicine to Women and Women to Medicine
|
Longlist
|
[22]
|
| Matthew Sturgis
|
Oscar Wilde: A Life
|
Longlist
|
[22]
|
| Dorothy Wickenden
|
The Agitators: Three Friends Who Fought for Abolition and Women’s Rights
|
Longlist
|
[22]
|
| Richard Zenith
|
Pessoa: A Biography
|
Longlist
|
[22]
|
| 2023
|
Jennifer Homans
|
Mr. B: George Balanchine’s 20th Century
|
Winner
|
[23][24]
|
| Beverly Gage
|
G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century
|
Shortlist
|
[25]
|
| Jon Meacham
|
And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle
|
Shortlist
|
[25]
|
| Jane Ridley
|
George V: Never a Dull Moment
|
Shortlist
|
[25]
|
| Katherine Rundell
|
Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne
|
Shortlist
|
[25]
|
| Tomiko Brown-Nagin
|
Civil Rights Queen: Constance Baker Motley and the Struggle for Equality
|
Longlist
|
[26]
|
| John A. Farrell
|
Ted Kennedy: A Life
|
Longlist
|
[26]
|
| Paul Fisher
|
The Grand Affair: John Singer Sargent in His World
|
Longlist
|
[26]
|
| Stacy Schiff
|
The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams
|
Longlist
|
[26]
|
| Miranda Seymour
|
I Used to Live Here Once: The Haunted Life of Jean Rhys
|
Longlist
|
[26]
|
| 2024
|
Yepoka Yeebo
|
Anansi’s Gold: The Man Who Looted the West, Outfoxed Washington, and Swindled the World
|
Winner
|
[27][28]
|
| Jonathan Eig
|
King: A Life
|
Shortlist
|
[29]
|
| Howard Fishman
|
To Anyone Who Ever Asks: The Life, Music, and Mystery of Connie Converse
|
Shortlist
|
[29]
|
| Lisa M. Hamilton
|
The Hungry Season: A Journey of War, Love, and Survival
|
Shortlist
|
[29]
|
| Prudence Peiffer
|
The Slip: The New York City Street That Changed American Art Forever
|
Shortlist
|
[29]
|
| Sally H. Jacobs
|
Althea: The Life of Tennis Champion Althea Gibson
|
Nominee
|
[30]
|
| Larry Rohter
|
Into the Amazon: The Life of Cândido Rondon, Trailblazing Explorer, Scientist, Statesman, and Conservationist
|
Nominee
|
[30]
|
| Barbara D. Savage
|
Merze Tate: The Global Odyssey of a Black Woman Scholar
|
Nominee
|
[30]
|
| Willard Spiegelman
|
Nothing Stays Put: The Life and Poetry of Amy Clampitt
|
Nominee
|
[30]
|
| Jonny Steinberg
|
Winnie and Nelson: Portrait of a Marriage
|
Nominee
|
[30]
|
| 2025
|
Max Boot
|
Reagan: His Life and Legend
|
Longlist
|
[31]
|
| Cynthia Carr
|
Candy Darling: Dreamer, Icon, Superstar
|
Longlist
|
[31]
|
| Margalit Fox
|
The Talented Mrs. Mandelbaum: The Rise and Fall of an American Organized-Crime Boss
|
Longlist
|
[31]
|
| Stephanie Gorton
|
The Icon & the Idealist: Margaret Sanger, Mary Ware Dennett, and the Rivalry That Brought Birth Control to America
|
Longlist
|
[31]
|
| David Greenberg
|
John Lewis: A Life, and Alexis Pauline Gumbs for Survival Is A Promise: The Eternal Life of Audre Lorde
|
Longlist
|
[31]
|
| Lucy Hughes-Hallett
|
The Scapegoat: The Brilliant Brief Life of the Duke of Buckingham
|
Longlist
|
[31]
|
| Heath Hardage Lee
|
The Mysterious Mrs. Nixon: The Life and Times of Washington’s Most Private First Lady
|
Longlist
|
[31]
|
| Adam Shatz
|
The Rebel’s Clinic: The Revolutionary Lives of Frantz Fanon
|
Longlist
|
[31]
|
| Jackie Wullschläger
|
Monet: The Restless Vision
|
Longlist
|
[31]
|
