National Book Critics Circle Award - Biography

2007 finalists

Stanley: The Impossible Life Of Africas Greatest Explorer Winner

Tim Jeal

Edith Wharton

Hermione Lee

Ralph Ellison

Arnold Rampersad

The Life Of Picasso: The Triumphant Years, 1917-1932

John Richardson

Thomas Hardy

Claire Tomalin

2006

The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon Winner

Julie Phillips, James Tiptree, Jr

The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher

Debby Applegate

At Canaan's Edge: America in the King Years, 1965-1968

Taylor Branch

Flaubert: A Biography

Frederick Brown

A Sense of the World: How a Blind Man Became History's Greatest Traveler

Jason Roberts,

2005

American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer Winner

Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin

Lee Miller: A Life

Carolyn Burke

Like a Fiery Elephant: The Story of B.S. Johnson

Jonathan Coe

Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln

Doris Kearns Goodwin

Mark Twain: A Life

Ron Powers

 

Before 2005, the award was for Biography/Autobiography.

2004

• De Kooning: An American Master Mark Stevens and Annalyn Swan Winner
• Alexander Hamilton Ron Chernow
• Chronicles Vol. 1 Bob Dylan
• Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakepeare Stephen Greenblatt
• Queen of Scots: The True Life of Mary Stuart John Guy

2003

• Krushchev: The Man and his era William Taubman Winner
• A Tragic Honesty: The Life and work of Richard Yates Blake Bailey
• The Life you save may be your own: An American pilgrimage Paul Elie
• Jonathan Edwards George Marsden
• Lucia Joyce: To Dance in the Wake Carol Loeb Shloss

2002

• Charles Darwin: The Power of place vol. 2 Janet Browne Winner
• Master of the Senate: The Years of Lyndon Johnson vol. 3 Robert A. Caro
• The Last American man Elizabeth Gilbert
• Benjamin Franklin Edmund S. Morgan
• Will you miss me when I’m gone? The Carter Family and their legacy in American Music Mark Zwonitzer with Charles Hirshberg

2001

• Boswell's Presumptuous Task: The Making of the life of Dr. Johnson Adam Sisman Winner
• Borrowed finery: A Memoir Paula Fox
• Positively 4th Street: The Lives and times of Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Mimi Baez Fariña and Richard Fariña David Hajdu
• Milking the moon: A Southerner's story of life on this planet Katherine Clark
• The Scarlet Professor: Newton Arvin: A Literary life shattered by scandal Barry Werth

 

• 2000 Hirohito and the making of modern Japan Herbert P. Bix
• 1999 The Hairstons: An American family in black and white Henry Wiencek
• 1998 A beautiful mind : a biography of John Forbes Nash, Jr., winner of the Nobel Prize in economics Sylvia Nasar
• 1997 Ernie Pyle's war: America's eyewitness to World War II James Tobin
• 1996 Angela's ashes Frank McCourt
• 1995 Savage art: A Biography of Jim Thompson Robert Polito
• 1994 Shot in the heart Mikal Gilmore
• 1993 Genet Edmund White
• 1992 Writing dangerously: Mary McCarthy and her world Carol Brightman
• 1991 Patrimony: A True story Philip Roth
• 1990 Means of ascent: The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Vol. II Robert A. Caro