The James Tait Black Memorial Prizes are literary prizes awarded for literature written in the English language. They, along with the Hawthornden Prize, are Britain's oldest literary awards. Based at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, United Kingdom, the prizes were founded in 1919 by Janet Coats Black in memory of her late husband, James Tait Black, a partner in the publishing house of A & C Black Ltd.

In 2012, a third prize category was announced for Drama, with the first winner of this award announced in August 2013.

Selection process and prize administration

The winners are chosen by research and teaching staff within the Department of English and Scottish Literature at the university, who are assisted by postgraduate students in the shortlisting phase, a structure that is seen to lend the prizes considerable gravitas. At the award of the 2006 prizes, at which Cormac McCarthy was a winner, McCarthy's publisher commented positively on the selection process, noting that, in the absence of a sponsor and literary or media figures amongst the judging panel, the decision is made by "students and professors, whose only real agenda can be great books and great writing". The original endowment is now supplemented by the university and, as a consequence, the total prize fund rose from 2005 awards. Each of the two annual prizes—one for fiction and one for biography—is worth £10,000. The university is advised in relation to the development and administration of the Prize by a small committee which includes Ian Rankin, Alexander McCall Smith and James Naughtie amongst its members. In August 2007 the prize ceremony was held at the Edinburgh International Book Festival for the first time.

Eligibility

For the book prizes works of fiction and biographies must be written in English. The nationality of the author does not matter, but submissions must be first published (or co-published) in Britain during the calendar year of the award. Any given author can only win each prize once. However, he or she can win both prizes at the same time.

For the drama category, the work had to be originally written in either English, Gaelic or Welsh, be produced first during the previous calendar year, have a playing time over one hour, and to have been performed no fewer than seven times by a professional theatre company.

List of recipients

Source.

{| class="wikitable" style="margin: 1em auto 1em auto"

! Year || Fiction award || Biography award || Drama award

|-

! 1919

| Hugh Walpole, The Secret City || Henry Festing Jones, Samuel Butler, Author of Erewhon (1835–1902) – A Memoir (Samuel Butler) ||

|-

! 1920

| D. H. Lawrence, The Lost Girl || G. M. Trevelyan, Lord Grey of the Reform Bill (Earl Grey) ||

|-

! 1921

| Walter de la Mare, Memoirs of a Midget || Lytton Strachey, Queen Victoria (Queen Victoria) ||

|-

! 1922

|David Garnett, Lady into Fox || Percy Lubbock, Earlham (autobiography) ||

|-

! 1923

| Arnold Bennett, Riceyman Steps || Ronald Ross, Memoirs, Etc. (autobiography) ||

|-

! 1924

| E. M. Forster, A Passage to India || William Wilson, The House of Airlie (The Earls of Airlie) ||

|-

! 1925

| Liam O'Flaherty, The Informer || Geoffrey Scott, The Portrait of Zelide (Isabelle de Charrière) ||

|-

! 1926

| Radclyffe Hall, Adam's Breed || Reverend Dr H. B. Workman, John Wyclif: A Study of the English Medieval Church (John Wyclif) ||

|-

! 1927

| Francis Brett Young, Portrait of Clare || H. A. L. Fisher, James Bryce, Viscount Bryce of Dechmont, O.M. (James Bryce, 1st Viscount Bryce) ||

|-

! 1928

| Siegfried Sassoon, Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man || John Buchan, Montrose (James Graham) ||

|-

! 1929

| J. B. Priestley, The Good Companions || Lord David Cecil, The Stricken Deer: or The Life of Cowper (William Cowper) ||

|-

! 1930

| E. H. Young, Miss Mole || Francis Yeats-Brown, The Lives of a Bengal Lancer (autobiography) ||

|-

! 1931

| Kate O'Brien, Without My Cloak || J. Y. T. Greig, David Hume (David Hume) ||

|-

! 1932

| Helen de Guerry Simpson, Boomerang|| Stephen Gwynn, The Life of Mary Kingsley (Mary Kingsley) ||

|-

! 1933

| A. G. Macdonell, England, Their England || Violet Clifton, The Book of Talbot (John Talbot Clifton) ||

|-

! 1934

| Robert Graves, I, Claudius and Claudius the God || J. E. Neale, Queen Elizabeth (Elizabeth I of England) ||

|-

! 1935

| Leo Myers, The Root and the Flower || Raymond Wilson Chambers, Thomas More (Thomas More) ||

|-

! 1936

| Winifred Holtby, South Riding || Edward Sackville West, A Flame in Sunlight: The Life and Work of Thomas de Quincey (Thomas de Quincey) ||

|-

! 1937

| Neil M. Gunn, Highland River || Lord Eustace Percy, John Knox (John Knox) ||

|-

! 1938

| C. S. Forester, A Ship of the Line and Flying Colours || Sir Edmund Chambers, Samuel Taylor Coleridge (Samuel Taylor Coleridge) ||

|-

! 1939

| Aldous Huxley, After Many a Summer || David C. Douglas, English Scholars ||

|-

! 1940

| Charles Morgan, The Voyage || Hilda F. M. Prescott, Spanish Tudor: Mary I of England (Mary I of England) ||

|-

! 1941

| Joyce Cary, A House of Children || John Gore, King George V (George V) ||

|-

! 1942

| Arthur Waley, Translation of Monkey by Wu Cheng'en || Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede, Henry Ponsonby: Queen Victoria's Private Secretary (Henry Ponsonby) ||

|-

! 1943

| Mary Lavin, Tales from Bective Bridge || G. G. Coulton, Fourscore Years (autobiography) ||

|-

! 1944

| Forrest Reid, Young Tom || C. V. Wedgwood, William the Silent (William the Silent) ||

|-

! 1945

| L. A. G. Strong, Travellers || D. S. MacColl, Philip Wilson Steer (Philip Wilson Steer) ||

|-

! 1946

| Oliver Onions, Poor Man's Tapestry || Richard Aldington, A Life of Wellington: The Duke (Arthur Wellesley) ||

|-

! 1947

| L. P. Hartley, Eustace and Hilda || Charles E. Raven, English Naturalists from Neckam to Ray (Alexander Neckam and John Ray) ||

|-

! 1948

| Graham Greene, The Heart of the Matter || Percy A. Scholes, The Great Dr. Burney (Charles Burney) ||

|-

! 1949

| Emma Smith, The Far Cry || John Connell, W. E. Henley (W. E. Henley) ||

|-

! 1950

| Robert Henriques, Through the Valley || Cecil Woodham-Smith, Florence Nightingale (Florence Nightingale) ||

|-

! 1951

| Chapman Mortimer, Father Goose || Noel Annan, Leslie Stephen (Leslie Stephen) ||

|-

! 1952

| Evelyn Waugh, Men at Arms || G. M. Young, Stanley Baldwin (Stanley Baldwin) ||

|-

! 1953

| Margaret Kennedy, Troy Chimneys || Carola Oman, Sir John Moore (John Moore) ||

|-

! 1954

| C. P. Snow, The New Men and The Masters || Keith Feiling, Warren Hastings (Warren Hastings) ||

|-

! 1955

| Ivy Compton-Burnett, Mother and Son || R. W. Ketton-Cremer, Thomas Gray (Thomas Gray) ||

|-

! 1956

| Rose Macaulay, The Towers of Trebizond || St John Greer Ervine, George Bernard Shaw (George Bernard Shaw) ||

|-

! 1957

| Anthony Powell, At Lady Molly's || Maurice Cranston, Life of John Locke (John Locke) ||

|-

! 1958

| Angus Wilson, The Middle Age of Mrs. Eliot || Joyce Hemlow, The History of Fanny Burney (Fanny Burney) ||

|-

! 1959

| Morris West, The Devil's Advocate || Christopher Hassall, Edward Marsh (Edward Marsh) ||

|-

! 1960

| Rex Warner, Imperial Caesar || Canon Adam Fox, The Life of Dean Inge (William Ralph Inge) ||

|-

! 1961

| Jennifer Dawson, The Ha-Ha || M. K. Ashby, Joseph Ashby of Tysoe (Joseph Ashby) ||

|-

! 1962

| Ronald Hardy, Act of Destruction || Meriol Trevor, Newman: The Pillar and the Cloud and Newman: Light in Winter (John Henry Newman) ||

|-

! 1963

| Gerda Charles, A Slanting Light || Georgina Battiscombe, John Keble: A Study in Limitations (John Keble) ||

|-

! 1964

| Frank Tuohy, The Ice Saints || Elizabeth Longford, Victoria R.I. (Queen Victoria) ||

|-

! 1965

| Muriel Spark, The Mandelbaum Gate || Mary Caroline Moorman, William Wordsworth: The Later Years 1803–1850 (William Wordsworth) ||

|-

! 1966

| Christine Brooke-Rose, Such<br />Aidan Higgins, Langrishe, Go Down || Geoffrey Keynes, The Life of William Harvey (William Harvey) ||

|-

! 1967

| Margaret Drabble, Jerusalem the Golden || Winifred Gérin, Charlotte Brontë: The Evolution of Genius (Charlotte Brontë) ||

|-

! 1968

| Maggie Ross, The Gasteropod || Gordon Haight, George Eliot (George Eliot) ||

|-

! 1969

| Elizabeth Bowen, Eva Trout || Antonia Fraser, Mary, Queen of Scots (Mary, Queen of Scots) ||

|-

! 1970

| Lily Powell, The Bird of Paradise || Jasper Ridley, Lord Palmerston (Henry Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston) ||

|-

! 1971

| Nadine Gordimer, A Guest of Honour ||Julia Namier, Lewis Namier (Lewis Namier) ||

|-

! 1972

| John Berger, G || Quentin Bell, Virginia Woolf (Virginia Woolf) ||

|-

! 1973

| Iris Murdoch, The Black Prince || Robin Lane Fox, Alexander the Great (Alexander the Great) ||

|-

! 1974

| Lawrence Durrell, Monsieur: or, The Prince of Darkness || John Wain, Samuel Johnson (Samuel Johnson) ||

|-

! 1975

| Brian Moore, The Great Victorian Collection || Karl Miller, Cockburn's Millennium (Henry Cockburn) ||

|-

! 1976

| John Banville, Doctor Copernicus || Ronald Hingley, A New Life of Chekhov (Anton Chekhov) ||

|-

! 1977

| John le Carré, The Honourable Schoolboy || George Painter, Chateaubriand: Volume 1 – The Longed-For Tempests (François-René de Chateaubriand) ||

|-

! 1978

| Maurice Gee, Plumb || Robert Gittings, The Older Hardy (Thomas Hardy) ||

|-

! 1979

| William Golding, Darkness Visible || Brian Finney, Christopher Isherwood: A Critical Biography (Christopher Isherwood) ||

|-

! 1980

| J. M. Coetzee, Waiting for the Barbarians || Robert B. Martin, Tennyson: The Unquiet Heart (Alfred Tennyson) ||

|-

! 1981

| Salman Rushdie, Midnight's Children<br />Paul Theroux, The Mosquito Coast || Victoria Glendinning, Edith Sitwell: Unicorn Among Lions (Edith Sitwell) ||

|-

! 1982

| Bruce Chatwin, On the Black Hill || Richard Ellmann, James Joyce (James Joyce) ||

|-

! 1983

| Jonathan Keates, Allegro Postillions || Alan Walker, Franz Liszt: The Virtuoso Years (Franz Liszt) ||

|-

! 1984

| J. G. Ballard, Empire of the Sun<br />Angela Carter, Nights at the Circus || Lyndall Gordon, Virginia Woolf: A Writer's Life (Virginia Woolf) ||

|-

! 1985

| Robert Edric, Winter Garden || David Nokes, Jonathan Swift: A Hypocrite Reversed (Jonathan Swift) ||

|-

! 1986

| Jenny Joseph, Persephone || Dame Felicitas Corrigan, Helen Waddell (Helen Waddell) ||

|-

! 1987

| George Mackay Brown, The Golden Bird: Two Orkney Stories || Ruth Dudley Edwards, Victor Gollancz: A Biography (Victor Gollancz) ||

|-

! 1988

| Piers Paul Read, A Season in the West || Brian McGuinness, Wittgenstein, A Life: Young Ludwig (1889–1921) (Ludwig Wittgenstein) ||

|-

! 1989

| James Kelman, A Disaffection || Ian Gibson, Federico García Lorca: A Life (Federico García Lorca) ||

|-

! 1990

| William Boyd, Brazzaville Beach || Claire Tomalin, The Invisible Woman: The Story of Nelly Ternan and Charles Dickens (Ellen Ternan and Charles Dickens) ||

|-

! 1991

| Iain Sinclair, Downriver || Adrian Desmond and James Moore, Darwin (Charles Darwin) ||

|-

! 1992

| Rose Tremain, Sacred Country || Charles Nicholl, The Reckoning: The Murder of Christopher Marlowe (Christopher Marlowe) ||

|-

! 1993

| Caryl Phillips, Crossing the River || Richard Holmes, Dr Johnson and Mr Savage (Samuel Johnson, Richard Savage) ||

|-

! 1994

| Alan Hollinghurst, The Folding Star || Doris Lessing, Under My Skin (autobiography) ||

|-

! 1995

| Christopher Priest, The Prestige || Gitta Sereny, Albert Speer: His Battle with Truth (Albert Speer) ||

|-

! 1996

| Graham Swift, Last Orders<br />Alice Thompson, Justine || Diarmaid MacCulloch, Thomas Cranmer: A Life (Thomas Cranmer) ||

|-

! 1997

| Andrew Miller, Ingenious Pain || R. F. Foster, W. B. Yeats: A Life, Volume 1 – The Apprentice Mage 1865–1914 (W. B. Yeats) ||

|-

! 1998

| Beryl Bainbridge, Master Georgie || Peter Ackroyd, The Life of Thomas More (Thomas More) ||

|-

! 1999

| Timothy Mo, Renegade, or Halo2 || Kathryn Hughes, George Eliot: The Last Victorian (George Eliot) ||

|-

! 2000

| Zadie Smith, White Teeth || Martin Amis, Experience (autobiography) ||

|-

! 2001

| Sid Smith, Something Like a House || Robert Skidelsky, John Maynard Keynes: Volume 3 – Fighting for Britain 1937–1946 (John Maynard Keynes) ||

|-

! 2002

| Jonathan Franzen, The Corrections || Jenny Uglow, The Lunar Men: The Friends Who Made the Future 1730–1810 (Lunar Society of Birmingham) ||

|-

! 2003

| Andrew O'Hagan, Personality || Janet Browne, Charles Darwin: Volume 2 – The Power of Place (Charles Darwin) ||

|-

! 2004

| David Peace, GB84 || Jonathan Bate, John Clare: A Biography (John Clare) ||

|-

! 2005

| Ian McEwan, Saturday|| Sue Prideaux, Edvard Munch: Behind the Scream (Edvard Munch)|| Rosemary Hill, God's Architect: Pugin and the Building of Romantic Britain (Augustus Pugin) ||

|-

! 2009

| A. S. Byatt, The Children's Book || John Carey, William Golding: The Man Who Wrote Lord of the Flies (William Golding) ||

|-

! 2011

| Padgett Powell, You and I|| Fiona MacCarthy, The Last Pre-Raphaelite: Edward Burne-Jones and the Victorian Imagination (Edward Burne-Jones)||Rory Mullarkey, Cannibals

|-

! 2014

| Zia Haider Rahman, In the Light of What We Know||Richard Benson, The Valley: A Hundred Years in the Life of a Family

|-

! 2015

| Benjamin Markovits, You Don't Have to Live Like This||James Shapiro, 1606: Shakespeare and the Year of Lear (William Shakespeare)

|-

! 2016

| Eimear McBride, The Lesser Bohemians||Laura Cumming, The Vanishing Man: In Pursuit of Velázquez (Diego Velázquez)

|-

! 2017

| Eley Williams, Attrib. and other stories ||| Craig Brown, Ma'am Darling: 99 Glimpses of Princess Margaret (Princess Margaret)

|-

! 2018

| Olivia Laing, Crudo ||| Lindsey Hilsum, In Extremis: The Life and Death of the War Correspondent Marie Colvin (Marie Colvin)

|-

! 2019

| Lucy Ellmann, Ducks, Newburyport |||George Szirtes, The Photographer at Sixteen (autobiography)

|-

! 2020

| Shola von Reinhold, Lote ||| Doireann Ní Ghríofa, A Ghost in the Throat (autobiography) ||| Amit Chaudhuri, Finding the Raga: An Improvisation on Indian Music ||| Daryl Pinckney, Come Back in September: A Literary Education on West Sixty-Seventh Street, Manhattan

|Iman Mersal, Traces of Enayat (translated by Robin Moger) <br>Ian Penman, Fassbinder: Thousands of Mirrors

|Marlene L. Daut, The First and Last King of Haiti: The Rise and Fall of Henry Christophe The award celebrated the fiction winners over the past 93 years, as part of the 250th anniversary of the study of English Literature at the university. A shortlist of six previous winners competed for the title of Best. A judging panel of celebrity alumni and writers decided on the winner, which was announced on 6 December 2012 as Angela Carter's Nights at the Circus.

  • Graham Greene, The Heart of the Matter (1948)
  • James Kelman, A Disaffection (1989)
  • Cormac McCarthy, The Road (2006)
  • Caryl Phillips, Crossing the River (1993)
  • Muriel Spark, The Mandelbaum Gate (1965)

References

  • James Tait Black Prizes homepage, University of Edinburgh
  • James Tait Black Memorial Prize winners at Faded Page
  • Windows Media Video report of the 2007 James Tait Black Prize ceremony
  • New Statesman article on the James Tait Black and Booker prizes
  • James Tait Black feature on the BBC Radio 4's 'Open Book' (includes audio link)