The Pulitzer Prize for Biography is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes annually awarded for Letters, Drama, and Music. The award honors "a distinguished and appropriately documented biography by an American author." Award winners receive US$15,000. by an American author or co-authors, published during the preceding calendar year. It is one of the original Pulitzers. The program was inaugurated in 1917 with seven prizes, four of which were awarded that year.
Recipients
In its first 97 years to 2013, the Biography Pulitzer was awarded 97 times. Two were given in 1938, and none in 1962.
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!1945
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|George Bancroft: Brahmin Rebel
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!1946
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|Son of the Wilderness: The Life of John Muir
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!1947
|†
|The Autobiography of William Allen White
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!1948
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|Forgotten First Citizen: John Bigelow
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!1949
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|Roosevelt and Hopkins
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1950s–1970s
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible"
|+Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography winners, 1950–1979
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!1958
|† with John Alexander Carroll and Mary Wells Ashworth
|George Washington, vols. I-VII
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!1959
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|Woodrow Wilson, American Prophet
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!1960
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|John Paul Jones
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!1961
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|Charles Sumner and the Coming of the Civil War
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!1962
! colspan="2" |No award presented
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!1963
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|Henry James
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!1964
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|John Keats
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!1965
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|Henry Adams, 3 vols.
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!1966
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!1967
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|Mr. Clemens and Mark Twain
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!1968
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|Memoirs
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!1969
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!1970
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|Huey Long
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!1971
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|Robert Frost: The Years of Triumph, 1915–1938,
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!1972
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|Eleanor and Franklin
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!1973
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|Luce and His Empire
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!1974
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|O'Neill, Son and Artist
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!1975
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!1976
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|Edith Wharton: A Biography
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!1977
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!1978
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|Samuel Johnson
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!1979
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|Days of Sorrow and Pain: Leo Baeck and the Berlin Jews
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1980s
Entries from this point on include the finalists listed after the winner for each year.
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible"
|+Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography winners and finalists, 1980–1989
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|Walt Whitman: A Life
|Finalist
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|Walter Lippmann and the American Century
|Finalist
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|- style=background-color:lightyellow;
! rowspan="3" |1982
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|Grant: A Biography
|Winner
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|Waldo Emerson
|Finalist
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|Mornings on Horseback
|Finalist
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|- style=background-color:lightyellow;
! rowspan="3" |1983
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|Growing Up
|Winner
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|Churchill: Young Man in a Hurry, 1874–1915
|Finalist
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|Thomas E. Dewey and His Times
|Finalist
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|- style=background-color:lightyellow;
! rowspan="3" |1984
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|Booker T. Washington: The Wizard of Tuskegee, 1901–1915
|Winner
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|Thomas Carlyle: A Biography
|Finalist
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|Black Apollo of Science: The Life of Ernest Everett Just
|Finalist
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|- style=background-color:lightyellow;
! rowspan="3" |1985
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|Winner
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|Becoming William James
|Finalist
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|Finalist
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|- style=background-color:lightyellow;
! rowspan="3" |1986
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|Louise Bogan: A Portrait
|Winner
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|George Washington Williams: A Biography
|Finalist
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|Finalist
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|- style=background-color:lightyellow;
! rowspan="4" |1987
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|Bearing The Cross: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference
|Winner
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|Dostoevsky: The Stir of Liberation, 1860–1865
|Finalist
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|Finalist
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|Murrow: His Life and Times
|Finalist
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|- style=background-color:lightyellow;
! rowspan="3" |1988
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|Look Homeward: A Life of Thomas Wolfe
|Winner
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|Hemingway
|Finalist
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|George Santayana: A Biography
|Finalist
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|- style=background-color:lightyellow;
! rowspan="4" |1989
|†
|Oscar Wilde
|Winner
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|Freud: A Life for Our Time
|Finalist
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|Finalist
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|Finalist
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1990s
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible"
|+Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography winners and finalists, 1990–1999
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|Finalist
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|Alfred I. Du Pont: The Man and His Family
|Finalist
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|- style=background-color:lightyellow;
! rowspan="3" |1992
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|Fortunate Son: The Autobiography of Lewis B. Puller Jr.
|Winner
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|Frederick Douglass
|Finalist
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|Orwell: The Authorized Biography
|Finalist
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|- style=background-color:lightyellow;
! rowspan="3" |1993
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|Truman
|Winner
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|Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman
|Finalist
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|Kissinger: A Biography
|Finalist
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! rowspan="3" |1994
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|W. E. B. Du Bois: Biography of a Race, 1868–1919
|Winner
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|In Extremis: The Life of Laura Riding
|Finalist
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|Genet: A Biography
|Finalist
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|- style=background-color:lightyellow;
! rowspan="3" |1995
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|Harriet Beecher Stowe: A Life
|Winner
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|Hugo Black: A Biography
|Finalist
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|Saint-Exupery: A Biography
|Finalist
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|- style=background-color:lightyellow;
! rowspan="3" |1996
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|God: A Biography
|Winner
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|John Sloan: Painter and Rebel
|Finalist
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|Mozart: A Life
|Finalist
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|- style=background-color:lightyellow;
! rowspan="3" |1997
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|Angela's Ashes: A Memoir
|Winner
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|In the Wilderness: Coming of Age in Unknown Country
|Finalist
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|Herman Melville: A Biography, Volume 1, 1819–1851
|Finalist
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|- style=background-color:lightyellow;
! rowspan="3" |1998
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|Personal History
|Winner
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|Alfred C. Kinsey: A Public-Private Life
|Finalist
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|Whittaker Chambers: A Biography
|Finalist
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|- style=background-color:lightyellow;
! rowspan="3" |1999
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|Lindbergh
|Winner
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|At Home with the Marquis de Sade: A Life
|Finalist
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|Finalist
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2000s
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible"
|+Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography winners and finalists, 2000–2009
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|Finalist
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|Johann Sebastian Bach: The Learned Musician
|Finalist
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|- style=background-color:lightyellow;
! rowspan="3" |2002
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|John Adams
|Winner
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|- style=background-color:lightyellow;
! rowspan="3" |2003
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|Master of the Senate: The Years of Lyndon Johnson
|Winner
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|Finalist
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|Beethoven: The Music and the Life
|Finalist
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|- style=background-color:lightyellow;
! rowspan="3" |2004
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|Khrushchev: The Man and His Era
|Winner
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|Isaac Newton
|Finalist
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|Arshile Gorky: His Life and Work
|Finalist
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|- style=background-color:lightyellow;
! rowspan="3" |2005
| and Annalyn Swan
|de Kooning: An American Master
|Winner
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|Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare
|Finalist
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|Under a Wild Sky: John James Audubon and the Making of The Birds of America
|Finalist
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|- style=background-color:lightyellow;
! rowspan="3" |2006
| and Martin J. Sherwin
|American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer
|Winner
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|Finalist
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|Finalist
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|- style=background-color:lightyellow;
! rowspan="3" |2007
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|Winner
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|John Wilkes: The Scandalous Father of Civil Liberty
|Finalist
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|Andrew Carnegie
|Finalist
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|- style=background-color:lightyellow;
! rowspan="3" |2008
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|Eden's Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father
|Winner
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|Finalist
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|Finalist
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|- style=background-color:lightyellow;
! rowspan="3" |2009
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|American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House
|Winner
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|Traitor to His Class: The Privileged Life and Radical Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt
|Finalist
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|Finalist
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2010s
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible"
|+Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography winners and finalists, 2010–2019
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|Cheever: A Life
|Finalist
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|Woodrow Wilson: A Biography
|Finalist
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|- style=background-color:lightyellow;
! rowspan="3" |2011
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| Washington: A Life
|Winner
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|Finalist
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|Mrs. Adams in Winter: A Journey in the Last Days of Napoleon
|Finalist
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|- style=background-color:lightyellow;
! rowspan="3" |2012
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| George F. Kennan: An American Life
|Winner
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|Love and Capital: Karl and Jenny Marx and the Birth of a Revolution
|Finalist
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|Portrait of a Novel: Henry James and the Making of an American Masterpiece
|Finalist
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|Jonathan Swift: His Life and His World
|Finalist
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|Karl Marx: A Nineteenth-Century Life
|Finalist
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|- style=background-color:lightyellow;
! rowspan="3" |2015
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|Winner
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|Louis Armstrong: Master of Modernism
|Finalist
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|Stalin: Paradoxes of Power, 1878–1928
|Finalist
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|- style=background-color:lightyellow;
! rowspan="3" |2016
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| Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life
|Winner
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|Finalist
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|Custer's Trials: A Life on the Frontier of a New America
|Finalist
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|- style=background-color:lightyellow;
! rowspan="3" |2017
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|Winner
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|In the Darkroom
|Finalist
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|When Breath Becomes Air
|Finalist
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|- style=background-color:lightyellow;
! rowspan="3" |2018
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| Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder
|Winner
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|Richard Nixon: The Life
|Finalist
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|Finalist
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|Our Man: Richard Holbrooke and the End of the American Century
|Finalist
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|Red Comet: The Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath
|Finalist
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|Pessoa: A Biography
|Finalist
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|Mr. B: George Balanchine's 20th Century
|Finalist
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|- style=background-color:lightyellow;
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|Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom
|Winner
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| John Lewis: A Life
|Finalist
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|The World She Edited: Katharine S. White at The New Yorker
|Finalist
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|- style=background-color:lightyellow;
! rowspan="3" |2026
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|Pride and Pleasure: The Schuyler Sisters in an Age of Revolution
|Winner
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|The Life and Poetry of Frank Stanford
|Finalist
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|True Nature: The Pilgrimage of Peter Matthiessen
|Finalist
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Repeat winners
Ten people have won the Pulitzer for Biography or Autobiography twice:
- Burton J. Hendrick, 1923, 1929
- Allan Nevins, 1933, 1937
- Marquis James, 1930, 1938
- Douglas S. Freeman, 1935, 1958
- Samuel Eliot Morison, 1943, 1960
- Walter Jackson Bate, 1964, 1978
- David Herbert Donald, 1961, 1988
- David Levering Lewis, 1994, 2001
- David McCullough, 1993, 2002
- Robert Caro, 1975, 2003
W. A. Swanberg was selected by the Pulitzer board in 1962 and 1973; however, the trustees of Columbia University (then responsible for conferral of the awards) overturned the proposed 1962 prize for Citizen Hearst.