Ambassador Book Award
Encyclopedia
The Ambassador Book Award is awarded annually by the English Speaking Union. It recognizes important literary works that contribute to the understanding and interpretation of American life and culture. Winners of the award are considered literary ambassadors who provide, in the best contemporary English, an important window on America to the rest of the world. A panel of judges, currently chaired by author Maureen Howard
, selects books out of new works in the fields of fiction, biography, autobiography, current affairs, American studies and poetry.
The award was established in 1986. Since then, winners have included books by such notable authors as Tom Wolfe
(1988), Joan Didion
(1988), Raymond Carver
(1989), Gore Vidal
(1989), John Cheever
(1992), John Updike
(1997), Don Delillo
(1998), Philip Roth
(1999), and Annie Proulx (2000).
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005
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1986
Maureen Howard
Maureen Howard is an American writer, editor, and lecturer known for her award-winning autobiography Facts of Life.She was born Maureen Kearns in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Her father William L. Kearns worked for the State's Attorney's Office as a detective where he was assigned to the Harold Israel...
, selects books out of new works in the fields of fiction, biography, autobiography, current affairs, American studies and poetry.
The award was established in 1986. Since then, winners have included books by such notable authors as Tom Wolfe
Tom Wolfe
Thomas Kennerly "Tom" Wolfe, Jr. is a best-selling American author and journalist. He is one of the founders of the New Journalism movement of the 1960s and 1970s.-Early life and education:...
(1988), Joan Didion
Joan Didion
Joan Didion is an American author best known for her novels and her literary journalism. Her novels and essays explore the disintegration of American morals and cultural chaos, where the overriding theme is individual and social fragmentation...
(1988), Raymond Carver
Raymond Carver
Raymond Clevie Carver, Jr. was an American short story writer and poet. Carver is considered a major American writer of the late 20th century and also a major force in the revitalization of the short story in the 1980s....
(1989), Gore Vidal
Gore Vidal
Gore Vidal is an American author, playwright, essayist, screenwriter, and political activist. His third novel, The City and the Pillar , outraged mainstream critics as one of the first major American novels to feature unambiguous homosexuality...
(1989), John Cheever
John Cheever
John William Cheever was an American novelist and short story writer. He is sometimes called "the Chekhov of the suburbs." His fiction is mostly set in the Upper East Side of Manhattan, the Westchester suburbs, old New England villages based on various South Shore towns around Quincy,...
(1992), John Updike
John Updike
John Hoyer Updike was an American novelist, poet, short story writer, art critic, and literary critic....
(1997), Don Delillo
Don DeLillo
Don DeLillo is an American author, playwright, and occasional essayist whose work paints a detailed portrait of American life in the late 20th and early 21st centuries...
(1998), Philip Roth
Philip Roth
Philip Milton Roth is an American novelist. He gained fame with the 1959 novella Goodbye, Columbus, an irreverent and humorous portrait of Jewish-American life that earned him a National Book Award...
(1999), and Annie Proulx (2000).
Recipients
2010- American Studies - The Rebellion of Ronald Reagan: A History of the End of the Cold War, by James MannJames MannJames Mann is an American journalist, and senior writer-in-residence at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies.-Life:He graduated from Harvard University with a B.A...
- American Studies - Dancing in the Dark: A Cultural History of the Great Depression, by Morris Dickstein
- Biography and Autobiography - Louis D. Brandeis: A Life, by Melvin Urofsky
- Fiction - Let the Great World SpinLet the Great World SpinLet the Great World Spin is a novel by author Colum McCann about New York City. The book received the 2009 National Book Award for fiction, and the 2011 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, one of the most lucrative prizes in the world.-Plot:...
, by Colum McCannColum McCannColum McCann is an Irish writer of literary fiction. He is a Professor of Contemporary Literature at European Graduate School and Professor of Fiction at CUNY Hunter College's Master of Fine Arts Program in Creative Writing with fellow novelists Peter Carey, twice winner of the Man Booker Prize,... - Poetry - Mercury Dressing, by J. D. McClatchy
- Special Distinction Award - Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original, by Robin D.G. KelleyRobin D.G. KelleyRobin Davis Gibran Kelley is a professor of History and American Studies & Ethnicity at the University of Southern California. From 2003 to 2006 he was the William B. Ransford Professor of Cultural and Historical Studies at Columbia University...
2009
- American Studies - A Summer of Hummingbirds, by Christopher BenfeyChristopher BenfeyChristopher Benfey is an American literary critic and Emily Dickinson scholar. He is the Mellon Professor of English at Mount Holyoke College.-Background:...
- Biography and Autobiography - A Passion for Nature:The Life of John Muir, by Donald WorsterDonald WorsterDonald Worster is the Hall Distinguished Professor of American History at the University of Kansas. He is considered one of the founders of, and leading figures in, the field of environmental history; and in 2009, he was named to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.-Education:Worster...
- Current Affairs - The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals, by Jane MayerJane MayerJane Mayer is an American investigative journalist who has been a staff writer for The New Yorker magazine since 1995...
- Fiction - Dangerous Laughter: Thirteen Stories, by Steven MillhauserSteven MillhauserSteven Millhauser is an American novelist and short story writer. He won the 1997 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for his novel Martin Dressler. The prize brought many of his older books back into print.-Life and career:...
- Poetry - Old War, by Alan ShapiroAlan ShapiroAlan Shapiro is an American poet and professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He is the author of nine poetry books, including Tantalus in Love, Song and Dance, and The Dead Alive and Busy. He received the Kingsley Tufts Award and the Los Angeles...
- Special Award - Toni MorrisonToni MorrisonToni Morrison is a Nobel Prize and Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist, editor, and professor. Her novels are known for their epic themes, vivid dialogue, and richly detailed characters. Among her best known novels are The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon and Beloved...
2008
- American Studies - Storming the Gates of Paradise: Landscapes for Politics, by Rebecca SolnitRebecca SolnitRebecca Solnit is a writer who lives in San Francisco. She has written on a variety of subjects including the environment, politics, place, and art....
- Autobiography - Prime Green: Remembering the Sixties, by Robert Stone
- Biography - Edith Wharton, by Hermione LeeHermione LeeHermione Lee, CBE is President of Wolfson College, Oxford and was lately Goldsmiths' Professor of English Literature in the University of Oxford and Professorial Fellow of New College. She is a Fellow of the British Academy and of the Royal Society of Literature.-Biography:Hermione Lee grew up in...
- Fiction - The Reluctant FundamentalistThe Reluctant FundamentalistThe Reluctant Fundamentalist is a novel by Mohsin Hamid, published in 2007.The novel uses the technique of a frame story, which takes place during the course of a single evening in an outdoor Lahore cafe, where a bearded Pakistani man called Changez tells a nervous American stranger about his love...
, by Mohsin HamidMohsin HamidMohsin Hamid is a Pakistani author best known for his novels Moth Smoke and The Reluctant Fundamentalist .- Biography :... - Poetry - Blackbird and Wolf, by Henri ColeHenri ColeHenri Cole is an award-winning American poet.-Biography:Henri Cole was born in Fukuoka, Japan, to an American father and French mother, and raised in Virginia, United States. His father, a North Carolinian, enlisted in the service after graduating from high school and, while stationed in...
- Lifetime Achievement - John AshberyJohn AshberyJohn Lawrence Ashbery is an American poet. He has published more than twenty volumes of poetry and won nearly every major American award for poetry, including a Pulitzer Prize in 1976 for his collection Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror. But Ashbery's work still proves controversial...
2007
- American Studies - The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl, by Timothy EganTimothy EganTimothy Egan is a Pulitzer Prize winning author who resides in Seattle. He currently contributes opinion columns to The New York Times as the paper's Pacific Northwest correspondent...
- Autobiography - The Afterlife: A Memoir, by Donald AntrimDonald AntrimDonald Antrim is an American novelist. His first novel, Elect Mr. Robinson for a Better World, was published in 1993...
- Biography - The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher, by Debby ApplegateDebby ApplegateDebby Applegate is an American historian and biographer. She is the author of The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher, for which she won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography.-Biography:...
- Current Affairs - Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in IraqFiasco (book)Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq is a book by Washington Post Pentagon correspondent Thomas E. Ricks. Fiasco deals with the history of the Iraq War from the planning phase to combat operations to 2006 and argues that the war was badly planned and executed...
, by Thomas E. Ricks - Fiction - The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel, by Amy HempelAmy HempelAmy Hempel is an American short story writer, journalist, and university professor at Brooklyn College.-Life:Hempel was born in Chicago, Illinois...
- Poetry - AvernoAverno (poetry)Averno is Louise Glück's eleventh collection of poetry. Averno or Lake Avernus is a lake west of Naples that the Romans mythologized as the entrance to the underworld. The Greek myth of Demeter's daughter Persephone and her marriage to Hades is a recurring topic in the collection, as are the themes...
, by Louise GlückLouise GlückLouise Elisabeth Glück is an American poet of Hungarian Jewish heritage. She was appointed Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 2003, after serving as a Special Bicentennial Consultant three years prior in 2000.... - Lifetime Achievement - Garry WillsGarry WillsGarry Wills is a Pulitzer Prize-winning and prolific author, journalist, and historian, specializing in American politics, American political history and ideology and the Roman Catholic Church. Classically trained at a Jesuit high school and two universities, he is proficient in Greek and Latin...
2006
- American Studies - A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America, by Stacy SchiffStacy SchiffStacy Madeleine Schiff is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American nonfiction author and guest columnist for The New York Times.-Biography:...
- Biography & Autobiography - American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer, by Kai BirdKai BirdKai Bird is an American Pulitzer Prize-winning author and columnist, best known for his biographies of political figures.-Personal life:Bird was born in 1951 in Eugene, Oregon. His father was a U.S. Foreign Service officer, and he spent his childhood in Jerusalem, Beirut, Dhahran, Cairo and Bombay...
and Martin Sherwin - Fiction - Liberation: A Novel, by Joanna ScottJoanna ScottJoanna Scott is an American author and Roswell Smith Burrows Professor of English at the University of Rochester.Scott has received critical acclaim for her novels...
- Poetry - Migration, by W.S. Merwin
2005
- American Studies - Washington's Crossing, by David Hackett FischerDavid Hackett FischerDavid Hackett Fischer is University Professor and Earl Warren Professor of History at Brandeis University. Fischer's major works have tackled everything from large macroeconomic and cultural trends to narrative histories of significant events to explorations of...
- Biography & Autobiography - De Kooning: An American Master, by Mark StevensMark StevensMark or Marc Stevens or Mark Stephens may refer to:*Mark Stevens , American author of marketing books*Mark Stevens , American actor*Mark Stevens , Australian-rules footballer...
- Fiction - GileadGilead (novel)Gilead is a novel written by Marilynne Robinson and published in 2004. It won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, as well as the National Book Critics Circle Award. The novel is the fictional autobiography of the Reverend John Ames, an elderly congregationalist pastor in the small, secluded town...
, by Marilynne RobinsonMarilynne Robinson-Biography:Robinson was born and grew up in Sandpoint, Idaho, and did her undergraduate work at Pembroke College, the former women's college at Brown University, receiving her B.A., magna cum laude in 1966, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. She received her Ph.D... - Poetry - Collected Poems, by Donald JusticeDonald JusticeDonald Justice was an American poet and teacher of writing. In summing up Justice's career, David Orr has written, "In most ways, Justice was no different from any number of solid, quiet older writers devoted to traditional short poems. But he was different in one important sense: sometimes his...
2004
- American Studies - They Marched into SunlightThey Marched into SunlightThey Marched Into Sunlight: War and Peace, Vietnam and America, October 1967 is a book written by Pulitzer Prize winner and bestselling author David Maraniss, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for History in 2004 and won the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize...
, by David MaranissDavid MaranissDavid Maraniss is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author. As a reporter for The Washington Post he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting for his stories about the life and career of candidate Bill Clinton in the 1992 campaign for the U.S... - Biography & Autobiography - Hawthorne , A Life, by Brenda WineappleBrenda WineappleBrenda Wineapple is an American nonfiction writer, literary critic, and essayist. Her books include White Heat: The Friendship of Emily Dickinson and Thomas Wentworth Higginson; Hawthorne: A Life; Sister Brother Gertrude and Leo Stein; and Genêt: A Biography of Janet Flanner...
- Fiction - The Time of Our SingingThe Time of Our SingingThe Time of Our Singing is a novel by American writer Richard Powers. It tells the story of two brothers involved in music, dealing heavily with issues of prejudice....
, by Richard PowersRichard PowersRichard Powers is an American novelist whose works explore the effects of modern science and technology.- Life and work :... - Poetry - Robert Lowell: Collected Poems, edited by Frank BidartFrank BidartFrank Bidart is an American academic and poet.-Biography:In 1957, he began to study at the University of California at Riverside and went on to Harvard, where he was a student and friend of Robert Lowell and Elizabeth Bishop...
& David GewanterDavid Gewanter-Life:He teaches at Georgetown University, and lives in Washington, D. C., with his wife, writer Joy Young, and son James.His work has appeared in Ploughshares.-Awards:* 1999 Witter Bynner Fellowship, Library of Congress * Whiting Writer's Award... - Distinguished Achievement Award - Robert A. Caro
2003
- Fiction - MiddlesexMiddlesex (novel)Middlesex is a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Jeffrey Eugenides published in 2002. The book is a bestseller, with more than three million copies sold as of May 2011. Its characters and events are loosely based on aspects of Eugenides' life and observations of his Greek heritage. It is...
, by Jeffrey EugenidesJeffrey EugenidesJeffrey Kent Eugenides is an American Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist and short story writer. Eugenides is most known for his first two novels, The Virgin Suicides and Middlesex . His novel The Marriage Plot was published in October, 2011.-Life and career:Eugenides was born in Detroit, Michigan,... - American Studies - In the Devil's Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692, by Mary Beth NortonMary Beth NortonMary Beth Norton is an American historian. She is the Mary Donlon Alger Professor of American History Department of History at Cornell University. Norton was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Michigan and her Master of Arts and Ph.D. ...
- Biography & Autobiography - Jesse James: Last Rebel of the Civil War, by T. J. Stiles
- Poetry - Springing, New and Selected Poems, by Marie PonsotMarie PonsotMarie Ponsot, née Birmingham is an American poet, literary critic, essayist, teacher, and translator.-Life:Ponsot was born in Brooklyn, New York, but along with her brother grew up in Jamaica, Queens. She was already writing poems as a child, some of which were published in the Brooklyn Daily...
- Lifetime Achievement - Edmund S. Morgan
2002
- American Studies - Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama, the Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights RevolutionCarry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama, the Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights RevolutionCarry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama, the Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution, written by Diane McWhorter and published by Simon & Schuster in 2001, won the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize and the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction...
, by Diane McWhorterDiane McWhorterRebecca Diane McWhorter is an American journalist, commentator and author who has written extensively about race and the history of civil rights. Her book, Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama, the Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution , was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for General... - Biography & Autobiography - John AdamsJohn Adams (book)John Adams is a 2001 biography of Founding Father and second U.S. President John Adams written by popular historian David McCullough. It won a 2002 Pulitzer Prize and has been made into a TV miniseries with the same name by HBO Films. Since the TV miniseries debuted, an alternative cover has been...
, by David McCulloughDavid McCulloughDavid Gaub McCullough is an American author, narrator, historian, and lecturer. He is a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award and a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States' highest civilian award.... - Lifetime Achievement - Hortense CalisherHortense CalisherHortense Calisher was an American writer of fiction.-Personal life:Born in New York City, New York, and a graduate of Hunter College High School and Barnard College , Calisher was the daughter of a young German Jewish immigrant mother and a somewhat older Jewish father from Virginia whose family...
- Fiction - Empire FallsEmpire FallsEmpire Falls is a two-part mini-series that aired on HBO in 2005. It was based on the Pulitzer Prize winning novel of the same name which was written by Richard Russo. It was nominated for and won multiple awards, including various Emmys and Golden Globes...
, by Richard RussoRichard RussoRichard Russo is an American novelist, short story writer, screenwriter, and teacher.-Early life and education:Russo was born in Johnstown, New York, and raised in nearby Gloversville... - Poetry - The Darkness and the Light, by Anthony HechtAnthony HechtAnthony Evan Hecht was an American poet. His work combined a deep interest in form with a passionate desire to confront the horrors of 20th century history, with the Second World War, in which he fought, and the Holocaust being recurrent themes in his work.-Early years:Hecht was born in New York...
2001
- American Studies - In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship EssexIn the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship EssexIn the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex is a National Book Award winning work of maritime history by Nathaniel Philbrick. It tells the story of the Whaleship Essex from the point of view of Thomas Nickerson who was a fourteen-year-old cabin boy on the Essex. The book is based...
, by Nathaniel PhilbrickNathaniel PhilbrickNathaniel Philbrick is an American author and a winner of the National Book Award for his 2000 work of maritime history In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex. He is member of the Philbrick literary family.-Life:... - Biography & Autobiography - The Chief: The Life of William Randolph Hearst, by David NasawDavid NasawDavid Nasaw is an author and a professor of American History at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, where he is also chairman of the Center for the Humanities. He received his PhD from Columbia University...
- Lifetime Achievement - Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.
- Fiction - Angel on the Roof: The Stories of Russell Banks, by Russell BanksRussell BanksRussell Banks is an American writer of fiction and poetry.- Biography :Russell Banks was born in Newton, Massachusetts on March 28, 1940. He attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He lives in upstate New York, and has been named a New York State Author. He is also...
- Poetry - American Poerty: The Twentieth Century, 2 vols., by Hass, Hollander, Kizer, Mackey, Perloff
2000
- American Studies - Freedom from Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929-1945, by David M. KennedyDavid M. Kennedy (historian)David M. Kennedy is an American Pulitzer Prize-winning historian specializing in American history. He is the Donald J. McLachlan Professor of History at Stanford University and the Director of the Bill Lane Center for the American West...
- Biography & Autobiography - Morgan: American Financier, by Jean StrouseJean StrouseJean Strouse is an American biographer, editor and critic. She is best known for her biographies of diarist Alice James and financier J. Pierpont Morgan....
- Fiction - Close Range: Wyoming StoriesClose Range: Wyoming StoriesClose Range: Wyoming Stories is a 1999 collection of short stories written by E. Annie Proulx. The stories are set in the desolate landscape of rural Wyoming and detail the often grim lives of the protagonists....
, by Annie Proulx - Poetry - Vita Nova, by Louise GlückLouise GlückLouise Elisabeth Glück is an American poet of Hungarian Jewish heritage. She was appointed Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 2003, after serving as a Special Bicentennial Consultant three years prior in 2000....
1999
- American Studies - Slaves in the Family, by Edward BallEdward Ball (American author)Edward Ball is an American writer of non-fiction, best known for his book Slaves in the Family . The book tells the story of the author's family, slave-owners in South Carolina for 200 years, and recounts his search for and meetings with descendants of his family's slaves...
- Biography & Autobiography - N.C. Wyeth, by David Michaelis
- Fiction - I Married a CommunistI Married a CommunistI Married a Communist is a Philip Roth novel concerning the rise and fall of Ira Ringold, known as "Iron Rinn." The story is narrated by Nathan Zuckerman, and is one of a trio of Zuckerman novels Roth wrote in the 1990s depicting the postwar history of Newark, New Jersey and its residents.Ira and...
, by Philip RothPhilip RothPhilip Milton Roth is an American novelist. He gained fame with the 1959 novella Goodbye, Columbus, an irreverent and humorous portrait of Jewish-American life that earned him a National Book Award... - Poetry - The Collected Poems of Robert Penn Warren, by John Burt
1998
- American Studies - American Visions, by Robert HughesRobert Hughes-Politicians:*Robert Hughes, Baron Hughes of Woodside , British Labour politician, MP for Aberdeen North*Robert Gurth Hughes , British Conservative politician, MP for Harrow West-Sportsmen:*Robert Hughes , of Stamford FC...
- Autobiography - Burning the Days: Recollection, by James SalterJames SalterJames Salter is an American novelist and short-story writer. Once a career officer and pilot in the United States Air Force, he abandoned the military profession in 1957 after successful publication of his first novel, The Hunters.After a brief career at film writing and film directing, Salter...
- Biography - American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas JeffersonAmerican Sphinx: The Character of Thomas JeffersonAmerican Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson, is a 1996 book written by Joseph Ellis, a professor of History at Mount Holyoke College. It won the 1997 National Book Award .-Overview:...
, by Joseph EllisJoseph EllisJoseph John Ellis is a Professor of History at Mount Holyoke College who has written histories on the founding generation of American presidents. His book Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation received the Pulitzer Prize for History in 2001.-Background and teaching:He received his B.A... - Fiction - UnderworldUnderworld (DeLillo novel)Underworld is a postmodern novel published in 1997 by Don DeLillo. It was nominated for the National Book Award, was a best-seller, and is one of DeLillo's better-known novels....
, by Don DeLilloDon DeLilloDon DeLillo is an American author, playwright, and occasional essayist whose work paints a detailed portrait of American life in the late 20th and early 21st centuries... - Poetry - Black Zodiac, by Charles WrightCharles Wright (poet)Charles Wright is an American poet whose awards include the National Book Award Charles Wright (born August 25, 1935) is an American poet whose awards include the National Book Award Charles Wright (born August 25, 1935) is an American poet whose awards include the National Book Award (19830 for...
1997
- American Studies - Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson and the Opening of the American West, by Stephen E. Ambrose
- Biography & Autobiography - Taking on the World: Joseph and Stewart Alsop- Guardians of the American Century, by Robert W. Merry
- Fiction - In the Beauty of the LiliesIn the Beauty of the LiliesIn the Beauty of the Lilies is a 1996 novel by John Updike. It takes its title from a line of the abolitionist song "The Battle Hymn of the Republic."-Summary:...
, by John UpdikeJohn UpdikeJohn Hoyer Updike was an American novelist, poet, short story writer, art critic, and literary critic.... - Poetry - The Figured Wheel: New and Collected Poems, 1966 - 1996, by Robert PinskyRobert PinskyRobert Pinsky is an American poet, essayist, literary critic, and translator. From 1997 to 2000, he served as Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress. Pinsky is the author of nineteen books, most of which are collections of his own poetry...
1996
- American Studies - Moving Violations: War Zones, Wheelchairs and Declarations of Independence, by John HockenberryJohn HockenberryJohn Charles Hockenberry is an American journalist and author. A four-time Emmy Award winner and three-time Peabody Award winner, Hockenberry has worked in media since 1980....
- Biography & Autobiography - Walt Whitman's America: A Cultural Biography, by David S. ReynoldsDavid S. ReynoldsDavid S. Reynolds is an American historian and literary critic, noted for his specialized books on the Civil War period and his expert knowledge of Walt Whitman.-Life and career:...
- Fiction - All the Days and Nights, by William MaxwellWilliam MaxwellWilliam Maxwell may refer to:*William Maxwell , Irish-born American soldier from New Jersey in the American Revolutionary War*General Sir William Maxwell, 7th Baronet of Calderwood...
- Poetry - Atlantis, by Mark DotyMark DotyMark Doty is an American poet and memoirist.-Biography:He was born in Maryville, Tennessee, earned his Bachelor of Arts from Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, and received his Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from Goddard College in Vermont.In 1989, his partner Wally Roberts tested...
1995
- American Studies - Speak Now Against the Day: The Generation Before the Civil Rights Movement in the South, by John Egerton
- Biography & Autobiography - No Ordinary Time Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II, by Doris Kearns GoodwinDoris Kearns GoodwinDoris Kearns Goodwin is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American biographer and historian, and an oft-seen political commentator. She is the author of biographies of several U.S...
- Fiction - The Collected Stories, by Grace PaleyGrace PaleyGrace Paley was an American-Jewish short story writer, poet, and political activist.-Biography:Grace Paley was born in the Bronx to Isaac and Manya Ridnyik Goodside, who anglicized the family name from Gutseit on immigrating from Ukraine. Her father was a doctor. The family spoke Russian and...
- Poetry - Like Most Revelations, by Richard HowardRichard HowardRichard Howard is an American poet, literary critic, essayist, teacher, and translator. He was born in Cleveland, Ohio and is a graduate of Columbia University, where he studied under Mark Van Doren, and where he now teaches...
1994
- American Studies - Around the Cragged Hill A Personal and Political Philosophy, by George F. KennanGeorge F. KennanGeorge Frost Kennan was an American adviser, diplomat, political scientist and historian, best known as "the father of containment" and as a key figure in the emergence of the Cold War...
- Biography & Autobiography - W.E.B. Du Bois Biography of Race 1868-1919, by David Levering LewisDavid Levering LewisDavid Levering Lewis is the Julius Silver University Professor and Professor of History at New York University. He is twice winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography, for part one and part two of his biography of W. E. B. Du Bois...
- Fiction - The Oracle at Stoneleigh Court, by Peter TaylorPeter Matthew Hillsman TaylorFor other people named Peter Taylor, see Peter Taylor.Peter Matthew Hillsman Taylor was a U.S. author and writer.-Biography:...
- Poetry - Tesserae & Other Poems, by John HollanderJohn HollanderJohn Hollander is a Jewish-American poet and literary critic. As of 2007, he is Sterling Professor Emeritus of English at Yale University...
1993
- American Arts & Letters - Up in the Old Hotel, by Joseph MitchellJoseph MitchellJoseph Mitchell was an American writer best known for the work he published in The New Yorker. He is known for his carefully written portraits of eccentrics and people on the fringes of society, especially in and around New York City.Mitchell was born on his maternal grandparents' farm near...
- American Studies - Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remade AmericaLincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remade AmericaLincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remade America written by Garry Wills and published by Simon & Schuster in 1992, won the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction and the 1992 National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism....
, by Garry WillsGarry WillsGarry Wills is a Pulitzer Prize-winning and prolific author, journalist, and historian, specializing in American politics, American political history and ideology and the Roman Catholic Church. Classically trained at a Jesuit high school and two universities, he is proficient in Greek and Latin... - Biography & Autobiography - Archibald MacLeish: An American Life, by Scott Donaldson
- Fiction - Outerbridge Reach, by Robert Stone
1992
- American Arts & Letters - The Journals of John Cheever, by John CheeverJohn CheeverJohn William Cheever was an American novelist and short story writer. He is sometimes called "the Chekhov of the suburbs." His fiction is mostly set in the Upper East Side of Manhattan, the Westchester suburbs, old New England villages based on various South Shore towns around Quincy,...
- American Studies - The Crisis Years: Kennedy and Khrushchev : 1960 - 1963, by Michael BeschlossMichael BeschlossMichael Richard Beschloss is an American historian. A specialist in the United States presidency, he is the author of nine books.- Early life :...
- Biography & Autobiography - Woodrow Wilson, by August Hecscher
- Fiction - A Thousand AcresA Thousand AcresA Thousand Acres is a 1991 novel by American author Jane Smiley. It won the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction in 1991 and was adapted to a 1997 film of the same name....
, by Jane SmileyJane SmileyJane Smiley is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist.-Biography:Born in Los Angeles, California, Smiley grew up in Webster Groves, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis, and graduated from John Burroughs School. She obtained an A.B. at Vassar College, then earned an M.F.A. and Ph.D. from the...
1991
- American Arts & Letters - The House of Barrymore, by Margot Peters
- American Studies - A New York Life, by Brendan GillBrendan GillBrendan Gill wrote for The New Yorker for more than 60 years. He also contributed film criticism for Film Comment and wrote a popular book about his time at the New Yorker magazine.-Biography:...
- Biography & Autobiography - The House of Morgan, by Ron ChernowRon ChernowRonald Chernow is an American biographer. He is the author of Washington: A Life, Alexander Hamilton, The House of Morgan, and Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr., among other works...
- Fiction - Killing Mr. Watson, by Peter MatthiessenPeter MatthiessenPeter Matthiessen is a two-time National Book Award-winning American novelist and non-fiction writer, as well as an environmental activist...
1990
- American Arts & Letters - The Writing Life, by Annie DillardAnnie DillardAnnie Dillard is an American author, best known for her narrative prose in both fiction and non-fiction. She has published works of poetry, essays, prose, and literary criticism, as well as two novels and one memoir. Her 1974 work Pilgrim at Tinker Creek won the 1974 Pulitzer Prize for General...
- American Studies - Among Schoolchildren, by Tracy KidderTracy KidderJohn Tracy Kidder is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American writer of the 1981 nonfiction narrative, The Soul of a New Machine, about the creation of a new computer at Data General Corporation...
- Biography & Autobiography - This Boy's Life: A MemoirThis Boy's LifeThis Boy's Life is a memoir by Tobias Wolff first published in 1989. It describes the author's adolescence as he wanders the continental United States with his itinerant mother. The first leg of their journey takes them from Florida to Utah, where Mom, fleeing an abusive partner, hopes to get rich...
, by Tobias WolffTobias WolffTobias Jonathan Ansell Wolff is an American author. He is known for his memoirs, particularly This Boy's Life , and his short stories. He has also written two novels.-Biography:Wolff was born in 1945 in Birmingham, Alabama... - Fiction - Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells AllOldest Living Confederate Widow Tells AllOldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All is a 1989 first novel by Allan Gurganus which was on the New York Times Best Seller list for eight months. It won the Sue Kaufman Prize from The American Academy of Arts and Letters, was a main selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club, and sold over four...
, by Allan GurganusAllan GurganusAllan Gurganus is an American novelist, short story writer, and essayist whose work is often influenced by and set in his native North Carolina. His writing has been compared to the work of William Faulkner and Eudora Welty, who also were identified with the American South.-Biography: Gurganus was...
1989
- American Arts & Letters - At Home: Essays 1982-1988, by Gore VidalGore VidalGore Vidal is an American author, playwright, essayist, screenwriter, and political activist. His third novel, The City and the Pillar , outraged mainstream critics as one of the first major American novels to feature unambiguous homosexuality...
- American Studies - A Bright Shining Lie John Paul Vann in VietnamA Bright Shining LieA Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam is a book by Neil Sheehan, a former New York Times reporter who covered the Vietnam War. It is about retired U.S...
, by Neil SheehanNeil SheehanCornelius Mahoney "Neil" Sheehan is an American journalist. As a reporter for The New York Times in 1971, Sheehan obtained the classified Pentagon Papers from Daniel Ellsberg. His series in the Times revealed a secret U.S. Department of Defense history of the Vietnam War and resulted in government... - Biography & Autobiography - Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954-1963, by Taylor BranchTaylor BranchTaylor Branch is an American author and historian best known for his award-winning trilogy of books chronicling the life of Martin Luther King, Jr. and some of the history of the American civil rights movement...
- Fiction - Where I'm Calling From: New & Selected StoriesWhere I'm Calling From"Where I'm Calling From" is a short story by American author Raymond Carver. The story focuses on the effects of alcohol. Throughout this story Carver experiments with the use of quotation and meditates on the healing factors of storytelling...
, by Raymond CarverRaymond CarverRaymond Clevie Carver, Jr. was an American short story writer and poet. Carver is considered a major American writer of the late 20th century and also a major force in the revitalization of the short story in the 1980s....
1988
- American Arts & Letters - Collected Prose, by Robert LowellRobert LowellRobert Traill Spence Lowell IV was an American poet, considered the founder of the confessional poetry movement. He was appointed the sixth Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress where he served from 1947 until 1948...
- American Studies - MiamiMiami (book)Miami is a 1987 book of social and political analysis by Joan Didion.Didion begins, "Havana vanities come to dust in Miami." The book is an extended report on the generation of Cubans who landed in exile in Miami following the overthrow of President Batista January 1, 1959 and the way in which that...
, by Joan DidionJoan DidionJoan Didion is an American author best known for her novels and her literary journalism. Her novels and essays explore the disintegration of American morals and cultural chaos, where the overriding theme is individual and social fragmentation... - Biography & Autobiography - Many Masks: A Life of Frank Lloyd Wright, by Brendan GillBrendan GillBrendan Gill wrote for The New Yorker for more than 60 years. He also contributed film criticism for Film Comment and wrote a popular book about his time at the New Yorker magazine.-Biography:...
- Fiction - The Bonfire of the VanitiesThe Bonfire of the VanitiesThe Bonfire of the Vanities is a 1987 novel by Tom Wolfe. The story is a drama about ambition, racism, social class, politics, and greed in 1980s New York City and centers on four main characters: WASP bond trader Sherman McCoy, Jewish assistant district attorney Larry Kramer, British expatriate...
, by Tom WolfeTom WolfeThomas Kennerly "Tom" Wolfe, Jr. is a best-selling American author and journalist. He is one of the founders of the New Journalism movement of the 1960s and 1970s.-Early life and education:...
1987
- American Studies - Cities on a Hill: A Journey Through Contemporary American Cultures, by Frances FitzGerald
- American Studies - The Cycles of American History, by Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr
- Biography & Autobiography - The Life of Langston Hughes, Volume I: 1902-1941: I, Too, Sing America, by Arnold RampersadArnold RampersadArnold Rampersad is a biographer and literary critic. The first volume of his Life Of Langston Hughes was a Pulitzer Prize finalist. He was born in Trinidad and Tobago....
- Fiction - Roger's VersionRoger's VersionRoger's Version is a 1986 novel by John Updike about Roger Lambert, a theology professor in his fifties, whose rather complacent faith is challenged by Dale, an evangelical graduate student who believes he can prove that God exists with computer science...
, by John UpdikeJohn UpdikeJohn Hoyer Updike was an American novelist, poet, short story writer, art critic, and literary critic....
1986
- Fiction - Lake Wobegon DaysLake Wobegon DaysLake Wobegon Days is a novel by Garrison Keillor, first published in hardcover by Viking in 1985. Based on material from his radio show A Prairie Home Companion, the book brought Keillor's work to a much wider audience and achieved international success...
, by Garrison KeillorGarrison KeillorGary Edward "Garrison" Keillor is an American author, storyteller, humorist, and radio personality. He is known as host of the Minnesota Public Radio show A Prairie Home Companion Gary Edward "Garrison" Keillor (born August 7, 1942) is an American author, storyteller, humorist, and radio... - Fiction - The Accidental TouristThe Accidental TouristThe Accidental Tourist is a 1985 novel by Anne Tyler that was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction...
, by Anne TylerAnne TylerAnne Tyler is an American novelist.Tyler, the eldest of four children, was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Her father was a chemist and her mother a social worker. Her early childhood was spent in a succession of Quaker communities in the mountains of North Carolina and in Raleigh...
External links
- Ambassador Book Award, official website.