| Year |
Title/Author |
| 1948 |
Tales of the South
Pacific by James A. Michener (Macmillan) |
| 1949 |
Guard of Honor by
James Gould Cozzens (Harcourt) |
| 1950 |
The Way West by A. B.
Guthrie, Jr. (Sloane) |
| 1951 |
The Town by Conrad
Richter (Knopf) |
| 1952 |
The Caine Mutiny by
Herman Wouk (Doubleday) |
| 1953 |
The Old Man and the
Sea by Ernest Hemingway (Scribner) |
| 1954 |
(No Award) |
| 1955 |
A Fable by William
Faulkner (Random) |
| 1956 |
Andersonville by
MacKinlay Kantor (World) |
| 1957 |
(No Award) |
| 1958 |
A Death In The Family
by the late James Agee (a posthumous publication) (McDowell, Obolensky) |
| 1959 |
The Travels of Jaimie
McPheeters by Robert Lewis Taylor (Doubleday) |
| 1960 |
Advise and Consent by
Allen Drury (Doubleday) |
| 1961 |
To Kill A Mockingbird
by Harper Lee (Lippincott) |
| 1962 |
The Edge of Sadness by
Edwin O'Connor (Little) |
| 1963 |
The Reivers by William
Faulkner (Random) |
| 1964 |
(No Award) |
| 1965 |
The Keepers Of The
House by Shirley Ann Grau (Random) |
| 1966 |
Collected Stories by
Katherine Anne Porter (Harcourt) |
| 1967 |
The Fixer by Bernard
Malamud (Farrar) |
| 1968 |
The Confessions of Nat
Turner by William Styron (Random) |
| 1969 |
House Made of Dawn by
N. Scott Momaday (Harper) |
| 1970 |
Collected Stories by
Jean Stafford (Farrar) |
| 1971 |
(No Award) |
| 1972 |
Angle of Repose by
Wallace Stegner (Doubleday) |
| 1973 |
The Optimists Daughter
by Eudora Welty (Random) |
| 1974 |
(No Award) |
| 1975 |
The Killer Angels by
Michael Shaara (McKay) |
| 1976 |
Humboldt's Gift by
Saul Bellow (Viking) |
| 1977 |
(No Award) |
| 1978 |
Elbow Room by James
Alan McPherson (Atlantic Monthly Press) |
| 1979 |
The Stories of John
Cheever by John Cheever (Knopf) |
| 1980 |
The Executioner's Song
by Norman Mailer (Little, Brown) |
| 1981 |
A Confederacy of
Dunces by the late John Kennedy Toole (a posthumous publication) (Louisiana State U.
Press) |
| 1982 |
Rabbit Is Rich by John
Updike (Knopf), the latest novel in a memorable sequence |
| 1983 |
The Color Purple by
Alice Walker (Harcourt Brace) |
| 1984 |
Ironweed by William
Kennedy (Viking) |
| 1985 |
Foreign Affairs by
Alison Lurie (Random House) |
| 1986 |
Lonesome Dove by Larry
McMurtry (Simon & Schuster) |
| 1987 |
A Summons to Memphis
by Peter Taylor (Alfred A. Knopf) |
| 1988 |
Beloved by Toni
Morrison (Alfred A. Knopf) |
| 1989 |
Breathing Lessons by
Anne Tyler (Alfred A. Knopf) |
| 1990 |
The Mambo Kings Play
Songs of Love by Oscar Hijuelos (Farrar, Straus & Giroux) |
| 1991 |
Rabbit At Rest by John
Updike (Alfred A. Knopf) |
| 1992 |
A Thousand Acres by
Jane Smiley (Alfred A. Knopf) |
| 1993 |
A Good Scent from a
Strange Mountain by Robert Olen Butler (Henry Holt) |
| 1994 |
The Shipping News by
E. Annie Proulx (Charles Scribner's Sons) |
| 1995 |
The Stone Diaries by
Carol Shields (Viking) |
| 1996 |
Independence Day by
Richard Ford (Alfred A. Knopf) |
| 1997 |
Martin Dressler: The
Tale of an American Dreamer by Steven Millhauser (Crown) |
| 1998 |
American Pastoral by
Philip Roth (Houghton Mifflin) |
| 1999 |
The Hours by Michael
Cunningham (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) |
| 2000 |
Interpreter of
Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri (Mariner Books/Houghton Mifflin) |
| 2001 |
The Amazing Adventures
of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon (Random House) |
| 2002 |
Empire Falls by
Richard Russo (Alfred A. Knopf) |
|
2003 |
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
|
