List of winners of the National Book Award

The following is a partial list of winners of the National Book Awards.

Current categories

 * For early awards in all categories, see 1935 to 1941

This section covers awards from 1950 in the four current categories as defined by their names. Some awards in "previous categories" may have been equivalent except in name.

Fiction
General fiction for adult readers is a National Book Award category continuous from 1950, with multiple awards for a few years beginning 1980. From 1935 to 1941 there were six annual awards for novels or general fiction and the Bookseller Discovery, or Most Original Book, or both was sometimes a novel.

Nonfiction
General nonfiction for adult readers is a National Book Award category continuous only from 1984, when the general award was restored after two decades of awards in several nonfiction categories. From 1935 to 1941 there were six annual awards for general nonfiction, two for biography, and the Bookseller Discovery or Most Original Book was sometimes nonfiction.

Arts and Letters

 * "Arts and Letters (Nonfiction)" in 1964.

History and Biography

 * "History and Biography (Nonfiction)" in 1964.

Science, Philosophy and Religion

 * "Science, Philosophy and Religion (Nonfiction)" in 1964.

Children's Books, Fiction

 * "Children's Book, Fiction" in 1981; "Children's Fiction" in 1983.

Children's Books, Non-fiction

 * "Children's Book, Nonfiction" in 1981.

Children's Books, Picture Books

 * In 1983 Children's Books, Picture Books was called Children's Books, Picture Books.

1935 to 1941
The first National Book Awards were presented in May 1936 at the annual convention of the American Booksellers Association to four 1935 books selected by their members. Subsequently the awards were announced mid-February to March 1 and presented at the convention. For 1937 books there were ballots from 319 stores, about three times so many as for 1936.

Authors and publishers outside the United States were eligible and there were several winners by non-U.S. authors (at least Lofts, Curie, de Saint-Exupéry, Du Maurier, and Llewellyn). The Bookseller Discovery and the general awards for fiction and non-fiction were conferred six times in seven years, the Most Original Book five times, and the biography award in the first two years only. Dates are years of publication.

Bookseller Discovery
 * 1935 —
 * 1936, Norah Lofts, I Met a Gypsy
 * 1937, Lawrence Watkin, On Borrowed Time
 * 1938, David Fairchild, The World Was My Garden: Travels of a Plant Explorer
 * 1939, Elgin Groseclose, Ararat
 * 1940, Perry Burgess, Who Walk Alone (featuring a leper)
 * 1941, George Sessions Perry, Hold Autumn in Your Hand

Non-fiction
 * 1935, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, North to the Orient
 * 1936, Van Wyck Brooks, The Flowering of New England
 * 1937, Ève Curie, Madame Curie (biography of Marie Curie)
 * 1938, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Listen! The Wind
 * 1939, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Wind, Sand and Stars
 * 1940, Hans Zinsser, As I Remember Him: The Biography of R.S. (autobiography)
 * 1941 —

Biography
 * 1935, Vincent Sheean, Personal History (autobiography)
 * 1936, Victor Heiser, An American Doctor's Odyssey (autobiography) (see Leprosy)

Novel
 * 1935, Rachel Field, Time Out of Mind
 * 1936, Margaret Mitchell, Gone With the Wind
 * 1937, A. J. Cronin, The Citadel
 * 1938, Daphne Du Maurier, Rebecca
 * 1939, John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath
 * 1940, Richard Llewellyn, How Green Was My Valley
 * 1941 —

Most Original Book
 * 1935, Charles G. Finney, The Circus of Dr. Lao
 * 1936, Della T. Lutes, The Country Kitchen (cookbook)
 * 1937, Carl Crow, Four Hundred Million Customers
 * 1938, Margaret Halsey, With Malice Toward Some
 * 1939, Dalton Trumbo, Johnny Got His Gun
 * 1940 —
 * 1941 —