1920s[edit]
- 1920: The Life of John Marshall, 4 vols. by Albert J. Beveridge
- 1921: The Americanization of Edward Bok by Edward Bok
- 1922: A Daughter of the Middle Border by Hamlin Garland
- 1923: The Life and Letters of Walter H. Page by Burton J. Hendrick
- 1924: From Immigrant to Inventor by Michael I. Pupin
- 1925: Barrett Wendell and His Letters by M. A. Dewolfe Howe
- 1926: The Life of Sir William Osler, 2 vols. by Harvey Cushing
- 1927: Whitman by Emory Holloway
- 1928: The American Orchestra and Theodore Thomas by Charles Edward Russell
- 1929: The Training of an American: The Earlier Life and Letters of Walter H. Page by Burton J. Hendrick
1930s[edit]
- 1930: The Raven: A Biography of Sam Houston by Marquis James
- 1931: Charles W. Eliot, President of Harvard University, 1869–1901 by Henry James
- 1932: Theodore Roosevelt: A Biography by Henry F. Pringle
- 1933: Grover Cleveland: A Study in Courage by Allan Nevins
- 1934: John Hay by Tyler Dennett
- 1935: R. E. Lee by Douglas S. Freeman
- 1936: The Thought and Character of William James by Ralph Barton Perry
- 1937: Hamilton Fish by Allan Nevins
- 1938: Pedlar's Progress: The Life of Bronson Alcott by Odell Shepard
- 1938: Andrew Jackson, 2 vols. by Marquis James
- 1939: Benjamin Franklin by Carl Van Doren
1940s[edit]
- 1940: Woodrow Wilson, Life and Letters. Vols. VII and VIII by Ray Stannard Baker
- 1941: Jonathan Edwards, 1703–1758: a biography by Ola Elizabeth Winslow
- 1942: Crusader in Crinoline: The Life of Harriet Beecher Stowe by Forrest Wilson
- 1943: Admiral of the Ocean Sea by Samuel Eliot Morison
- 1944: The American Leonardo: The Life of Samuel F. B. Morse by Carleton Mabee
- 1945: George Bancroft: Brahmin Rebel by Russel Blaine Nye
- 1946: Son of the Wilderness: The Life of John Muir by Linnie Marsh Wolfe
- 1947: The Autobiography of William Allen White by William Allen White
- 1948: Forgotten First Citizen: John Bigelow by Margaret Clapp
- 1949: Roosevelt and Hopkins by Robert E. Sherwood
1950s[edit]
- 1950: John Quincy Adams and the Foundations of American Foreign Policy by Samuel Flagg Bemis
- 1951: John C. Calhoun: American Portrait by Margaret Louise Coit
- 1952: Charles Evans Hughes by Merlo J. Pusey
- 1953: Edmund Pendleton 1721–1803 by David J. Mays
- 1954: The Spirit of St. Louis by Charles A. Lindbergh
- 1955: The Taft Story by William S. White
- 1956: Benjamin Henry Latrobe by Talbot Faulkner Hamlin
- 1957: Profiles in Courage by John F. Kennedy
- 1958: George Washington, Volumes I-VI by Douglas Southall Freeman, and Volume VII, written by John Alexander Carroll and Mary Wells Ashworth after Dr. Freeman's death in 1953
- 1959: Woodrow Wilson, American Prophet by Arthur Walworth
1960s[edit]
- 1960: John Paul Jones by Samuel Eliot Morison
- 1961: Charles Sumner and the Coming of the Civil War by David Donald
- 1962: no award given [3]
- 1963: Henry James by Leon Edel
- 1964: John Keats by Walter Jackson Bate
- 1965: Henry Adams, 3 vols., by Ernest Samuels
- 1966: A Thousand Days: John F. Kennedy in the White House by Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.
- 1967: Mr. Clemens and Mark Twain by Justin Kaplan
- 1968: Memoirs by George Frost Kennan
- 1969: The Man From New York: John Quinn and His Friends by Benjamin Lawrence Reid
1970s[edit]
- 1970: Huey Long by Thomas Harry Williams
- 1971: Robert Frost : The Years of Triumph, 1915–1938, by Lawrence Thompson
- 1972: Eleanor and Franklin by Joseph P. Lash
- 1973: Luce and His Empire by W. A. Swanberg
- 1974: O'Neill, Son and Artist by Louis Sheaffer
- 1975: The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York by Robert Caro
- 1976: Edith Wharton: A Biography by R. W. B. Lewis
- 1977: A Prince of Our Disorder: The Life of T. E. Lawrence by John E. Mack
- 1978: Samuel Johnson by Walter Jackson Bate
- 1979: Days of Sorrow and Pain: Leo Baeck and the Berlin Jews by Leonard Baker
1980s[edit]
Entries from this point on include the finalists listed after the winner for each year.
- 1980: The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt by Edmund Morris
- Being Bernard Berenson by Meryle Secrest
- Bernard Berenson, The Making of a Connoisseur by Ernest Samuels
- The Duke of Deception by Geoffrey Wolff
- 1981: Peter the Great: His Life and World by Robert K. Massie
- Walt Whitman: A Life by Justin Kaplan
- Walter Lippmann and the American Century by Ronald Steel
- 1982: Grant: A Biography by William S. McFeely
- Mornings on Horseback by David McCullough
- Waldo Emerson by Gay Wilson Allen
- 1983: Growing Up by Russell Baker
- Churchill: Young Man in a Hurry, 1874–1915 by Ted Morgan
- Thomas E. Dewey and His Times by Richard Norton Smith
- 1984: Booker T. Washington: The Wizard of Tuskegee, 1901–1915 by Louis R. Harlan
- Black Apollo of Science: The Life of Ernest Everett Just by Kenneth Manning
- Thomas Carlyle: A Biography by Fred Kaplan
- 1985: The Life and Times of Cotton Mather by Kenneth Silverman
- Becoming William James by Howard M. Feinstein
- The Seven Mountains of Thomas Merton by Michael Mott
- 1986: Louise Bogan: A Portrait by Elizabeth Frank
- A Hidden Childhood: A Jewish Girl's Sanctuary in a French Convent, 1942–1945 by Frida Scheps Weinstein
- George Washington Williams: A Biography by John Hope Franklin
- 1987: Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference by David J. Garrow
- Dostoevsky: The Stir of Liberation, 1860–1865 by Joseph Frank
- Murrow: His Life and Times by A.M. Sperber
- The Life and Times of Congressman John Quincy Adams by Leonard L. Richards
- 1988: Look Homeward: A Life of Thomas Wolfe by David Herbert Donald
- George Santayana: A Biography by John Owen McCormick
- Hemingway by Kenneth S. Lynn
- 1989: Oscar Wilde by Richard Ellmann
- A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam by Neil Sheehan
- Freud: A Life for Our Time by Peter Gay
- The Life of Langston Hughes: Volume II, 1941–1967: I Dream a World by Arnold Rampersad
1990s[edit]
- 1990: Machiavelli in Hell by Sebastian de Grazia
- A First-Class Temperament: The Emergence of Franklin Roosevelt by Geoffrey C. Ward
- Clear Pictures: First Loves, First Guides by Reynolds Price
- The Road From Coorain by Jill Ker Conway
- 1991: Jackson Pollock: An American Saga by Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith
- Alfred I. Du Pont: The Man and His Family by Joseph Frazier Wall
- The Five of Hearts: An Intimate Portrait of Henry Adams and His Friends 1880–1918 by Patricia O'Toole
- 1992: Fortunate Son: The Autobiography of Lewis B. Puller Jr. by Lewis B. Puller
- Frederick Douglass by William S. McFeely
- Orwell: The Authorized Biography by Michael Shelden
- 1993: Truman by David McCullough
- Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman by James Gleick
- Kissinger by Walter Isaacson
- 1994: W. E. B. Du Bois: Biography of a Race, 1868–1919 by David Levering Lewis
- Genet: A Biography by Edmund White
- In Extremis: The Life of Laura Riding by Deborah Baker
- 1995: Harriet Beecher Stowe: A Life by Joan D. Hedrick
- Hugo Black: A Biography by Roger K. Newman
- Saint-Exupery: A Biography by Stacy Schiff
- 1996: God: A Biography by Jack Miles
- John Sloan: Painter and Rebel by John Loughery
- Mozart: A Life by Maynard Solomon
- 1997: Angela's Ashes: A Memoir by Frank McCourt
- Herman Melville: A Biography, Volume 1, 1819–1851 by Hershel Parker
- In the Wilderness: Coming of Age in Unknown Country by Kim Barnes
- 1998: Personal History by Katharine Graham
- Alfred C. Kinsey: A Public-Private Life by James H. Jones
- Whittaker Chambers: A Biography by Sam Tanenhaus
- 1999: Lindbergh by A. Scott Berg
- A Beautiful Mind by Sylvia Nasar
- At Home with the Marquis de Sade: A Life by Francine du Plessix Gray
2000s[edit]
- 2000: Vera, Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov by Stacy Schiff
- Clear Springs: A Memoir by Bobbie Ann Mason
- Galileo's Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith, and Love by Dava Sobel
- 2001: W. E. B. Du Bois: The Fight for Equality and the American Century 1919-1963 by David Levering Lewis
- Johann Sebastian Bach: The Learned Musician by Christoph Wolff
- The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin by H.W. Brands
- 2002: John Adams by David McCullough
- An Hour Before Daylight: Memories of a Rural Boyhood by Jimmy Carter
- Grant by Jean Edward Smith
- 2003: Master of the Senate: The Years of Lyndon Johnson by Robert Caro
- Beethoven: The Music and the Life by Lewis Lockwood
- The Fly Swatter by Nicholas Dawidoff
- 2004: Khrushchev: The Man and His Era by William Taubman
- Arshile Gorky: His Life and Work by Hayden Herrera
- Isaac Newton by James Gleick
- 2005: de Kooning: An American Master by Mark Stevens and Annalyn Swan
- Under a Wild Sky: John James Audubon and the Making of The Birds of America by William Souder
- Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare by Stephen Greenblatt
- 2006: American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin
- The Peabody Sisters: Three Women Who Ignited American Romanticism by Megan Marshall
- The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
- 2007: The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher by Debby Applegate
- Andrew Carnegie by David Nasaw
- John Wilkes: The Scandalous Father of Civil Liberty by Arthur H. Cash
- 2008: Eden's Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father by John Matteson
- The Life of Kingsley Amis by Zachary Leader
- The Worlds of Lincoln Kirstein by Martin Duberman
- 2009: American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House by Jon Meacham
- The Bin Ladens: An Arabian Family in the American Century by Steve Coll
- Traitor to His Class: The Privileged Life and Radical Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt by H.W. Brands
2010s[edit]
- 2010: The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt by T.J. Stiles
- Cheever: A Life by Blake Bailey
- Woodrow Wilson: A Biography by John Milton Cooper, Jr.
- 2011: Washington: A Life by Ron Chernow
- Mrs. Adams in Winter: A Journey in the Last Days of Napoleon by Michael O'Brien
- The Publisher: Henry Luce and His American Century by Alan Brinkley
- 2012: George F. Kennan: An American Life by John Lewis Gaddis
- Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention by Manning Marable
- Love and Capital: Karl and Jenny Marx and the Birth of a Revolution by Mary Gabriel
- 2013: The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo by Tom Reiss
- Portrait of a Novel: Henry James and the Making of an American Masterpiece by Michael Gorra
- The Patriarch: The Remarkable Life and Turbulent Times of Joseph P. Kennedy by David Nasaw
- 2014: Margaret Fuller: A New American Life by Megan Marshall
- Jonathan Swift: His Life and His World by Leo Damrosch
- Karl Marx: A Nineteenth-Century Life by Jonathan Sperber
- 2015: The Pope and Mussolini: The Secret History of Pius XI and the Rise of Fascism in Europe by David I. Kertzer[4]
- Louis Armstrong: Master of Modernism by Thomas Brothers
- Stalin: Volume I: Paradoxes of Power, 1878–1928 by Stephen Kotkin
- 2016: Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life by William Finnegan
- Custer's Trials: A Life on the Frontier of a New America by T.J. Stiles
- The Light of the World: A Memior by Elizabeth Alexander
- 2017: The Return: Fathers, Sons and the Land in Between by Hisham Matar[5]
