1918-
Ernest Poole, His
Family (prominent NY father learns his 3 daughters must make their way in a
world
of social mobility)
1919-
Booth
Tarkington, The Magnificent Ambersons (about family life of fading 1900s
aristocracy)
1921-
Edith Wharton,
The Age of Innocence (NY 1870s: Neland Archer marries May Welland but
loves her cousin Ellen Olenska)
1922-
Booth
Tarkington, Alice Adams (drug company employee has nagging wife,
shiftless son, and dreaming daughter Alice whose hopes are dashed and
enters Frincke's Business College)
1923-
Willa Cather, One
of Ours (Claude Wheeler grows up on Western farm, goes to college, killed
in army in France)
1924-
Margaret
Wilson, The Able McLaughlins (about 1860s Scottish Presbyterian family on
American
frontier)
1925-
Edna Ferber, So
Big (life of hard-working principled woman and her materialistic son)
1926-
Sinclair Lewis,
Arrowsmith (Refused prize) (Martin Arrowsmith, a bacteriologist, goes
to VT farm
and West Indies)
1927-
Louis Bromfield,
Early Autumn (a strong woman opposes materialism)
1928-
Thornton
Wilder, Bridge of San Luis Rey (1714 Peru: Brother Juniper investigates
death of 5
travelers on bridge)
1929-
Julia M.
Peterkin, Scarlet Sister Mary (religious heroine has 8 illegitimate kids)
1930-
Oliver LaFarge,
Laughing Boy (young Navajo wife lives with missionary family)
1931-
Margaret Ayer
Barnes, Years of Grace (tells of a woman's relationships from adolescence
to age 54)
1932-
Pearl S. Buck,
The Good Earth China: Wang Lung and wife O-lan rise from poverty to wealth but
sons don't share their respect for the land)
1933-
T. S. Stribling,
The Store (three generations of AL family, Civil War to 1920s)
1934-
Caroline
Miller, Lamb in His Bosom (about Carver family in mid-1800s GA backwoods)
1935-
Josephine W.
Johnson, Now in November (about a Midwest farm girl)
1936-
Harold L.
Davis, Honey in the Horn (teenager wanders through Oregon)
1937-
Margaret
Mitchell, Gone With the Wind (Civil War Georgia: Scarlett O'Hara of Tara
plantation loves Ashley Wilkes but he marries Melanie Hamilton; Scarlett
is widowed twice, then marries
Rhett Butler; Alexandra Ripley wrote 1992 sequel Scarlett)
1938-
John P.
Marquand, The Late George Apley (A Novel in the Form of a Memoir;
Horatio Willing tells about life of Bostonian George Apley)
1939-
Marjorie Kinnan
Rawlings, The Yearling (northern Florida boy Jody loves a fawn but must
shoot it when it eats family corn)
1940-
John Steinbeck,
The Grapes of Wrath (Joad family travels from OK to CA during the Great
Depression to find work picking fruit; Tom Joad becomes involved in
strikes and kills a man; Rose of Sharon has
baby),
1942-
Ellen Glasgow,
In This Our Life (contrast between old and new societies in the South)
1943-
Upton Sinclair,
Dragon's Teeth (about Nazi Germany)
1944-
Martin Flavin, Journey
in the Dark (Chicago wallpaper manufacturer rises from poverty to wealth)
1945-
John Hersey, A
Bell for Adano (American major in WWII discovers dignity of the Sicilian
villagers)
1947-
Robert Penn
Warren, All the King's Men (US South: Willie Stark, like Huey Long;
narrated by Jack Burden)
1948-
James A.
Michener, Tales of the South Pacific (stories based on experiences in South
Pacific during
WWII)
1949-
James Gould
Cozzens, Guard of Honor
1950-
A. B. Guthrie
Jr., The Way West (families in an 1845 wagon train to Oregon)
1951-
Conrad Richter,
The Town (about pioneer woman Sayward Luckett)
1952-
Herman Wouk, The
Caine Mutiny (officers on WWII minesweeper mutiny against Captain Queeg)
1953-
Ernest
Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea (Cuban fisherman Santiago catches
marlin on 85th day
but it is slowly eaten by
sharks on way home),
1955-
William
Faulkner, A Fable (allegory of Jesus in WWI France)
1956-
MacKinlay
Kantor, Andersonville (about
Confederate prison camp in GA)
1958-
James Agee, A
Death in the Family (about the effects of a man's death on his family)
1959-
Robert Lewis
Taylor, The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters (boy's view of 1849 CA Gold Rush)
1960-
Allen Drury, Advise
and Consent (about Senate confirmation battle for Secretary of State with
Communist ties in youth)
1961-
Harper Lee, To
Kill a Mockingbird (AL town:
lawyer Atticus Finch defends a black
man; his daughter Scout Finch narrates)
1962-
Edwin O'Connor,
The Edge of Sadness (Priest Hugh Kennedy's view of three generations of
Irish)
1963-
William
Faulkner, The Reivers
1965-
Shirley Ann
Grau, The Keepers of the House (Abigail's politician husband leaves her
when he learns
her grandfather had married his black mistress)
1966-
Katherine Anne
Porter, Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter
1967-
Bernard Malamud,
The Fixer (Russian Jewish workman unjustly sentenced to prison)
1968-
William Styron,
The Confessions of Nat Turner (about 1831 slave revolt)
1969-
N. Scott
Momaday, House Made of Dawn (WWII veteran Abel remembers his Kiowa
ancestry)
1970-
Jean Stafford, Collected
Stories
1972-
Wallace Stegner,
Angle of Repose (man researches his grandparent's settling of American West)
1973-
Eudora Welty, The
Optimist's Daughter (woman has conflict with her father's second wife)
1975-
Michael Shaara,
The Killer Angels (about Battle of Gettysburg)
1976-
Saul Bellow, Humboldt's
Gift (Charles Citrine falls under spell of Von Humboldt Fleisher and
Rinaldo Cantabile; debates isolated life of art)
1978-
James Alan
McPherson, Elbow Room (stories about struggling against limits set by
others)
1979-
John Cheever, The
Stories of John Cheever
1980-
Norman Mailer, The
Executioner's Song (about convicted murderer Gary Gilmore)
1981-
John Kennedy
Toole, A Confederacy of Dunces (about retarted Ignatius Reilly)
1982-
John Updike, Rabbit
Is Rich (about Henry "Rabbit" Angstrom)
1983-
Alice Walker, The
Color Purple (Celie made pregnant twice by dad by age 14 and sold to Albert
but
befriends Shug)
1984-
William
Kennedy, Ironweed (about major league pitcher Francis Phelan)
1985-
Alison Lurie, Foreign
Affairs (about middle-aged children's author)
1986-
Larry McMurtry,
Lonesome Dove (about late 1800s cattle drive from TX to MT)
1987-
Peter Taylor, A
Summons to Memphis (Mr. Carver moves his family from genteel Nashville to
industrialized
Memphis)
1988-
Toni Morrison,
Beloved (Sethe kills her daughter Beloved rather than have her grow up a
slave)
1989-
Anne Tyler,
Breathing Lessons
1990-
Oscar Hijuelos,
The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love (two brothers go from Havana to NYC to
play in
mambo clubs)
1991-
John Updike,
Rabbit at Rest (about Henry "Rabbit" Angstrom)
1992-
Jane Smiley, A
Thousand Acres
1993-
Robert Olen
Butler, A Good Scent From a Strange Mountain (stories about Vietnamese
emigres in
Louisiana)
1994-
E. Annie Proulx,
The Shipping News (unattractive
widower makes new life for himself and two daughters
in Newfoundland)
1995-
Carol Shields,
The Stone Diaries (about the life of a Canadian woman born in 1905)
1996-
Richard Ford, Independence
Day (about sportswriter Frank Bascombe)
1997-
Steven Millhauser, Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer (about
young man's rise in NYC
hotel business in late 1800s)
1998-
Philip Roth, American Pastoral (about a family's deterioration in late
1900s)
1999-
Michael Cunningham, The Hours
2000-
Jhumpa Lahiri, Interpreter of Madness
1918-
Jesse Lynch
Williams, Why Marry?
1920-
Eugene O'Neill,
Beyond the Horizon
1921-
Zona Gale, Miss
Lulu Bett
1922-
Eugene O'Neill,
Anna Christie
1923-
Owen Davis, Icebound
1924-
Hatcher Hughes,
Hell-Bent for Heaven
1925-
Sidney Howard, They
Knew What They Wanted
1926-
George Kelly, Craig's
Wife
1927-
Paul Green, In
Abraham's Bosom
1928-
Eugene O'Neill,
Strange Interlude
1929-
Elmer Rice, Street
Scene
1930-
Marc Connelly, The
Green Pastures
1931-
Susan Glaspell,
Alison's House
1932-
George S.
Kaufman, Morrie Ryskind, and Ira Gershwin, Of Thee I Sing
1933-
Maxwell
Anderson, Both Your Houses
1934-
Sidney
Kingsley, Men in White
1935-
Zoe Akins, The
Old Maid
1936-
Robert E.
Sherwood, Idiot's Delight
1937-
George S.
Kaufman and Moss Hart, You Can't Take It With You
1938-
Thornton
Wilder, Our Town
1939-
Robert E.
Sherwood, Abe Lincoln in Illinois
1940-
William Saroyan,
The Time of Your Life
1941-
Robert E.
Sherwood, There Shall Be No Night
1943-
Thornton
Wilder, The Skin of Our Teeth
1945-
Mary Chase,
Harvey
1946-
Russel Crouse
and Howard Lindsay, State of the Union
1948-
Tennessee
Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire
1949-
Arthur Miller, Death
of a Salesman
1950-
Richard
Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein 2d, and Joshua Logan, South Pacific
1952-
Joseph Kramm, The
Shrike
1953-
William Inge,
Picnic
1954-
John Patrick, Teahouse
of the August Moon
1955-
Tennessee
Williams, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
1956-
Frances
Goodrich and Albert Hackett, The Diary of Anne Frank
1957-
Eugene O'Neill,
Long Day's Journey Into Night
1958-
Ketti Frings, Look
Homeward, Angel
1959-
Archibald
MacLeish, J. B.
1960-
George Abbott,
Jerome Weidman, Sheldon Harnick, and Jerry Bock, Fiorello
1961-
Tad Mosel,
All the Way Home
1962-
Frank Loesser
and Abe Burrows, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying
1965-
Frank D.
Gilroy, The Subject Was Roses
1967-
Edward Albee, A
Delicate Balance
1969-
Howard Sackler,
The Great White Hope
1970-
Charles Gordone,
No Place to Be Somebody
1971-
Paul Zindel, The
Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds
1973-
Jason Miller,
That Championship Season
1975-
Edward Albee, Seascape
1976-
Michael
Bennett, James Kirkwood, Nicholas Dante, Marvin Hamlisch, and Edward Kleban, A
Chorus Line
1977-
Michael
Cristofer, The Shadow Box
1978-
Donald L.
Coburn, The Gin Game
1979-
Sam Shepard, Buried
Child
1980-
Lanford Wilson,
Talley's Folly
1981-
Beth Henley, Crimes
of the Heart
1982-
Charles Fuller,
A Soldier's Play
1983-
Marsha Norman,
'night, Mother
1984-
David Mamet, Glengarry
Glen Ross
1985-
Stephen
Sondheim and James Lapine, Sunday in the Park With George
1987-
August Wilson, Fences
1988-
Alfred Uhry,
Driving Miss Daisy
1989-
Wendy
Wasserstein, The Heidi Chronicles
1990-
August Wilson, The
Piano Lesson
1991-
Neil Simon, Lost
in Yonkers
1992-
Robert
Schenkkan, The Kentucky Cycle
1993-
Tony Kushner, Angels
in America: Millennium Approaches
1994-
Edward Albee, Three
Tall Women
1995-
Horton Foote, The
Young Man From Atlanta
1996-
Jonathan
Larson, Rent
1998-
Paula Vogel, How I Learned to Drive
1999-
Margaret Edson, Wit
2000-
Donald Margulies, Dinner with Friends
1918-
Love Songs,
by Sara Teasdale
1919-
Old Road to
Paradise,
by Margaret Widemer; Corn Huskers, by Carl Sandburg.
1922-
Edwin Arlington
Robinson, Collected Poems
1923-
Edna St.
Vincent Millay, The Ballad of the Harp-Weaver; A Few Figs From Thistles;
Eight Sonnets in
American Poetry, 1922; A Miscellany
1924-
Robert Frost, New
Hampshire: A Poem With Notes and Grace Notes
1925-
Edwin Arlington
Robinson, The Man Who Died Twice
1926-
Amy Lowell, What's
O'Clock
1927-
Leonora Speyer,
Fiddler's Farewell
1928-
Edwin Arlington
Robinson, Tristram
1929-
Stephen Vincent
Benet, John Brown's Body
1930-
Conrad Aiken, Selected
Poems
1931-
Robert Frost, Collected
Poems
1932-
George Dillon, The
Flowering Stone
1933-
Archibald
MacLeish, Conquistador
1934-
Robert Hillyer,
Collected Verse
1935-
Audrey
Wurdemann, Bright Ambush
1936-
Robert P.
Tristram Coffin, Strange Holiness
1937-
Robert Frost, A
Further Range
1938-
Marya
Zaturenska, Cold Morning Sky
1939-
John Gould
Fletcher, Selected Poems
1940-
Mark Van Doren,
Collected Poems
1941-
Leonard Bacon, Sunderland
Capture
1942-
William Rose
Benet, The Dust Which Is God
1943-
Robert Frost, A
Witness Tree
1944-
Stephen Vincent
Benet, Western Star
1945-
Karl Shapiro, V-Letter
and Other Poems
1947-
Robert Lowell, Lord
Weary's Castle
1948-
W. H. Auden, The
Age of Anxiety
1949-
Peter Viereck, Terror
and Decorum
1950-
Gwendolyn
Brooks, Annie Allen
1951-
Carl Sandburg, Complete
Poems
1952-
Marianne Moore,
Collected Poems
1953-
Archibald
MacLeish, Collected Poems
1954-
Theodore
Roethke, The Waking
1955-
Wallace
Stevens, Collected Poems
1956-
Elizabeth
Bishop, Poems, North and South
1957-
Richard Wilbur,
Things of This World
1958-
Robert Penn
Warren, Promises: Poems 1954-1956
1959-
Stanley Kunitz,
Selected Poems 1928-1958
1960-
W. D.
Snodgrass, Heart's Needle
1961-
Phyllis
McGinley, Times Three: Selected Verse From Three Decades
1962-
Alan Dugan, Poems
1963-
William Carlos
Williams, Pictures From Breughel
1964-
Louis Simpson, At
the End of the Open Road
1965-
John Berryman, 77
Dream Songs
1966-
Richard
Eberhart, Selected Poems
1967-
Anne Sexton, Live
or Die
1968-
Anthony Hecht, The
Hard Hours
1969-
George Oppen, Of
Being Numerous
1970-
Richard Howard,
Untitled Subjects
1971-
William S.
Merwin, The Carrier of Ladders
1972-
James Wright, Collected
Poems
1973-
Maxine Winokur
Kumin, Up Country
1974-
Robert Lowell, The
Dolphin
1975-
Gary Snyder, Turtle
Island
1976-
John Ashbery, Self-Portrait
in a Convex Mirror
1977-
James Merrill, Divine
Comedies
1978-
Howard Nemerov,
Collected Poems
1979-
Robert Penn
Warren, Now and Then: Poems 1976-1978
1980-
Donald Justice,
Selected Poems
1981-
James Schuyler,
The Morning of the Poem
1982-
Sylvia Plath, The
Collected Poems
1983-
Galway Kinnell,
Selected Poems
1984-
Mary Oliver,
American Primitive
1985-
Carolyn Kizer, Yin
1986-
Henry Taylor, The
Flying Change
1987-
Rita Dove, Thomas
and Beulah
1988-
William
Meredith, Partial Accounts: New and Selected Poems
1989-
Richard Wilbur,
New and Collected Poems
1990-
Charles Simic, The
World Doesn't End
1991-
Mona Van Duyn, Near
Changes
1992-
James Tate, Selected
Poems
1993-
Louise Glück, The
Wild Iris
1994-
Yusef
Komunyakaa, Neon Vernacular
1995-