Pulitzer Prize for Biography

The award honors "a distinguished and appropriately documented biography by an American author.

[1] From 1917 to 2022, this prize was known as the Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography and was awarded to a distinguished biography, autobiography or memoir[2] by an American author or co-authors, published during the preceding calendar year.

Thus it is one of the original Pulitzers, for the program was inaugurated in 1917 with seven prizes, four of which were awarded that year.

[4] Entries from this point on include the finalists listed after the winner for each year.

Ten people have won the Pulitzer for Biography or Autobiography twice: W. A. Swanberg was selected by the Pulitzer board in 1962 and 1973; however, the trustees of Columbia University (then responsible for conferral of the awards) overturned the proposed 1962 prize for Citizen Hearst.