Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction

The award is given to a nonfiction book written by an American author and published during the preceding calendar year that is ineligible for any other Pulitzer Prize.

The Prize has been awarded since 1962; beginning in 1980, one to three finalists have been announced alongside the winner.

[1] Since its inception in 1962, the Prize for General Nonfiction has been awarded 67 times.

Two authors have won multiple prizes: Barbara W. Tuchman in 1963 and 1972, and Edward O. Wilson in 1979 and 1991.

Three winning works were also finalists for the Pulitzer Prize for History: A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam by Neil Sheehan (1989),[2] Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remade America by Garry Wills (1993),[3] and The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America by Greg Grandin (2020).

A black-and-white photo of Barbara W. Tuchman in 1971
Barbara W. Tuchman won the Prize in 1963 for her book on World War I , and again in 1972 for her work on early 20th-century China .
A color photo of Edward O. Wilson in 2003
Edward O. Wilson has won the Prize twice for his books on biology : once in 1979, and again in 1991 in collaboration with Bert Hölldobler .
A black-and-white photo of John McPhee
John McPhee was a Prize finalist three times in 1982, 1987, and 1991, before winning in 1999.