The Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography has been presented since 1917 for a distinguished biography or autobiography by an American author.
1910s
- 1917:Julia Ward Howe by Laura E. Richards and Maud Howe Elliott, assisted by Florence Howe Hall
- 1918:Benjamin Franklin, Self-Revealed by William Cabell Bruce
- 1919:The Education of Henry Adams by Henry Adams
1920s
- 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 byBurton J. Hendrick
1930s
- 1930:The Raven by Marquis James
- 1931:Charles W. Eliot by Henry James (1879–1947)
- 1932:Theodore Roosevelt (book) by Henry F. Pringle
- 1933:Grover Cleveland 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 by Odell Shepard
- 1938:Andrew Jackson, 2 vols. by Marquis James
- 1939:Benjamin Franklin by Carl Van Doren
1940s
- 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 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 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
- 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 MaryWells Ashworth after Dr. Freeman’s death in 1953
- 1959:Woodrow Wilson, American Prophet by Arthur Walworth
1960s
- 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 [2]
- 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 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
- 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
- 1980:The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt by Edmund Morris
- 1981:Peter the Great: His Life and World by Robert K. Massie
- 1982:Grant: A Biography by William S. McFeely
- 1983:Growing Up by Russell Baker
- 1984:Booker T. Washington: The Wizard of Tuskegee, 1901–1915 by Louis R. Harlan
- 1985:The Life and Times of Cotton Mather by Kenneth Silverman
- 1986:Louise Bogan: A Portrait by Elizabeth Frank
- 1987:Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference by David J. Garrow
- 1988:Look Homeward: A Life of Thomas Wolfe by David Herbert Donald
- 1989:Oscar Wilde by Richard Ellmann
1990s
- 1990:Machiavelli in Hell by Sebastian de Grazia
- 1991:Jackson Pollock: An American Saga by Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith
- 1992:Fortunate Son: The Autobiography of Lewis B. Puller Jr. by Lewis B. Puller
- 1993:Truman by David McCullough
- 1994:W.E.B. Du Bois : Biography of a Race, 1868–1919 by David Levering Lewis
- 1995:Harriet Beecher Stowe: A Life by Joan D. Hedrick
- 1996:God: A Biography by Jack Miles
- 1997:Angela’s Ashes: A Memoir by Frank McCourt
- 1998:Personal History by Katharine Graham
- 1999:Lindbergh by A. Scott Berg
2000s
- 2000:Vera, Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov by Stacy Schiff
- 2001:W.E.B. Du Bois: The Fight for Equality and The American Century, 1919–1963 by David Levering Lewis
- 2002:John Adams by David McCullough
- 2003:Master of the Senate: The Years of Lyndon Johnson by Robert Caro
- 2004:Khrushchev: The Man and His Era (ISBN 0-393-05144-7) by William Taubman
- 2005:de Kooning: An American Master by Mark Stevens and Annalyn Swan
- 2006:American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin
- 2007:The Most Famous Man in America by Debby Applegate
- 2008:Eden’s Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father by John Matteson
- 2009:American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House by Jon Meacham
2010s
- 2010: The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt by T.J. Stiles
- Woodrow Wilson: A Biography by John Milton Cooper, Jr.
- Cheever: A Life by Blake Bailey
- 2011: Washington: A Life by Ron Chernow
Christian Kresall 