List of Los Angeles Times Book Prize winners

Since 1980, the "Los Angeles Times" has awarded a set of annual book prizes. The Prizes "currently have nine single-title categories: biography, current interest, fiction, first fiction (the Art Seidenbaum Award added in 1991), history, mystery/thriller (category added in 2000), poetry, science and technology (category added in 1989), and young adult fiction (category added in 1998). In addition, the Robert Kirsch Award is presented annually to a living author with a substantial connection to the American West whose contribution to American letters deserves special recognition" [http://www.latimes.com/extras/bookprizes/index.html "Los Angeles Times" Book Prizes home page] .

The Book Prize program was founded by the late Art Seidenbaum, a "Los Angeles Times" book editor from 1978 to 1985; an award named after him was added a year after his death in 1990. The Robert Kirsch Award is named after the longtime "Times" book critic who died in 1980. Works are eligible during the year of their first US publication in English, though English does not have to be the original language of the work. The author of each winning book and the Kirsch Award recipient receives a citation and $1,000.

Biography

*2007: "Young Stalin" by Simon Sebag Montefiore (Knopf)
*2006: "Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination" by Neal Gabler (Alfred A. Knopf)
*2005: "Matisse the Master: A Life of Henri Matisse, the Conquest of Colour, 1909-1954" by Hilary Spurling, (Knopf)
*2004: "de Kooning: An American Master" by Mark Stevens and Annalyn Swan (Knopf)
*2003: "American Empire: Roosevelt’s Geographer and the Prelude to Globalization" by Neil Smith (University of California Press)
*2002: "Master of the Senate: The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Vol. 3" by Robert A. Caro (Knopf)
*2001: "Theodore Rex" by Edmund Morris (Random House)
*2000: "Jefferson Davis, American" by William J. Cooper, Jr. (Knopf)
*1999: "Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette" by Judith Thurman (Knopf)
*1998: "Lindbergh" by A. Scott Berg (Putnam's)
*1997: "Whittaker Chambers: A Biography" by Sam Tanenhaus (Random House)
*1996: "" by Frank McCourt (Scribner)
*1995: "Under My Skin: Volume One of My Autobiography, to 1949" by Doris Lessing (HarperCollins)
*1994: "Shot in the Heart" by Mikal Gilmore (Doubleday)
*1993; "Daniel Boone: The Life and Legend of an American Pioneer" by John Mack Faragher (Henry Holt)
*1992: "Eleanor Roosevelt: Volume One 1884-1993" by Blanche Wiesen Cook (Viking)
*1991: "Righteous Pilgrim: The Life and Times of Harold L. Ickes", 1874-1952 by T.H. Watkins (Henry Holt)
*1990: "A First-Class Temperament: The Emergence of Franklin Roosevelt" by Geoffrey C. Ward (Harper & Row)
*1989: "This Boy's Life: A Memoir" by Tobias Wolff (Atlantic Monthly Press)
*1988: "Nora: The Real Life of Molly Bloom" by Brenda Maddox (Houghton Mifflin)
*1987: "Hemingway" by Kenneth S. Lynn (Simon & Schuster)
*1986: "Alexander Pope: A Life" by Maynard Mack (W.W. Norton)
*1985: "Solzhenitsyn" by Michael Scammell (W.W. Norton)
*1984: "The Nightmare of Reason" by Ernst Pawel (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
*1983: "The Price of Power: Kissinger in the Nixon White House" by Seymour Hersh (Summit Books)
*1982: "Waldo Emerson: A Biography" by Gay Wilson Allen (Viking)
*1981: "Mornings on Horseback" by David McCullough (Simon & Schuster)
*1980: (Biography award concurrent with this year's History award)

Current Interest

*2007: "Soldier's Heart: Reading Literature Through Peace and War at West Point" by Elizabeth D. Samet (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
*2006: "Murder in Amsterdam: The Death of Theo van Gogh and the Limits of Tolerance" by Ian Buruma (Penguin Press)
*2005: "Night Draws Near: Iraq's People in the Shadow of America's War", by Anthony Shadid (Henry Holt)
*2004: "Generation Kill: Devil Dogs, Iceman, Captain America and the New Face of American War" by Evan Wright (G.P. Putnam’s Sons)
*2003: "The New Chinese Empire -- And What It Means for the United States" by Ross Terrill (Basic Books)
*2002: "Harmful to Minors: The Perils of Protecting Children from Sex" by Judith Levine (University of Minnesota Press)
*2001: "Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America" by Barbara Ehrenreich (Metropolitan Books, an imprint of Henry Holt and Company)
*2000: "Way Out There in the Blue: Reagan, Star Wars and the End of the Cold War" by Frances FitzGerald (Simon & Schuster)
*1999: "Sidewalk" (with Photographs by Ovie Carter) by Mitchell Duneier (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
*1998: "We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families: Stories from Rwanda" by Philip Gourevitch (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
*1997: "The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures" by Anne Fadiman (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
*1996: "Love Thy Neighbor: A Story of War" by Peter Maass (Alfred A. Knopf)
*1995: "Life on the Color Line: The True Story of a White Boy Who Discovered He Was Black" by Gregory Howard Williams (Dutton)
*1994: "Diplomacy" by Henry Kissinger (Simon & Schuster)
*1993: "Mexican Americans: The Ambivalent Minority" by Peter Skerry (The Free Press)
*1992: "The End of History and the Last Man" by Francis Fukuyama (The Free Press)
*1991: "Why Americans Hate Politics: The Death of the Democratic Process" by E.J. Dionne, Jr. (Simon & Schuster)
*1990: "Disappearing through the Skylight: Culture and Technology in the Twentieth Century" by O.B. Hardison, Jr. (Viking)
*1989: "Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954-1963" by Taylor Branch (Simon & Schuster)
*1988: "Secrets of the Temple: How the Federal Reserve Runs the Country" by William Greider (Simon & Schuster)
*1987: "The Blind Watchmaker" by Richard Dawkins (W.W. Norton)
*1986: "" by Joseph Lelyveld (Times Books)
*1985: "Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life" by Robert N. Bellah, Richard Madsen, William M. Sullivan, Ann Swidler and Steven M. Tipton (University of California Press)
*1984: "Cities and the Wealth of Nations" by Jane Jacobs (Random House)
*1983: "Lost in the Cosmos" by Walker Percy (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
*1982: "The Fate of the Earth" by Jonathan Schell (Alfred A. Knopf)
*1981: "Prisoner without a Name, Cell without a Number" by Jacobo Timerman (Alfred A. Knopf)
*1980: "Without Fear or Favor" by Harrison Salisbury (New York Times Books) [Winner of the General Award--no Current Interest Award this year]

Fiction

*2007: "Be Near Me" by Andrew O'Hagan (Harcourt)
*2006: "A Woman in Jerusalem" [translated from the Hebrew by Hillel Halkin] by A. B. Yehoshua (Harcourt)
*2005: "Memories of My Melancholy Whores" by Gabriel García Márquez, translated from the Spanish by Edith Grossman (Alfred A. Knopf)
*2004: "The Masterl" by Colm Tóibín (Scribner)
*2003: "Train: A Novel" by Pete Dexter (Doubleday)
*2002: "Atonement: A Novel" by Ian McEwan (Nan A. Talese/Doubleday)
*2001: "Why Did I Ever" by Mary Robison (Counterpoint)
*2000: "Assorted Fire Events: Stories" by David Means (Context Books)
*1999: "Freedom Song: Three Novels" by Amit Chaudhuri (Alfred A. Knopf)
*1998: "The Rings of Saturn" by W.G. Sebald [Translated from the German by Michael Hulse] (New Directions)
*1997: "In the Rogue Blood" by James Carlos Blake (Avon Books)
*1996: "A Fine Balance" by Rohinton Mistry (Alfred A. Knopf)
*1995: "The Blue Afternoon" by William Boyd (Alfred A. Knopf)
*1994: "Remembering Babylon" by David Malouf (Pantheon Books)
*1993: "Pigs in Heaven" by Barbara Kingsolver (HarperCollins)
*1992: "Maus II, A Survivor's Tale: And Here My Troubles Began" by Art Spiegelman (Pantheon Books)
*1991: "White People" by Allan Gurganus (Alfred A. Knopf)
*1990: "Lantern Slides" by Edna O'Brien (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
*1989: "The Heart of the Country" by Fay Weldon (Viking)
*1988: "Love in the Time of Cholera" by Gabriel García Marquez (Alfred A. Knopf)
*1987: "Fools Crow" by James Welch (Viking)
*1986: "The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood (Houghton Mifflin)
*1985: "Love Medicine" by Louise Erdrich (Holt, Rinehart and Winston)
*1984: "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" by Milan Kundera (Harper & Row)
*1983: "Schindler's Ark" by Thomas Keneally (Simon & Schuster)
*1982: "A Flag for Sunrise" by Robert Stone (Alfred A. Knopf)
*1981: "The White Hotel" by D.M. Thomas(Viking)
*1980: "The Second Coming" by Walker Percy (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

History

*2007: "Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA" by Tim Weiner (Doubleday)
*2006: "" by Lawrence Wright (Alfred A. Knopf)
*2005: "Bury the Chains: Prophets and Rebels in the Fight to Free an Empire's Slaves" by Adam Hochschild (Houghton Mifflin)
*2004: "Perilous Times: Free Speech in Wartime from the Sedition Act of 1798 to the War on Terrorism" by Geoffrey R. Stone (W.W. Norton & Company)
*2003: "An Imperfect God: George Washington, His Slaves, and the Creation of America" by Henry Wiencek (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
*2002: "" by Michael B. Oren (Oxford University Press)
*2001: "Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus" by Rick Perlstein (Hill and Wang Division, Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
*2000: "The Collaborator: The Trial and Execution of Robert Brasillach" by Alice Kaplan (University of Chicago Press)
*1999: "" by John W. Dower (W.W. Norton)
*1998: "The Greatest Benefit to Mankind: A Medical History of Humanity" by Roy Porter (W.W. Norton)
*1997: "A People's Tragedy: A History of the Russian Revolution" by Orlando Figes (Viking)
*1996: "Black Sea" by Neal Ascherson (Hill & Wang)
*1995: "Fables of Abundance: A Cultural History of Advertising in America" by Jackson Lears (Basic Books)
*1994: "Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male World, 1890-1940" by George Chauncey (Basic Books)
*1993: "New Worlds, Ancient Texts: The Power of Tradition and the Shock of Discovery" by Anthony Grafton (Harvard University Press)
*1992: "Benevolence and Betrayal: Five Italian Jewish Families under Fascism" by Alexander Stille (Summit)
*1991: "The Promised Land: The Great Black Migration and How It Changed America" by Nicholas Lemann (Alfred A. Knopf)
*1990: "The Quest for El Cid" by Richard Fletcher (Alfred A. Knopf)
*1989: "An Empire of Their Own: How the Jews Invented Hollywood" by Neal Gabler (Crown Books)
*1988: "Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877" by Eric Foner (Harper & Row)
*1987: [No award in 1987]
*1986: "The First Socialist Society: A History of the Soviet Union from Within" by Geoffrey Hosking (Harvard University Press)
*1985: "Son of the Morning Star: Custer and the Little Bighorn" by Evan S. Connell (North Point Press)
*1984: "The Great Cat Massacre and Other Episodes in French Cultural History" by Robert Darnton (Basic Books)
*1983: "The Wheels of Commerce" by Fernand Braudel (Harper & Row)
*1982: "The Gate of Heavenly Peace: The Chinese and Their Revolution, 1895-1980" by Jonathan D. Spence (Viking)
*1981: "Land of Savagery/Land of Promise" by Ray Allen Billington (W.W. Norton)
*1980: "Walter Lippmann and the American Century" by Ronald Steel (Atlantic/ Little Brown)

Mystery/Thriller

*2007: "The Indian Bride" by Karin Fossum, translated by Charlotte Barslund (Harcourt)
*2006: "Echo Park" by Michael Connelly
*2005: "Legends" by Robert Little (Overlook Press)
*2004: "Tijuana Straits" by Kem Nunn (Scribner)
*2003: "Soul Circus" by George P. Pelecanos (Little, Brown)
*2002: "Hell to Pay" by George P. Pelecanos (Little, Brown and Company)
*2001: "Silent Joe" by T. Jefferson Parker (Hyperion)
*2000: "A Place of Execution" by Val McDermid (St. Martin's Press/Minotaur)
*1999: [Award added in 2000]

cience and Technology

*2007: "I Am a Strange Loop" by Douglas Hofstadter (Basic Books)
*2006: "In Search of Memory: The Emergence of a New Science of Mind" by Eric R. Kandel (W.W. Norton)
*2005: "Before the Fallout: From Marie Curie to Hiroshima" by Diana Preston (Walker & Company)
*2004: "The Whale and the Supercomputer: On the Northern Front of Climate Change" by Charles Wohlforth (North Point Press / Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
*2003: "Protecting America’s Health: The FDA, Business, and One Hundred Years of Regulation" by Philip J. Hilts (Alfred A. Knopf)
*2002: "Rosalind Franklin: The Dark Lady of DNA" by Brenda Maddox (HarperCollins Publishers)
*2001: "The Invention of Clouds: How an Amateur Meteorologist Forged the Language of the Skies" by Richard Hamblyn (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
*2000: "The Rise and Fall of Modern Medicine" by James Le Fanu, M.D. (Carroll & Graf)
*1999: "Galileo's Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith, and Love" by Dava Sobel (Walker and Company)
*1998: "Blood: An Epic History of Medicine and Commerce" by Douglas Starr (Alfred A. Knopf)
*1997: "How the Mind Works" by Steven Pinker (W.W. Norton)
*1996: "The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark" by Carl Sagan (Random House)
*1995: "Naturalist" by Edward O. Wilson (Island Press)
*1994: "The Beak of the Finch: A Story of Evolution in Our Time" by Jonathan Weiner (Alfred A. Knopf)
*1993: "Fuzzy Logic: The Discovery of a Revolutionary Computer Technology -- and How It Is Changing Our World" by Daniel McNeill and Paul Freiberger (Simon & Schuster)
*1992: "The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal" by Jared Diamond (HarperCollins)
*1991: "The Truth about Chernobyl" by Grigori Medvedev(Basic Books)
*1990: "Patenting the Sun: Polio and the Salk Vaccine" by Jane S. Smith (William Morrow)
*1989: "Peacemaking among Primates" by Frans de Waal (Harvard University Press)
*1988: [Award added in 1989]

Poetry

*2007: "Old Heart: Poems" by Stanley Plumly (W. W. Norton)
*2006: "Ooga-Booga" by Frederick Seidel (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
*2005: "Refusing Heaven: Poems" by Jack Gilbert (Alfred A. Knopf)
*2004: "Inner Voices: Selected Poems, 1963-2003" by Richard Howard (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
*2003: "Collected Later Poems" by Anthony Hecht (Alfred A. Knopf)
*2002: "The Watercourse: Poems" by Cynthia Zarin (Alfred A. Knopf)
*2001: "The Beauty of the Husband: A Fictional Essay in 29 Tangos" by Anne Carson (Alfred A. Knopf)
*2000: "The Throne of Labdacus" by Gjertrud Schnackenberg (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
*1999: "Repair: Poems" by C.K. Williams (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
*1998: "Mysteries of Small Houses" by Alice Notley (Penguin Books)
*1997: "Black Zodiac" by Charles Wright (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
*1996: "Mixed Company" by Alan Shapiro (The University of Chicago Press)
*1995: "The Inferno of Dante" by Robert Pinsky (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
*1994: "The Angel of History" by Carolyn Forché (HarperCollins)
*1993: "My Alexandria" by Mark Doty (University of Illinois Press)
*1992: "An Atlas of the Difficult World: Poems 1988-1991" by Adrienne Rich (W.W. Norton)
*1991: "What Work Is" by Philip Levine (Alfred A. Knopf)
*1990: "The Color of Mesabi Bones" by John Caddy (Milkweed)
*1989: "The One Day: A Poem in Three Parts" by Donald Hall (Ticknor & Fields/ Houghton Mifflin)
*1988: "New and Collected Poems" by Richard Wilbur (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich)
*1987: "Partial Accounts: New and Selected Poems" by William Meredith (Alfred A. Knopf)
*1986: "Collected Poems, 1948-1984" by Derek Walcott (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
*1985: "Cross Ties" by X.J. Kennedy (University of Georgia Press)
*1984: "The Maximus Poems" by Charles Olson (University of California Press)
*1983: "The Changing Light at Sandover" by James Merrill (Atheneum)
*1982: "Plutonian Ode and Other Poems, 1977-1980" by Allen Ginsberg (City Lights)
*1981: "Three Pieces" by Ntozake Shange (St. Martin's Press)
*1980: "Kill the Messenger" by Robert Kelly (Black Sparrow)

Young Adult Fiction

*2007: "A Darkling Plain" by Philip Reeve (Scholastic)
*2006: "Tyrell" by Coe Booth (Push / Scholastic)
*2005: "You & You & You" by Per Nilsson, translated from the Swedish by Tara Chace (Front Street/Boyds Mills Press)
*2004: "Doing It" by Melvin Burgess (Henry Holt Books for Young Readers)
*2003: "A Northern Light" by Jennifer Donnelly (Harcourt Children’s Books)
*2002: "Feed" by M.T. Anderson (Candlewick Press)
*2001: "The Land" by Mildred D. Taylor (Phyllis Fogelman Books, Penguin Putnam)
*2000: "Miracle's Boys" by Jacqueline Woodson (G.P. Putnam's Sons, Penguin Putnam Books for Young Readers)
*1999: "Frenchtown Summer" by Robert Cormier (Delacorte Press)
*1998: "Rules of the Road" by Joan Bauer (G.P. Putnam's Sons)
*1997: [Award added in 1998]

The Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction

*2007: "The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears" by Dinaw Mengestu (Riverhead)
*2006: "White Ghost Girls" by Alice Greenway (Black Cat / Grove/Atlantic)
*2005: "Beasts of No Nation" by Uzodinma Iweala (HarperCollins)
*2004: "Harbor" by Lorraine Adams (Alfred A. Knopf)
*2003: "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time" by Mark Haddon (Doubleday)
*2002: "Prague" by Arthur Phillips (Random House)
*2001: "The Dark Room" by Rachel Seiffert (Pantheon Books)
*2000: "The Romantics" by Pankaj Mishra (Random House)
*1999: "Amy and Isabelle" by Elizabeth Strout (Random House)
*1998: "Kalimantaan" by C. S. Godshalk (Henry Holt)
*1997: "Don't Erase Me: Stories" by Carolyn Ferrell (Houghton Mifflin)
*1996: "The Smell of Apples" by Mark Behr (St. Martin's)
*1995: "American Studies" by Mark Merlis (Houghton Mifflin)
*1994: "The Year of the Frog" by Martin M. Šimecka (Louisiana State University Press)
*1993: "Love " by Paul Kafka (Houghton Mifflin)
*1992: "High Cotton" by Darryl Pinckney (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
*1991: "Pangs of Love" by David Wong Louie (Alfred A. Knopf)
*1990: (Award added in 1991)

ee also

*American literature
*American poetry
*List of poetry awards
*List of literature awards
*List of years in literature
*List of years in poetry

References

External links

* [http://www.latimes.com/extras/bookprizes/index.html "Los Angeles Times" Book Prizes home page]