Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Biography
Los Angeles Times
An annual award given by the Los Angeles Times as part of its Book Prizes, honoring the best work of biography published in the preceding year.
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2023
- Won
- Shortlisted
Longstreet: The Confederate General Who Defied the South
Elizabeth R. Varon
- Shortlisted
The Odyssey of Phillis Wheatley: A Poet’s Journeys Through American Slavery and Independence
David Waldstreicher
- Winnie and Nelson: Portrait of a MarriageShortlisted
Jonny Steinberg
- Shortlisted
Young Queens: Three Renaissance Women and the Price of Power
Leah Redmond Chang
2022
- Won
- Civil Rights Queen: Constance Baker Motley and the Struggle for EqualityShortlisted
Tomiko Brown-Nagin
- His Name Is George Floyd: One Man’s Life and the Struggle for Racial JusticeShortlisted
Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa
- Mr. B: George Balanchine's 20th CenturyShortlisted
Jennifer Homans
- Shortlisted
Path Lit by Lightning: The Life of Jim Thorpe
David Maraniss
2021
- Won
- All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days: The True Story of the American Woman at the Heart of the German Resistance to HitlerShortlisted
Rebecca Donner
- Shortlisted
- Shortlisted
Mike Nichols: A Life
Mark Harris
- Shortlisted
The Reason for the Darkness of the Night: Edgar Allan Poe and the Forging of American Science
John Tresch
2020
- Mad at the World: A Life of John SteinbeckWon
William Souder
- EleanorShortlisted
David Michaelis
- Shortlisted
- The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm XShortlisted
Les Payne and Tamara Payne
- Shortlisted
Warhol
Blake Gopnik
2019
- Won
- Fay Wray and Robert Riskin: A Hollywood MemoirShortlisted
Victoria Riskin
- First: Sandra Day O'ConnorShortlisted
Evan Thomas
- Shortlisted
The Club
Leo Damrosch
- Shortlisted
Zora and Langston
Yuval Taylor
2018
- Frederick Douglass: Prophet of FreedomWon
David W. Blight
- American Eden: David Hosack, Botany, and Medicine in the Garden of the Early RepublicShortlisted
Victoria Johnson
- EducatedShortlisted
Tara Westover
- Shortlisted
Reagan: An American Journey
Bob Spitz
- Shortlisted
Reporter: A Memoir
Seymour M. Hersh
2017
- Henry David Thoreau: A LifeWon
Laura Walls
- Ali: A LifeShortlisted
Jonathan Eig
- Shortlisted
- GrantShortlisted
Ron Chernow
- Richard Nixon: The LifeShortlisted
John A. Farrell
2016
- Hitler: Ascent, 1889–1939Won
Volker Ullrich with Jefferson Chase (trans.)
- Charlotte Brontë: A Fiery HeartShortlisted
Claire Harman
- Guilty Thing: A Life of Thomas De QuinceyShortlisted
Frances Wilson
- Shortlisted
Kill 'Em and Leave: Searching for the Real James Brown
James McBride
- Shortlisted
Mad Enchantment: Claude Monet and the Painting of the Water Lilies
Ross King
2015
- Listening to Stone: The Art and Life of Isamu NoguchiWon
Hayden Herrera
- Shortlisted
Fortune's Fool: The Life of John Wilkes Booth
Terry Alford
- Shortlisted
Jonas Salk: A Life
Charlotte DeCroes Jacobs
- Shortlisted
Mary McGrory The First Queen of Journalism
John Norris
- Shortlisted
Young Orson: The Years of Luck and Genius on the Path to Citizen Kane
Patrick McGilligan
2014
- Napoleon: A LifeWon
Andrew Roberts
- Eugene O'Neill: A Life in Four ActsShortlisted
Robert M. Dowling
- Shortlisted
Isabella: The Warrior Queen
Kirstin Downey
- Stalin: Paradoxes of Power, 1878–1928Shortlisted
Stephen Kotkin
- Shortlisted
Updike
Adam Begley
2013
- Bolivar: American LiberatorWon
Marie Arana
- American Mirror: The Life and Art of Norman RockwellShortlisted
Deborah Solomon
- Country Girl: A MemoirShortlisted
Edna O'Brien
- Shortlisted
The Red Man's Bones: George Catlin, Artist and Showman
Benita Eisler
- WilsonShortlisted
A. Scott Berg
2012
- The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon JohnsonWon
Robert A. Caro
- A Difficult Woman: The Challenging Life and Times of Lillian HellmanShortlisted
Alice Kessler-Harris
- Shortlisted
The Man Who Saved the Union: Ulysses Grant in War and Peace
H.W. Brands
- Shortlisted
The One: The Life and Music of James Brown
R.J. Smith
- Shortlisted
2011
- Clarence Darrow: Attorney for the DamnedWon
John A. Farrell
- Catherine the Great: Portrait of a WomanShortlisted
Robert K. Massie
- Malcolm X: A Life of ReinventionShortlisted
Manning Marable
- Shortlisted
My Long Trip Home: A Family Memoir
Mark Whitaker
- Shortlisted
Reading My Father: A Memoir
Alexandra Styron
2010
- Won
- Colonel RooseveltShortlisted
Edmund Morris
- Shortlisted
George, Nicholas and Wilhelm: Three Royal Cousins and the Road to World War I
Miranda Carter
- Shortlisted
Hitch-22: A Memoir
Christopher Hitchens
- Shortlisted
The Secret Lives of Somerset Maugham: A Biography
Selina Hastings
2009
- Dorothea Lange: A Life Beyond LimitsWon
Linda Gordon
- Shortlisted
- Shortlisted
Louis D. Brandeis: A Life
Melvin I. Urofsky
- Shortlisted
The Uncrowned King: The Sensational Rise of William Randolph Hearst
Kenneth Whyte
- Shortlisted
The Woman Behind the New Deal: The Life of Frances Perkins, FDR's Secretary of Labor and His Moral Conscience
Kirstin Downey
2008
- Won
- Shortlisted
- Chagall: A BiographyShortlisted
Jackie Wullschlager
- Shortlisted
- Traitor to His Class: The Privileged Life and Radical Presidency of Franklin Delano RooseveltShortlisted
H.W. Brands
2007
- Young StalinWon
Simon Sebag Montefiore
- Boone: A BiographyShortlisted
Robert Morgan
- Fallen Founder: The Life of Aaron BurrShortlisted
Nancy Isenberg
- Shortlisted
Stanley: The Impossible Life of Africa's Greatest Explorer
Tim Jeal
- Shortlisted
Von Braun: Dreamer of Space, Engineer of War
Michael J. Neufeld
2006
- Won
- Shortlisted
Prisoners: A Muslim and a Jew Across the Middle East Divide
Jeffrey Goldberg
- Shortlisted
The Librettist of Venice: The Remarkable Life of Lorenzo Da Ponte
Rodney Bolt
- Shortlisted
The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million
Daniel Mendelsohn
- Shortlisted
2005
- Won
- Shortlisted
Melville: His World and Work
Andrew Delbanco
- Shortlisted
Mencken: The American Iconoclast
Marion Elizabeth Rodgers
- Shortlisted
Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln
Doris Kearns Goodwin
- Shortlisted
The People's Tycoon: Henry Ford and the American Century
Steven Watts
2004
- de Kooning: An American MasterWon
Mark Stevens and Annalyn Swan
- Alexander HamiltonShortlisted
Ron Chernow
- Shortlisted
John James Audubon: The Making of an American
Richard Rhodes
- Shortlisted
Washington Gone Crazy: Senator Pat McCarran and the Great American Communist Hunt
Michael Ybarra
- Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became ShakespeareShortlisted
Stephen Greenblatt
2003
- Won
- Shortlisted
Goya
Robert Hughes
- Shortlisted
Jung: A Biography
Deirdre Bair
- Shortlisted
Pushkin: A Biography
T.J. Binyon
- Shortlisted
2002
- Won
- Shortlisted
Jesse James: Last Rebel of the Civil War
T. J. Stiles
- Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled SelfShortlisted
Claire Tomalin
- Shortlisted
Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers
Daniel Ellsberg
- Shortlisted
The Country Under My Skin: A Memoir of Love and War
Gioconda Belli
2001
- Theodore RexWon
Edmund Morris
- Shortlisted
- John AdamsShortlisted
David McCullough
- Shortlisted
Marie Antoinette: The Journey
Antonia Fraser
- Seabiscuit: An American LegendShortlisted
Laura Hillenbrand
2000
- Jefferson Davis, AmericanWon
William J. Cooper, Jr.
- Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary GenerationShortlisted
Joseph J. Ellis
- Shortlisted
Hitler: Volume 2. 1936–1945 Nemesis
Ian Kershaw
- Shortlisted
Mao: A Life
Philip Short
- Shortlisted
1999
- Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of ColetteWon
Judith Thurman
- Byron: Child of Passion, Fool of FameShortlisted
Benita Eisler
- Shortlisted
My Grandfather's House: A Genealogy of Doubt and Faith
Robert Clark
- Shortlisted
Rembrandt's Eyes
Simon Schama
- Shortlisted
Walt Whitman: The Song of Himself
Jerome Loving
1998
- LindberghWon
A. Scott Berg
- Shortlisted
- Shortlisted
Other Powers: The Age of Suffrage, Spiritualism, and the Scandalous Victoria Woodhull
Barbara Goldsmith
- Shortlisted
The Unknown Matisse: Volume 1. The Early Years, 1869–1908
Hilary Spurling
- Shortlisted
Victor Hugo: A Biography
Graham Robb
1997
- Whittaker Chambers: A BiographyWon
Sam Tanenhaus
- Shortlisted
Bogart
A.M. Sperber and Eric Lax
- Burning the Days: RecollectionShortlisted
James Salter
- Shortlisted
Napoleon Bonaparte: A Life
Alan Schom
- Shortlisted
Nazimova: A Biography
Gavin Lambert
1996
- Angela's Ashes: A MemoirWon
Frank McCourt
- A Life of Picasso: Volume 2. The Cubist Rebel, 1907–1916Shortlisted
John Richardson
- An Uncommon Woman: The Empress FrederickShortlisted
Hannah Pakula
- Edward Hopper: An Intimate BiographyShortlisted
Gail Levin
- Shortlisted
Hellman and Hammett: The Legendary Passion of Lillian Hellman and Dashiell Hammett
Joan Mellen
- Shortlisted
Orson Welles: The Road to Xanadu
Simon Callow
- Shortlisted
Tom: The Unknown Tennessee Williams
Lyle Leverich
- William Morris: A Life for Our TimeShortlisted
Fiona MacCarthy
1995
- Won
- D.H. Lawrence: The Story of a MarriageShortlisted
Brenda Maddox
- Drinking the Rain: A MemoirShortlisted
Alix Kates Shulman
- Shortlisted
In Pharaoh's Army: Memories of the Lost War
Tobias Wolff
- Shortlisted
Marie Curie: A Life
Susan Quinn
1994
- Shot in the HeartWon
Mikal Gilmore
- An Evil CradlingShortlisted
Brian Keenan
- Harriet Beecher Stowe: A LifeShortlisted
Joan D. Hedrick
- Shortlisted
Learned Hand: The Man and the Judge
Gerald Gunther
- Shortlisted
Rodin: The Shape of Genius
Ruth Butler
1993
- Daniel Boone: The Life and Legend of an American PioneerWon
John Mack Faragher
- Charles Sanders Peirce: A LifeShortlisted
Joseph Brent
- Shortlisted
Genius in the Shadows: A Biography of Leo Szilard, the Man Behind the Bomb
William Lanouette and Bela Silard
- Shortlisted
Lincoln: An Illustrated Biography
Philip B. Kunhardt, Jr., Philip B. Kunhardt III, and Peter W. Kunhardt
- Shortlisted
The Six Wives of Henry VIII
Antonia Fraser
1992
- Eleanor Roosevelt: Volume One, 1884–1933Won
Blanche Wiesen Cook
- A Prophet With Honor: The Billy Graham StoryShortlisted
William Martin
- Edgar A. Poe: Mournful and Never-ending RemembranceShortlisted
Kenneth Silverman
- Fascinating Rhythm: The Collaboration of George and Ira GershwinShortlisted
Deena Ruth Rosenberg
- Shortlisted
Salem Is My Dwelling Place: A Life of Nathaniel Hawthorne
Edwin Haviland Miller
1991
- Won
- A Life of Picasso: Volume 1. The Prodigy, 1881–1906Shortlisted
John Richardson
- Shortlisted
Benedict Arnold: Patriot and Traitor
Willard Sterne Randall
- Shortlisted
O'Keeffe and Stieglitz: An American Romance
Benita Eisler
- Shortlisted
Road Song: A Memoir
Natalie Kusz
1990
- A First-Class Temperament: The Emergence of Franklin RooseveltWon
Geoffrey C. Ward
- Shortlisted
Means of Ascent: Volume 2 of The Years of Lyndon Johnson
Robert A. Caro
- Shortlisted
Simone de Beauvoir: A Biography
Deirdre Bair
- Shortlisted
- Shortlisted
The Iron Lady: A Biography of Margaret Thatcher
Hugo Young
1989
- This Boy's Life: A MemoirWon
Tobias Wolff
1988
- Nora: The Real Life of Molly BloomWon
Brenda Maddox
1987
- HemingwayWon
Kenneth S. Lynn
1986
- Alexander Pope: A LifeWon
Maynard Mack
1985
- Solzhenitsyn: A BiographyWon
Michael Scammell
1984
- Won
1983
- Won
1982
- Waldo Emerson: A BiographyWon
Gay Wilson Allen
1981
- Mornings on HorsebackWon
David McCullough