The Biography & Memoir Award Index
A ranking of every book classified as biography or memoir, using each book's full score across every tracked nonfiction award - not just biography-specific ones.
You've reached the 150-character search limit.
Search through 1,818 books
- 4
Edith Wharton: A Biography
R. W. B. Lewis · 1975
Book Details3
wins
32
score
- 5
G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century
Beverly Gage · 2023
Book Details3
wins
32
score
- 8
The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X
Les Payne and Tamara Payne · 2020
Book Details2
wins
29
score
- 10
His Name Is George Floyd: One Man’s Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice
Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa · 2022
Book Details1
win
25
score
- 11
A Thousand Days: John F. Kennedy in the White House
Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. · 2002
Book Details2
wins
24
score
- 19
The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt
T. J. Stiles · 2009
Book Details2
wins
24
score
- 21
W. E. B. Du Bois: Biography of a Race, 1868–1919
David Levering Lewis · 1994
Book Details2
wins
24
score
- 22
Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder
Caroline Fraser · 2017
Book Details2
wins
22
score
- 23
The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo
Tom Reiss · 2012
Book Details2
wins
22
score
- 24
W. E. B. Du Bois: The Fight for Equality and the American Century, 1919–1963
David Levering Lewis · 2000
Book Details2
wins
21
score
- 26
Booker T. Washington: The Wizard of Tuskegee, 1901–1915
Louis R. Harlan · 1986
Book Details2
wins
20
score
- 30
Custer's Trials: A Life on the Frontier of a New America
T. J. Stiles · 2015
Book Details1
win
20
score
- 42
The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt's New World
Andrea Wulf · 2015
Book Details1
win
18
score
- 45
The Woman Warrior: Memoirs Of A Girlhood Among Ghosts
Maxine Hong Kingston · 1976
Book Details2
wins
17
score
- 47
Bearing The Cross: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference
David J. Garrow · 2015
Book Details1
win
16
score
Ranked by weighted score across every tracked award. See how it's calculated
Most Awarded Biography & Memoir Authors
- 1David McCullough55 score
- 2David Levering Lewis50 score
- 3Robert A. Caro49 score
- 4Ronald Steel44 score
- 5Justin Kaplan44 score
- 6T. J. Stiles44 score
- 7A. Scott Berg41 score
- 8Robert K. Massie40 score
- 9W. Jackson Bate40 score
- 10David W. Blight38 score
Where This Data Comes From
- Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction2012–2026
- Anisfield-Wolf Book Award1936–2026
- Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction1999–2025
- Bancroft Prize1948–2026
- Cundill History Prize2008–2026
- Financial Times and Schroders Business Book of the Year Award2005–2025
- J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize1999–2026
- Kirkus Prize for Nonfiction2014–2026
- Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Biography1981–2023
- Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Current Interest1980–2023