1919 winner: The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington.
In the nineteenth century Major Amberson made a fortune, and his family became the most prominent in their midwestern town. When industrialization transforms the town into a city, the major’s only grandson, arrogant George Amberson Minafer, cannot adjust to the change; his only ambition is to be a yachtsman. RC 48558.

1921 winner: The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton.
A novel of manners set in New York society in the 1870s, an age of convention, propriety, and tribal solidarity. Newland Archer is torn between his attraction to a woman separated from her husband, and his security in a bland but proper marriage. RC 28162,
BR 12711.

1922 winner: Alice Adams by Booth Tarkington.
Alice, a socially ambitious girl from a midwestern lower-middle-class family, hopes to find a rich husband. She makes up stories that lead her family to suffer scandals and push her further from her goal. RC 47570.

1923 winner: One of Ours by Willa Cather.
After a year at the state university, a young man unsuccessfully tries to bring culture to his Nebraska town in this turn-of-the-century novel. Bound to both the soil and a religion he feels is shallow, he finds World War I an escape. RC 27930.

1924 winner:   The Able McLaughlins by Margaret Wilson.
After serving in the Civil War, Wully McLaughlin returns to his midwest home and his beloved Chirstie McNair, who has become pregnant against her will. Wully accosts the culprit and banishes him from town. Wully marries Chirstie and assumes paternity, but the child's father is not yet out of their lives. RC 45247.

1925 winner:   So Big by Edna Ferber.
A farm woman's indomitable spirit and quick response to beauty are unquenched by years of hardship, all for the sake of her son. RC 44189, BR 11869.

1926 winner:   Arrowsmith by Sinclair Lewis.
Follows the scientific career of an inquisitive, dedicated physician from medical school and early practice to his work on a West Indian island and directorship of a medical institute. RC 12622.

1928 winner:   The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder.
The novel surveys the lives of five Peruvian travelers, victims of the collapse of a famous Incan bridge in 1714. Franciscan Brother Juniper, witness to the tragedy, weaves a story revealing how these people came together on the bridge at that final moment. Was it fate or was it an act of God? RC 41185, BR 3167.

1929 winner:   Scarlet Sister Mary by Julia Peterkin.
A slender, high-spirited black girl of fifteen marries the wildest young slave on the plantation and is deserted within a year. She maintains her cheerfulness as she fills her house with a new child year after year. Reveals the fine qualities and the superstitions of the Gullah Negro of South Carolina. RC 14880.

1930 winner:   Laughing Boy by Oliver La Farge.
set in the Navajo Southwest of 1915. In telling the haunting story of the young lovers, Laughing Boy and Slim Girl, the author depicts the lives of the Indians from his experiences as an anthropologist. RC 33829, BR 10379.

1932 winner:   The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck.
Describes the rise of Wang Lung, a poor Chinese peasant. The story begins with his wedding day, as he ponders his good fortune that now he will have a woman to take over the chore of lighting a fire to heat the water for his bath. With the help and patience of his new wife, O-lan, Wang Lung becomes a rich landowner. House of Earth series, book 1. RC 37294, BR 9400.

1933 winner:   The Store by T.S. Stribling.
Chronicle of an Alabama family headed by Colonel Miltiades Vaiden, a southern gentleman who fought at Shiloh and was a Klan member during Reconstruction. The story depicts the ending of the old South and the beginning of the new. Alabama series, book 2. Strong language. RC 43211.

1934 winner:   Lamb in His Bosom by Caroline Miller.
Chronicle of hardworking people on a Georgia farm just before the Civil War. Told with a quiet dignity and humor relates the story of a courageous young woman from girlhood to old age. RC 12620.

1935 winner: Now in November by Josephine Winslow Johnson.
The poetic story of a doomed and struggling farm family pitted against the harsh yet beautiful realities of nature, the unceasing demands of work, and the tragedy of a gifted unusual daughter who triggers off a long round of catastrophes. Some strong language. RC 12403.

1936 winner:   Honey in the Horn by H.L. Davis.
A story of Oregon in the homesteading period at the beginning of the century features memorable characters, a wide range of country, and a restless, lusty life. Some strong language. RC 12123.

1937 winner:   Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell.
A romantic Civil War epic in which Scarlett O'Hara, a forceful and ruthless heroine, and Rhett Butler, a war profiteer, play out their tempestuous love affair against the background of the war-torn South. RC 33082, BR 11427. Also available as a descriptive video, DV 230.

1938 winner:   The Late George Apley by John P. Marquand.
A satire on the well-to-do class of proper Bostonians who once considered themselves the self-appointed guardians of America’s social and intellectual destiny. RC 12087.

1939 winner:   The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings.
Classic story about the Baxter family, who make a precarious living on a backwoods farm in northern Florida. Their young son Jody tames an orphaned fawn. When the deer begins to eat the family corn, Jody is ordered to shoot him. RC 33466, BR 12512.

1940 winner:   The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck.
The story of the Depression farmers and their families driven from the dust bowl of their Oklahoma farms to the promised land of California to find work. Instead they face organized opposition to their struggle to survive. Strong language. RC 21574, BR 9954.

1945 winner:   A Bell for Adano by John Hersey.
A novel about Americans in Italy at the end of World War II. An Italian-American major tries to rebuild an occupied town on democratic principles and runs into red tape and prejudice. Some strong language. RC 22769, BR 6191.

1947 winner:   All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren.
Restored edition, reconstructed from the author’s original typescript, recreates the world of a corrupt southern politician of the 1920s and 1930s. Country boy Willie (Stark) Talos rises to become governor of his state only to be brought down by his personal failings. 2001 editorial afterword by Noel Polk. Strong language. RC 53553, BR 13840.

1948 winner:   Tales of the South Pacific by James A. Michener.
Nineteen World War II tales. They describe the strain and the boredom, the careful planning and heroic action, the color and beauty of the islands, and all that made up life during the critical days of the war in the Pacific. Strong language. RC 44249.

 1949 winner:  Guard of Honor by James Gould Cozzens.
A novel about the tragic events and unfortunate people of a huge air base in 1943 Florida. Conflicts of authority, personality, and race occur, but loyalty to the service is the prevailing force. Strong language. RC 12926.

1950 winner:   The Way West by A.B. Guthrie, Jr.
1840s. Dick Summers has been to Oregon before, but now that his wife has died he decides to return. He will guide a group of men and women from Missouri on the difficult journey along the Oregon Trail. American West series, book 2. RC 60818.
 
1951 winner:   The Town by Conrad Richter.
Pioneer Sayward Wheeler and her husband move from the old log cabin in the Ohio wilderness into a mansion, and one at a time, each of their children moves out. Awakening Land series, book 3. RC 38655.

1952 winner: The Caine Mutiny by Herman Wouk.
During World War II, the crew of The Caine mutinies against Captain Queeg, accusing him of incompetence. The novel reaches its climax during the court-martial when they must prove their charges. RC 31442, BR 8215.

1953 winner:   The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway.
An elderly Cuban fisherman hooks a giant marlin after eighty-five days without a single catch. Then he fights a losing battle with sharks who deprive him of his triumph. RC 53792, BR 10599.

1955 winner:   A Fable by William Faulkner.
In rhetoric that denounces war, the novel presents a parallel between the false armistice in France in 1918 and the Passion Week. A French corporal and his twelve followers bring action at the front to a standstill as they spread the gospel of the brotherhood of humankind. RC 42248, BR 551.

1956 winner:   Andersonville by MacKinlay Kantor.
Brooding, vivid chronicle of man's tragic inhumanity to man, based on events taking place in and around Georgia's Andersonville prison during the Civil War. The prison has been built on the land of humane planter Ira Claffey, but with his daughter, he witnesses the misery, despair, heartache, and brutality of a wartime prison. Violence, strong language, and some descriptions of sex.
RC 25241.

1958 winner:   A Death in the Family by James Agee.
A modern classic about the impact of tragedy on a close-knit family in Knoxville, Tennessee, in the early twentieth century. The story begins a few hours before the death of Jay Follet and ends on the day of his funeral. Strong language. RC 55669, BR 11893.

1959 winner:   The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters by Robert Lewis Taylor.
In 1849 Dr. Sardius McPheeters decides to escape his debts and his genteel wife’s disapproval by heading for California to strike it rich mining gold. Fourteen-year-old Jaimie is allowed a year off from school to accompany his father. But almost at once the hapless doctor must write to his wife that Jaimie is lost and possibly dead. In fact, Jaimie is captured by murderers in the first of his many adventures. Some violence. RC 37773, BR 9581.

1960 winner:   Advise and Consent by Allen Drury.
Political machinations and personal conflict are activated when the Senate must decide whether to confirm the president’s nominee for secretary of state. Most are in favor of the nominee, but a senator from the South has reservations. American Politics series, book 1. RC 38799.

1961 winner:   To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.
Scout Finch is an outspoken and literate six-year-old tomboy when she begins her tale of growing up in a small Alabama town with her brother Jem and her attorney father Atticus. The children’s intense curiosity about a reclusive neighbor is eclipsed by Atticus’s attempt to defend a black man against charges of raping a white woman. RC 36414, BR 9237. Also available as a descriptive video, DV 148.

1962 winner:   The Edge of Sadness by Edwin O’Connor.
A glimpse into the family-centered world of a decaying Irish-Catholic parish as seen by its priest. An insightful skeptic, he discloses much about his own life as he talks of his long connection with patriarch Charlie Carmody and his family. RC 21316.

1963 winner:   The Reivers: A Reminiscence by William Faulkner.
On a summer day in 1905, young Lucius Priest is persuaded by Boon Hogganbeck to “borrow” his grandfather's car and make a trip to Memphis. Ned McCaslin, an old black man, stows away and the three are off on a heroic odyssey which ends at a bordello.
RC 31880, BR 8204.

1965 winner:   The Keepers of the House by Shirley Ann Grau.
William Howland married his African American housekeeper after his first wife died. But he didn’t announce his marriage in his Southern town and sent his mixed-race children away to school. Now as Howland’s legacy is revealed, his granddaughter faces society’s wrath as his only surviving white heir. RC 45376, BR 102.

1966 winner:   The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter.
This volume brings together all three previous collections of the author’s short stories: Flowering Judas; Pale Horse, Pale Rider; and The Leaning Tower and Other Stories, as well as the individual The Leaning Tower, The Downward Path to Wisdom, A Day’s Work, and Holiday, which are collected here for the first time. RC 41186.

1967 winner:   The Fixer by Bernard Malamud.
Based on an actual court case involving the attempt of Russian authorities to discredit Judaism by accusing one Jew of a ritual murder. The book describes the dehumanizing abuse and torture endured by an innocent man awaiting trial. RC 17078, BR 4979.

1968 winner:   The Confessions of Nat Turner by William Styron.
A fictionalized first-person account of the 1831 Virginia slave rebellion. Nat Turner, instigator of the bloody revolt, begins the story with his capture. As Nat dictates his statement to the jailers, he turns to a childhood spent under a master who promised freedom. Circumstances change and Nat’s suppression and betrayal prompt the planned uprising. Strong language, violence, and some explicit descriptions of sex. RC 36339.

1969 winner:   House Made of Dawn by Scott N. Momaday.
A Kiowa Indian poet and scholar traces the experience of an unassimilated Indian who cannot adjust to the white world or identify with the dying culture of the American Indian. RC 12198, BR 869.

1970 winner:   The Collected Stories of Jean Stafford.
A collection of short stories centering on the individual and his or her relation to time and place, frequently set during cocktail parties and the dinner parties afterward. RC 25833.

1972 winner: Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner.
Historian Lyman Ward, immobilized by illness and deserted by his wife, has retired to his ancestral California cabin to research his family’s past. The loveless marriage of his grandparents--a cultivated eastern artist and a pragmatic mining engineer--mirrors the troubled expansion of the American West. Some strong language. RC 54215.

1973 winner:   The Optimist’s Daughter by Eudora Welty.
Laurel Hand, a middle aged widow since World War II, returns home to a small Mississippi town after the death of her beloved father, a judge. There, she confronts her past to gain a better understanding of herself and her parents. RC 31668, BR 8186.

1975 winner:   The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara.
This fictionalized version of the battle at Gettysburg portrays many actual participants, such as Generals Lee, Longstreet, and Meade, as well as fictionalized characters, such as Colonel Joshua Chamberlain, whose vivid rhetoric inspires his men. Civil War series, book 2. Some strong language. RC 45457.

1976 winner:   Humboldt’s Gift by Saul Bellow.
Novel about what American writers are really like. Bellow explores the relationship between poet Von Humboldt Fleisher, who enjoyed a brief glimpse of fame, and his young friend Charlie Citrine, a playwright and biographer whose star is rising. Strong language. RC 41046, BR 2936.
   
1978 winner:   Elbow Room by James Alan McPherson.
Collection of twelve versatile short stories involving a young urban black man who delights in country music, the partners in an interracial marriage, and the jealousy of lovers. Some strong language. RC 16996, BR 12600.

1979 winner:   The Stories of John Cheever by John Cheever.
Sixty-one short stories centering on such varied subjects as marriage, suburbia, Manhattan, the middle class, the theological society, Italy, decency, and families. Cheever describes them as "stories of a long lost world... when you heard Benny Goodman quartets from a radio in the corner stationery store and almost everyone wore a hat.” RC 12496.

1980 winner:   The Executioner’s Song by Norman Mailer.
True-life novel meticulously details the events of a haunting nine-month period. An obscure criminal, Gary M. Gilmore, who is sentenced to die for two murders, rejects any attempts at reprieve and becomes the first man executed in America in more than a decade. Mailer scrupulously presents the evidence in the case and its outcome. Strong language. RC 13985.

1981 winner:   A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole.
Novel about slovenly, obese Ignatius Reilly, who is forced to seek employment in New Orleans after his tipsy mother has a car accident. Reilly, a medievalist who hates everything modern, runs through a succession of jobs in which he wreaks havoc. Some strong language. RC 50482, BR 13109.

1982 winner:   Rabbit Is Rich by John Updike.
In 1979 Harry (Rabbit) Angstrom finds himself fat, forty-six, and, at long last, affluent. He lives with his wife and mother-in-law in Brewer, Pennsylvania, and runs the Toyota dealership that the two women have inherited. For the first time in his life he feels almost happy--until a girl shows up at his shop. Rabbit series, book 3. Strong language and explicit descriptions of sex. RC 17315,
BR 5051.

1983 winner:   The Color Purple by Alice Walker.
Follows two black sisters--Nettie, a missionary, and Celie, raped by her father and married to a cruel man. Nettie’s letters do not reach Celie, and Celie’s shame is so great that she writes only to God. Anniversary edition includes Walker’s 1992 preface. Strong language and some explicit descriptions of sex. RC 58842, BR 7222. Also available as a descriptive video, DV 506.

1984 winner:   Ironweed by William Kennedy.
Compassionate, tough-minded novel concerns aging Francis Phelan, a former mechanic, major-league third baseman, lush, and murderer, who is now back in Albany after twenty-two years on the lam. Set during the Depression, the supporting cast includes crooks, bums, cons, gamblers, and working stiffs. Phelan Family series, book 3. Strong language and explicit descriptions of sex. RC 20612.
    
1985 winner:   Foreign Affairs by Alison Lurie.
Two English professors, both Americans from the same university, are on leave in London to do research. Vinnie Miner is fifty-four, unmarried, and happy to be back in the city she loves. Fred Turner is twenty-eight and separated from his wife. Both Vinnie and Fred indulge in affairs with unlikely persons and learn more about themselves from the experiences. Some strong language and some descriptions of sex. RC 21440, BR 6202.

1986 winner:   Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry.
A three-thousand-mile cattle drive, from the banks of the Rio Grande to Montana’s big sky country, is the setting for this vivid epic which describes the developing American West and the ranchers, cowboys, prostitutes, and adventurers who attempt to make a new life for themselves in its vast reaches. McCrae and Call series, book 3. Strong language, violence, and some descriptions of sex. RC 22959, BR 13696. Also available as a descriptive video, DV 514.

1987 winner:   A Summons to Memphis by Peter Hillsman Taylor.
Philip, an editor, has a new life in New York and shares an apartment with fellow-worker Holly. He returns to Memphis and to the petty meddling of his family when his two spinster sisters summon him to help them ruin their eighty-one-year-old father’s wedding plans. RC 25807.

1988 winner:   Beloved by Toni Morrison.
Related in kaleidoscopic fashion and set in rural Ohio during the period immediately following the Civil War, this chronicle of slavery and its aftermath traces the life of Sethe, a former slave. Sethe has a secret in her past so horrific that it has alienated the community, driven off her two sons, isolated her surviving daughter, and threatened her new, loving relationship with Paul D., also a former slave. RC 26026, BR 7074.

1989 winner:   Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler.
As Maggie and Ira Moran travel from Baltimore to a funeral in Pennsylvania, they reflect upon their lives, the lives of their children, and their hopes for the future. An amusing and perceptive account of marriage and contemporary middle class American life. Some strong language and some descriptions of sex. RC 27019, BR 7497.

1990 winner:   The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love by Oscar Hijuelos.
It’s a hot summer night and Cesar Castillo, in the Hotel Splendour at 125th and Lenox on New York’s upper west side, pours himself another drink and remembers his life thirty years ago. He and his brother Nestor had fled Batista’s Cuba and formed "The Mambo Kings," a jazz group playing the clubs of Harlem. Now Cesar is dying and drinking and mourning the loss of his youth, past loves, and his brother. Strong language and explicit descriptions of sex. RC 30259.

1991 winner:   Rabbit at Rest by John Updike.
Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom’s life is winding down. Fifty-five and retired, Rabbit sees his life fading, and as it does his wife Janice’s life takes on new strength and purpose. An appetite for junk food has padded Rabbit’s body to huge proportions, and angina claws at his heart. And the Angstrom’s son Nelson is bankrupting the family business to pay for his cocaine habit. Rabbit series, book 4. Strong language. RC 31964, BR 8271.

1992 winner:   A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley.
Larry Cook owns a thousand acres of Iowa farmland that is unmortgaged and some of the richest soil around. At a party given in celebration of the return of Jess Clark, a local man, after an absence of thirteen years, Cook announces that he is retiring and dividing the land among his three daughters. But the gift soon begins to tear the family apart, and secrets, long hidden, begin to surface. Some strong language. RC 33926.

1993 winner:  A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain by Robert Olen Butler
A Vietnam War translator, Butler remains close to a community of Vietnamese immigrants near New Orleans. The immigrants are the subject of fifteen short stories in which characters narrate tales set in their adopted and their native lands. In the title story, a weary old man prepares his family for his death and imagines himself talking to Ho Chi Minh. RC 36356.

1994 winner:   The Shipping News by Annie E. Proulx.
The story centers on Quoyle, a lowly newspaper reporter. When his wife Petal Bear runs off with another man and gets killed, Quoyle's aunt convinces the distraught man to move with his two daughters to an abandoned family home in Newfoundland. Quoyle goes to work for a sleazy paper covering the shipping news and learns to fit right in. Strong language. RC 37883, BR 9612.

1995 winner:   The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields.
A fictional biography about the life of Daisy Stone Goodwill--a life that begins on the Canadian prairies, moves south to the American Midwest, and ends in Florida. Daisy’s tale is the story of an ordinary woman, resigned to her lot, but aware that her internal views don’t quite match what those around her assume. Her diary records the facts, but her heart feels real joy and sadness. Some strong language. RC 39129.

1996 winner:   Independence Day by Richard Ford.
Seven years ago Frank Bascombe got divorced, yet he is still in his "existence period." Perhaps things will change this Fourth of July weekend. After a brief trip to see his longtime girlfriend, who may take him into a "permanent period," Frank plans to take his son, Paul, fifteen and recently arrested for shoplifting, to visit several sports halls of fame. But fate steps in along the way. Strong language. RC 44192.

1997 winner:   Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer by Steven Millhauser.
From a boy working in his father's New York City cigar shop in the late 1800s, Martin Dressler rises to the pinnacle of entrepreneurial success during the early 1900s. His vision leads him to build the Grand Cosmo, the ultimate hotel, retail center, and theme park. Only later does he realize that "he had dreamed the wrong dream.” RC 43648.
    
1998 winner:   American Pastoral by Philip Roth.
After military service in World War II, handsome, athletic "Swede" Levov weds Miss New Jersey, takes over the family business, and moves to the posh suburbs. His dream life unravels in the late 1960s, when daughter Meredith joins an antiwar terrorist group bent on undermining all that Swede lives for. Strong language. RC 45488.

1999 winner:   The Hours by Michael Cunningham.
The spirit of Virginia Woolf permeates the lives of several American readers as evidenced in this trio of tales about the author Woolf, a New Yorker planning a party to honor a writer, and a young mother reading Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway. Some strong language.
RC 47310.

2000 winner:   Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri.
Nine tales of brief encounters with lasting effects, set in India and America. Each emphasizes cultural transition and loss. In the title piece, while American-born Mr. and Mrs. Das and their three young children are tourists in India, Mrs. Das confides a disquieting secret to their guide. RC 50087.

2001 winner:   The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon.
1939. An eighteen-year-old artist and magician flees Czechoslovakia for his cousin’s New York home. With their love of legend and fantasy, the boys launch a superhero comic-book series. The golden age of comic art is at hand, but so are the horrors of global war. Some descriptions of sex and some strong language. RC 50950.

2002 winner:   Empire Falls by Richard Russo.
Empire Falls, Maine, was once a thriving town with three mills. But the owners, the Whitings, have allowed their vast holdings to become decrepit real estate. Miles Roby, who runs the Empire Grill for Mrs. Whiting, recounts the tale of this dying town with bemused regret. Some strong language. RC 52601.

2003 winner:   Middlesex by Jeffery Eugenides.
At forty-one, hermaphrodite Cal Stephanides examines the rare genetic mutation that has caused his gender to change since his birth as a girl in 1960. He describes his teenage revelations, his Greek grandparents’ guilty secret, and his coming-of-age in Detroit. Explicit descriptions of sex and some strong language. RC 54934.

2004 winner:   The Known World by Edward P. Jones.
Manchester County, Virginia; 1855. At his death Henry Townsend, a thirty-one-year-old former slave who maintains a relationship with his owner William Robbins, owns more than thirty slaves himself and fifty acres of land. But now his plantation begins to fall apart as slaves betray one another. RC 56918.

2005 winner: Gilead by Marilynne Robinson.
1950s. Dying seventy-six-year-old Gilead, Iowa, minister John Ames writes a parting letter to his young son. John reflects on the tensions between his pacifist father and militant abolitionist grandfather (both preachers), the death of his first wife and child, the gospel, a friend’s transgressions, and life’s eternal mystery. RC 59561.