The Plutarch Award, established in 2013, is an annual literary award for biographies presented by the Biographers International Organization. It is named in honor of Plutarch, the Greek historian who is credited as the father of biography.
Recipients +Plutarch Award winners and finalistsYearAuthor(s)TitleResult2013WinnerSaul Steinberg: A Biography NomineeAll We Know: Three Lives NomineeShort Nights of the Shadow Catcher: The Epic Life and Immortal Photographs of Edward Curtis NomineeNomineeBarack Obama: The StoryNomineeNomineeNomineeOn a Farther Shore: The Life and Legacy of Rachel Carson NomineeAmerican Tapestry: The Story of the Black, White and Multiracial Ancestors of Michelle Obama Nominee2014Holding On Upside Down: The Life and Work of Marianne MooreWinnerLawrence in Arabia NomineeBolivar: American Liberator NomineeWilson NomineeNomineeJonathan Swift: His Life and His World NomineeGabriele D'Annunzio: Poet, Seducer, and Preacher of War NomineeJim Henson: The Biography NomineeBook of Ages: The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin NomineeRobert Oppenheimer: A Life Inside the Center Nominee2015Penelope Fitzgerald: A LifeWinnerFinalistFinalistTennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the FleshFinalist2016Stalin’s Daughter: The Extraordinary and Tumultuous Life of Svetlana AlliluyevaWinnerClementine: The Life of Mrs. Winston Churchill NomineeCuster's Trials: A Life on the Frontier of a New America NomineeEmpire of Self: A Life of Gore Vidal NomineeHannah Arendt: A Life in Dark Times NomineeIrrepressible: A Jazz Age Life of Henrietta Bingham NomineeLady Bird and Lyndon: The Hidden Story of a Marriage NomineeNomineeRestless Ambition: Grace Hartigan, Painter NomineeSam Phillips: The Man Who Invented Rock 'n' Roll Nominee2017Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted LifeWinnerGuilty Thing: A Life of Thomas De QuinceyFinalist , trans. by Jefferson ChaseHitler: Ascent, 1889-1939FinalistLouisa: The Extraordinary Life of Mrs. AdamsFinalist Bobby Kennedy: The Making of a Liberal Icon NomineeNomineeHis Final Battle: The Last Months of Franklin Roosevelt NomineeJohn Aubrey, My Own Life Nominee, trans. by Shelley FrischKafka: The Early Years NomineeOrson Welles, Volume 3: One-Man Band Nominee2018Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls WilderWinnerGrant NomineeAli: A Life NomineeRichard Nixon: The Life Nominee, trans. by Aleksandra Parker and Michael Parker Milosz: A BiographyNomineeLioness: Golda Meir and the Nation of Israel NomineeElizabeth Bishop: A Miracle for Breakfast NomineeJane Crow: The Life of Pauli Murray NomineeLenin: The Man, the Dictator, and the Master of Terror NomineeGorbachev: His Life and Times Nominee2019Frederick Douglass: Prophet of FreedomWinnerNinety-Nine Glimpses of Princess MargaretNomineeAfter Emily: Two Remarkable Women and the Legacy of America's Greatest PoetNomineeIn Extremis: The Life and Death of the War Correspondent Marie ColvinNomineeInseparable: The Original Siamese Twins and Their Rendezvous with American HistoryNomineeNomineeNomineeChurchill: Walking with DestinyNomineeAnthony Powell: Dancing to the Music of TimeNomineeNominee2020WinnerAll the Powers of Earth: The Political Life of Abraham Lincoln, 1856-1860 FinalistSisters and Rebels: A Struggle for the Soul of America FinalistGods of the Upper Air: How a Circle of Renegade Anthropologists Reinvented Race, Sex, and Gender in the Twentieth Century FinalistOur Man: Richard Holbrooke and the End of the American CenturyFinalist2021Winner and Tamara PayneFinalistHis Very Best: Jimmy Carter: A LifeFinalistLincoln on the Verge: Thirteen Days to WashingtonFinalistThese Fevered Days: Ten Pivotal Moments in the Making of Emily DickinsonFinalistLonglistLonglistAbe: Abraham Lincoln in His Times LonglistMusic by Max Steiner: The Epic Life of Hollywood's Most Influential Composer Longlist, trans. by Jefferson ChaseHitler: Downfall 1939-1945Longlist2022Burning Man: The Trials of D. H. LawrenceWinnerAll the Frequent Troubles of Our Days: The True Story of the American Woman at the Heart of the German Resistance to HitlerShortlistCalhoun: American HereticShortlistTwo-Way Mirror: The Life of Elizabeth Barrett BrowningShortlist and Annalyn SwanFrancis Bacon: RevelationsShortlistLonglistLonglistOscar Wilde: A LifeLonglistLonglistPessoa: A BiographyLonglist2023Mr. B: George Balanchine’s 20th CenturyWinnerG-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American CenturyShortlistAnd There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American StruggleShortlistGeorge V: Never a Dull MomentShortlistSuper-Infinite: The Transformations of John DonneShortlistCivil Rights Queen: Constance Baker Motley and the Struggle for EqualityLonglistTed Kennedy: A LifeLonglistLonglistLonglistI Used to Live Here Once: The Haunted Life of Jean RhysLonglist2024Anansi’s Gold: The Man Who Looted the West, Outfoxed Washington, and Swindled the WorldWinnerKing: A LifeShortlistTo Anyone Who Ever Asks: The Life, Music, and Mystery of Connie Converse ShortlistShortlistShortlistAlthea: The Life of Tennis Champion Althea Gibson NomineeInto the Amazon: The Life of Cândido Rondon, Trailblazing Explorer, Scientist, Statesman, and Conservationist NomineeMerze Tate: The Global Odyssey of a Black Woman Scholar NomineeNothing Stays Put: The Life and Poetry of Amy Clampitt NomineeWinnie and Nelson: Portrait of a Marriage Nominee2025Candy Darling: Dreamer, Icon, SuperstarWinnerWinnerShortlistJohn Lewis: A Life, and Alexis Pauline Gumbs for Survival Is A Promise: The Eternal Life of Audre LordeShortlistShortlistReagan: His Life and LegendLonglistLonglistLonglistMonet: The Restless VisionLonglist2026Baldwin: A Love StoryLonglistWild Thing: A Life of Paul GauguinLonglistLonglistEmerson’s Daughters: Ellen Tucker Emerson, Edith Emerson Forbes, and Their Family LegacyLonglistLonglistLonglistWakara’s America: The Life and Legacy of a Native Founder of the American WestLonglistPride and Pleasure: The Schuyler Sisters in an Age of RevolutionLonglistGertrude Stein: An AfterlifeLonglistThe Invention of Charlotte BrontëLonglist
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