For years not listed, no award was made.
- 1918
- His Family, Ernest Poole
- 1919
- The Magnificent Ambersons, Booth Tarkington
- 1921
- The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton
- 1922
- Alice Adams, Booth Tarkington
- 1923
- One of Ours, Willa Cather
- 1924
- The Able McLaughlins, Margaret Wilson
- 1925
- So Big, Edna Ferber
- 1926
- Arrowsmith, Sinclair Lewis
- 1927
- Early Autumn, Louis Bromfield
- 1928
- The Bridge of San Luis Rey, Thornton Wilder
- 1929
- Scarlet Sister Mary, Julia Peterkin
- 1930
- Laughing Boy, Oliver La Farge
- 1931
- Years of Grace, Margaret Ayer Barnes
- 1932
- The Good Earth, Pearl S. Buck
- 1933
- The Store, T. S. Stribling
- 1934
- Lamb in His Bosom, Caroline Miller
- 1935
- Now in November, Josephine Winslow Johnson
- 1936
- Honey in the Horn, Harold L. Davis
- 1937
- Gone With the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
- 1938
- The Late George Apley, John Phillips Marquand
- 1939
- The Yearling, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
- 1940
- The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck
- 1942
- In This Our Life, Ellen Glasgow
- 1943
- Dragon's Teeth, Upton Sinclair
- 1944
- Journey in the Dark, Martin Flavin
- 1945
- A Bell for Adano, John Hersey
- 1947
- All the King's Men, Robert Penn Warren
- 1948
- Tales of the South Pacific, James A. Michener
- 1949
- Guard of Honor, James Gould Cozzens
- 1950
- The Way West, A. B. Guthrie, Jr.
- 1951
- The Town, Conrad Richter
- 1952
- The Caine Mutiny, Herman Wouk
- 1953
- The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway
- 1955
- A Fable, William Faulkner
- 1956
- Andersonville, MacKinlay Kantor
- 1958
- A Death in the Family, James Agee
- 1959
- The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters, Robert Lewis Taylor
- 1960
- Advise and Consent, Allen Drury
- 1961
- To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
- 1962
- The Edge of Sadness, Edwin O'Connor
- 1963
- The Reivers, William Faulkner
- 1965
- The Keepers of the House, Shirley Ann Grau
- 1966
- Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter, Katherine Anne Porter
- 1967
- The Fixer, Bernard Malamud
- 1968
- The Confessions of Nat Turner, William Styron
- 1969
- House Made of Dawn, N. Scott Momaday
- 1970
- Collected Stories, Jean Stafford
- 1972
- Angle of Repose, Wallace Stegner
- 1973
- The Optimist's Daughter, Eudora Welty
- 1975
- The Killer Angels, Michael Shaara
- 1976
- Humboldt's Gift, Saul Bellow
- 1978
- Elbow Room, James Alan McPherson
- 1979
- The Stories of John Cheever, John Cheever
- 1980
- The Executioner's Song, Norman Mailer
- 1981
- A Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole
- 1982
- Rabbit Is Rich, John Updike
- 1983
- The Color Purple, Alice Walker
- 1984
- Ironweed, William Kennedy
- 1985
- Foreign Affairs, Alison Lurie
- 1986
- Lonesome Dove, Larry McMurtry
- 1987
- A Summons to Memphis, Peter Taylor
- 1988
- Beloved, Toni Morrison
- 1989
- Breathing Lessons, Anne Tyler
- 1990
- The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love, Oscar Hijuelos
- 1991
- Rabbit at Rest, John Updike
- 1992
- A Thousand Acres, Jane Smiley
- 1993
- A Good Scent From a Strange Mountain, Robert Olen Butler
- 1994
- The Shipping News, E. Annie Proulx
- 1995
- The Stone Diaries, Carol Shields
- 1996
- Independence Day, Richard Ford
- 1997
- Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer, Steven Millhauser
- 1998
- American Pastoral, Philip Roth
- 1999
- The Hours, Michael Cunningham
- 2000
- Interpreter of Maladies, Jhumpa Lahiri
- 2001
- The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Michael Chabon
- 2002
- Empire Falls, Richard Russo
- 2003
- Middlesex, Jeffrey Eugenides
- 2004
- The Known World, Edward P. Jones
- 2005
- Gilead, Marilynne Robinson
- 2006
- March, Geraldine Brooks
- 2007
- The Road, Cormac McCarthy
- 2008
- The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Diaz
- 2009
- Olive Kitteridge, Elizabeth Strout
- 2010
- Tinkers, Paul Harding
- 2011
- A Visit from the Goon Squad, Jennifer Egan
- 2012
- [no winner]
- 2013
- The Orphan Master's Son, Adam Johnson
- 2014
- The Goldfinch, Donna Tartt
- 2015
- All the Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr
Back to Pulitzer Prizes Index Page.