Ambassador Book Award - Recipients

Recipients

2010

• American Studies - The Rebellion of Ronald Reagan: A History of the End of the Cold War, by James Mann
• American Studies - Dancing in the Dark: A Cultural History of the Great Depression, by Morris Dickstein
• Biography and Autobiography - Louis D. Brandeis: A Life, by Melvin Urofsky
• Fiction - Let the Great World Spin, by Colum McCann
• Poetry - Mercury Dressing, by J. D. McClatchy
• Special Distinction Award - Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original, by Robin D.G. Kelley

2009

• American Studies - A Summer of Hummingbirds, by Christopher Benfey
• Biography and Autobiography - A Passion for Nature:The Life of John Muir, by Donald Worster
• Current Affairs - The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals, by Jane Mayer
• Fiction - Dangerous Laughter: Thirteen Stories, by Steven Millhauser
• Poetry - Old War, by Alan Shapiro
• Special Award - Toni Morrison

2008

• American Studies - Storming the Gates of Paradise: Landscapes for Politics, by Rebecca Solnit
• Autobiography - Prime Green: Remembering the Sixties, by Robert Stone
• Biography - Edith Wharton, by Hermione Lee
• Fiction - The Reluctant Fundamentalist, by Mohsin Hamid
• Poetry - Blackbird and Wolf, by Henri Cole
• Lifetime Achievement - John Ashbery

2007

• American Studies - The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl, by Timothy Egan
• Autobiography - The Afterlife: A Memoir, by Donald Antrim
• Biography - The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher, by Debby Applegate
• Current Affairs - Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq, by Thomas E. Ricks
• Fiction - The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel, by Amy Hempel
• Poetry - Averno, by Louise Glück
• Lifetime Achievement - Garry Wills

2006

• American Studies - A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America, by Stacy Schiff
• Biography & Autobiography - American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer, by Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin
• Fiction - Liberation: A Novel, by Joanna Scott
• Poetry - Migration, by W.S. Merwin

2005

• American Studies - Washington's Crossing, by David Hackett Fischer
• Biography & Autobiography - De Kooning: An American Master, by Mark Stevens
• Fiction - Gilead, by Marilynne Robinson
• Poetry - Collected Poems, by Donald Justice

2004

• American Studies - They Marched into Sunlight, by David Maraniss
• Biography & Autobiography - Hawthorne, A Life, by Brenda Wineapple
• Fiction - The Time of Our Singing, by Richard Powers
• Poetry - Robert Lowell: Collected Poems, edited by Frank Bidart & David Gewanter
• Distinguished Achievement Award - Robert A. Caro

2003

• Fiction - Middlesex, by Jeffrey Eugenides
• American Studies - In the Devil's Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692, by Mary Beth Norton
• Biography & Autobiography - Jesse James: Last Rebel of the Civil War, by T. J. Stiles
• Poetry - Springing, New and Selected Poems, by Marie Ponsot
• Lifetime Achievement - Edmund S. Morgan

2002

• American Studies - Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama, the Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution, by Diane McWhorter
• Biography & Autobiography - John Adams, by David McCullough
• Lifetime Achievement - Hortense Calisher
• Fiction - Empire Falls, by Richard Russo
• Poetry - The Darkness and the Light, by Anthony Hecht

2001

• American Studies - In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex, by Nathaniel Philbrick
• Biography & Autobiography - The Chief: The Life of William Randolph Hearst, by David Nasaw
• Lifetime Achievement - Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.
• Fiction - Angel on the Roof: The Stories of Russell Banks, by Russell Banks
• Poetry - American Poerty: The Twentieth Century, 2 vols., by Hass, Hollander, Kizer, Mackey, Perloff

2000

• American Studies - Freedom from Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929-1945, by David M. Kennedy
• Biography & Autobiography - Morgan: American Financier, by Jean Strouse
• Fiction - Close Range: Wyoming Stories, by Annie Proulx
• Poetry - Vita Nova, by Louise Glück

1999

• American Studies - Slaves in the Family, by Edward Ball
• Biography & Autobiography - N.C. Wyeth, by David Michaelis
• Fiction - I Married a Communist, by Philip Roth
• Poetry - The Collected Poems of Robert Penn Warren, by John Burt

1998

• American Studies - American Visions, by Robert Hughes
• Autobiography - Burning the Days: Recollection, by James Salter
• Biography - American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson, by Joseph Ellis
• Fiction - Underworld, by Don DeLillo
• Poetry - Black Zodiac, by Charles Wright

1997

• American Studies - Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson and the Opening of the American West, by Stephen E. Ambrose
• Biography & Autobiography - Taking on the World: Joseph and Stewart Alsop- Guardians of the American Century, by Robert W. Merry
• Fiction - In the Beauty of the Lilies, by John Updike
• Poetry - The Figured Wheel: New and Collected Poems, 1966 - 1996, by Robert Pinsky

1996

• American Studies - Moving Violations: War Zones, Wheelchairs and Declarations of Independence, by John Hockenberry
• Biography & Autobiography - Walt Whitman's America: A Cultural Biography, by David S. Reynolds
• Fiction - All the Days and Nights, by William Maxwell
• Poetry - Atlantis, by Mark Doty

1995

• American Studies - Speak Now Against the Day: The Generation Before the Civil Rights Movement in the South, by John Egerton
• Biography & Autobiography - No Ordinary Time Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II, by Doris Kearns Goodwin
• Fiction - The Collected Stories, by Grace Paley
• Poetry - Like Most Revelations, by Richard Howard

1994

• American Studies - Around the Cragged Hill A Personal and Political Philosophy, by George F. Kennan
• Biography & Autobiography - W.E.B. Du Bois Biography of Race 1868-1919, by David Levering Lewis
• Fiction - The Oracle at Stoneleigh Court, by Peter Taylor
• Poetry - Tesserae & Other Poems, by John Hollander

1993

• American Arts & Letters - Up in the Old Hotel, by Joseph Mitchell
• American Studies - Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remade America, by Garry Wills
• Biography & Autobiography - Archibald MacLeish: An American Life, by Scott Donaldson
• Fiction - Outerbridge Reach, by Robert Stone

1992

• American Arts & Letters - The Journals of John Cheever, by John Cheever
• American Studies - The Crisis Years: Kennedy and Khrushchev : 1960 - 1963, by Michael Beschloss
• Biography & Autobiography - Woodrow Wilson, by August Hecscher
• Fiction - A Thousand Acres, by Jane Smiley

1991

• American Arts & Letters - The House of Barrymore, by Margot Peters
• American Studies - A New York Life, by Brendan Gill
• Biography & Autobiography - The House of Morgan, by Ron Chernow
• Fiction - Killing Mr. Watson, by Peter Matthiessen

1990

• American Arts & Letters - The Writing Life, by Annie Dillard
• American Studies - Among Schoolchildren, by Tracy Kidder
• Biography & Autobiography - This Boy's Life: A Memoir, by Tobias Wolff
• Fiction - Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All, by Allan Gurganus

1989

• American Arts & Letters - At Home: Essays 1982-1988, by Gore Vidal
• American Studies - A Bright Shining Lie John Paul Vann in Vietnam, by Neil Sheehan
• Biography & Autobiography - Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954-1963, by Taylor Branch
• Fiction - Where I'm Calling From: New & Selected Stories, by Raymond Carver

1988

• American Arts & Letters - Collected Prose, by Robert Lowell
• American Studies - Miami, by Joan Didion
• Biography & Autobiography - Many Masks: A Life of Frank Lloyd Wright, by Brendan Gill
• Fiction - The Bonfire of the Vanities, by Tom Wolfe

1987

• American Studies - Cities on a Hill: A Journey Through Contemporary American Cultures, by Frances FitzGerald
• American Studies - The Cycles of American History, by Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr
• Biography & Autobiography - The Life of Langston Hughes, Volume I: 1902-1941: I, Too, Sing America, by Arnold Rampersad
• Fiction - Roger's Version, by John Updike

1986

• Fiction - Lake Wobegon Days, by Garrison Keillor
• Fiction - The Accidental Tourist, by Anne Tyler