Graphics Awards
The "Academy Awards model" (Oscars) was introduced in 1980 under the name TABA, The American Book Awards. The program expanded from seven literary awards to 28 literary and 6 graphics awards. After 1983, with 19 literary and 8 graphics awards, the Awards practically went out of business, to be restored in 1984 with a program of three literary awards.
Since 1988 the Awards have been under the care of the National Book Foundation which does not recognize the graphics awards.
| 1980 | Art/Illustrated collection (hardcover) | Drawings and Digressions by Larry Rivers with Carol Brightman; Herman Strobuck, designer (Clarkson N. Potter) |
| Art/Illustrated original art (hard) | The Birthday of the Infanta by Oscar Wilde (1888 original), illustrated by Leonard Lubin (Viking Press) | |
| Art/Illustrated (paperback) | Anatomy Illustrated by Emily Blair Chewning; designed by Dana Levy (Fireside/ Simon & Schuster) | |
| Book Design (hc & ppb) | The Architect's Eye by Debora Nevins and Robert A. M. Stern (Pantheon Books) | |
| Cover Design (paper) | Famous Potatoes by Joe Cottonwood (orig. 1978); David Myers, designer (Delta/ Seymour Lawrence) | |
| Jacket Design (hard) | Birdy by William Wharton; Fred Marcellino, designer (Alfred A. Knopf) | |
| 1981 | Book Design, pictorial | In China, photographed by Eve Arnold, designer R. D. Scudellari (The Brooklyn Museum) |
| Book Design, typographical | Saul Bellow, Drumlin Woodchuck by Mark Harris, designed by Richard Hendel (University of Georgia Press) | |
| Book Illustration, collected or adapted | The Lost Museum: glimpses of vanished originals by Robert M. Adams, designed by Michael Shroyer (Viking Press) | |
| Cover Design, paperback | Fiorucci: The Book, designed by Quist-Couratin(?) (Milan: Harlin Quist Books, distributed by Dial/ Delacorte) | |
| Jacket Design, hardcover | In China, photographed by Eve Arnold, designer R. D. Scudellari (The Brooklyn Museum) | |
| 1982 | ||
| 1983 | Pictorial Design | Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, designer/illustrator Barry Moser, art director Steve Renick (University of California Press) |
| Typographical Design | A Constructed Roman Alphabet, designer/illustrator David Lance Goines, art director William F. Luckey (David R. Godine) | |
| Illustration Collected Art | John Singer Sargent by Carter Ratcliff, designer Howard Morris, editor Nancy Grubb, production manager Dana Cole (Abbeville Press) | |
| Illustration Original Art | Porcupine Stew by Beverly Major, illustrator Erick Ingraham, designer/art director Cynthia Basil (William Morrow Junior Books) | |
| Illustration Photographs | Alfred Stieglitz: Photographs and Writings by Sarah Greenough and Juan Hamilton, designer Eleanor Morris Caponigro (National Gallery of Art/Callaway Editions) | |
| Cover Design | Bogmail by Patrick McGinley, illustrator Doris Ettlinger, designer/art director Neil Stuart (Penguin Books) | |
| Jacket Design | Souls on Fire by Elie Wiesel, designer Fred Marcellino, art director Frank Metz (Summit Books/ Simon & Schuster) | |
Herbert Mitgang's report on the inaugural TABA begins thus: "Thirty-four hardcover and paperback books, many of which nobody had heard of before, were named winners during a generally ragged presentation of the first American Book Awards in a ceremony at the Seventh Regiment Armory last night. The event was designed to resemble Hollywood's Oscars, but instead there was little glamour. All the winners were barred from accepting their awards, and most did not attend."
Read more about this topic: List Of Winners Of The National Book Award