- 2011 A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
- 2010 Tinkers by Paul Harding
- 2009 Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
- 2008 The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
- 2007 The Road by Cormac McCarthy
- 2006 March by Geraldine Brooks
- 2005 Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
- 2004 The Known World by Edward P. Jones
- 2003 Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
- 2002 Empire Falls by Richard Russo
- 2001 The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon
- 2000 Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
- 1999 The Hours by Michael Cunningham
- 1998 American Pastoral by Philip Roth
- 1997 Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer by Steven Millhauser
- 1996 Independence Day by Richard Ford
- 1995 The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields
- 1994 The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx
- 1993 A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain by Robert Olen Butler
- 1992 A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley
- 1991 Rabbit At Rest by John Updike
- 1990 The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love by Oscar Hijuelos
- 1989 Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler (Alfred A. Knopf)
- 1988 Beloved by Toni Morrison (Alfred A. Knopf)
- 1987 A Summons to Memphis by Peter Taylor (Alfred A. Knopf)
- 1986 Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry (Simon & Schuster)
- 1985 Foreign Affairs by Alison Lurie (Random House)
- 1984 Ironweed by William Kennedy (Viking)
- 1983 The Color Purple by Alice Walker (Harcourt Brace)
- 1982 Rabbit Is Rich by John Updike (Knopf)
- 1981 A Confederacy of Dunces by the late John Kennedy Toole (a posthumous publication) (Louisiana State U. Press)
- 1980 The Executioner's Song by Norman Mailer (Little)
- 1979 The Stories of John Cheever by John Cheever (Knopf)
- 1978 Elbow Room by James Alan McPherson (Atlantic Monthly Press)
- 1976 Humboldt's Gift by Saul Bellow (Viking)
- 1975 The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara (McKay)
- 1973 The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty (Random)
- 1972 Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner (Doubleday)
- 1970 Collected Stories by Jean Stafford (Farrar)
- 1969 House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday (Harper)
- 1968 The Confessions of Nat Turner by William Styron (Random)
- 1967 The Fixer by Bernard Malamud (Farrar)
- 1966 Collected Stories by Katherine Anne Porter (Harcourt)
- 1965 The Keepers Of The House by Shirley Ann Grau (Random)
- 1963 The Reivers by William Faulkner (Random)
- 1962 The Edge of Sadness by Edwin O'Connor (Little)
- 1961 To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee (Lippincott)
- 1960 Advise and Consent by Allen Drury (Doubleday)
- 1959 The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters by Robert Lewis Taylor (Doubleday)
- 1958 A Death In The Family by the late James Agee (a posthumous publication) (McDowell, Obolensky)
- 1956 Andersonville by MacKinlay Kantor (World)
- 1955 A Fable by William Faulkner (Random)
- 1953 The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway (Scribner)
- 1952 The Caine Mutiny by Herman Wouk (Doubleday)
- 1951 The Town by Conrad Richter (Knopf)
- 1950 The Way West by A. B. Guthrie (Sloane)
- 1949 Guard of Honor by James Gould Cozzens (Harcourt)
- 1948 Tales of the South Pacific by James A. Michener
- 1947 All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren (Harcourt)
- 1945 A Bell for Adano by John Hersey (Knopf)
- 1944 Journey in the Dark by Martin Flavin (Harper)
- 1943 Dragon's Teeth by Upton Sinclair (Viking)
- 1942 In This Our Life by Ellen Glasgow (Harcourt)
- 1940 The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (Viking)
- 1939 The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings (Scribner)
- 1938 The Late George Apley by John Phillips Marquand (Little)
- 1937 Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell (Macmillan)
- 1936 Honey in the Horn by Harold L. Davis (Harper)
- 1935 Now in November by Josephine Winslow Johnson (Simon & Schuster)
- 1934 Lamb in His Bosom by Caroline Miller (Harper)
- 1933 The Store by T. S. Stribling (Doubleday)
- 1932 The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck (John Day)
- 1931 Years of Grace by Margaret Ayer Barnes (Houghton)
- 1930 Laughing Boy by Oliver Lafarge (Houghton)
- 1929 Scarlet Sister Mary by Julia Peterkin (Bobbs)
- 1928 The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder (Boni)
- 1927 Early Autumn by Louis Bromfield (Stokes)
- 1926 Arrowsmith by Sinclair Lewis (Harcourt)
- 1925 So Big by Edna Ferber (Doubleday)
- 1924 The Able McLaughlins by Margaret Wilson (Harper)
- 1923 One of Ours by Willa Cather (Knopf)
- 1922 Alice Adams by Booth Tarkington (Doubleday)
- 1921 The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton (Appleton)
- 1919 The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington (Doubleday)
- 1918 His Family by Ernest Poole
may 19 2011 ∞
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