Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography
This is one of the 759 lists we use to generate our main The Greatest Books list.
About this list
Pulitzer Prize, 108 Books
The Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography has been presented since 1917 for a distinguished biography or autobiography by an American author.
Rough head-count of people who shape the result each year
5 subject-matter jurors who screen the entries and forward three titles.
19 Board members who cast the decisive votes.
So, a maximum of 24 people take part in the decision path for the Biography / Autobiography prize each cycle.
Names are not secret, just easy to overlook.
Jury names stay under wraps until winners are announced, then they’re displayed on each category’s web page (and occasionally turn up in press coverage or book-specific Wikipedia entries, as in the 2011 example above).
Board membership is public all year and archived from one cycle to the next.
This list is a yearly book award, and was added to this site over 12 years ago.
