The National Book Award

In 1950, a consortium of book publishing groups sponsored the first annual National Book Awards Ceremony and Dinner. Their goal was to enhance the public's awareness of exceptional books written by fellow Americans, and to increase the popularity of reading in general.

The Awards are currently given to recognize achievements in four genres: Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, and Young People's Literature. In the past, awards were made in other genres as well. To date, 14 Center Fellows have received this prize.

Fiction

• Bernard Malamud, 1967, The Fixer (Fellow in 1982)
• Bernard Malamud, 1959, The Magic Barrel (Fellow in 1982)
  
• Wallace Stegner, 1977, The Spectator Bird (Fellow in 1956)

Biography

• John Clive, 1974, Macaulay: The Shaping of the Historian (Fellow in 1965)
  

Contemporary Thought

• Bruno Bettelheim, 1977, The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales (Fellow in 1972)
  

Current Interest (Paperback)

• Christopher Lasch, 1980, The Culture of Narcissism (Fellow in 1989)
  

History

• John Clive, 1974, Macaulay: The Shaping of the Historian (Fellow in 1965)
• Irving Howe, 1977, World of Our Fathers (Fellow in 1969)
  

History (Paperback)

• Frank E. Manuel (with Fritzie P. Manuel), 1983, Utopian Thought in the Western World (Fellow in 1963)
  

History and Biography

• David Brion Davis, 1976, The Problem of Slavery in the Age of Revolution, 1770-1823 (Fellow in 1973)*
• Peter Gay, 1967, The Enlightenment, Vol. I: An Interpretation the Rise of Modern Paganism (Fellow in 1964)
• Winthrop D. Jordan, 1969, White over Black: American Attitudes Toward the Negro, 1550-1812 (Fellow in 1976)
  

Philosophy and Religion

• Erik H. Erikson, 1970, Gandhi's Truth: On the Origins of Militant Nonviolence (Fellow in 1963 and 1965)*
• Robert Nozick, 1975, Anarchy, State and Utopia (Fellow in  1972)
  

The Sciences

• S. E. Luria, 1974, Life: The Unfinished Experiment (Fellow in 1983)
• George B. Schaller, 1973, The Serengeti Lion: A Study of Predator-Prey Relations (Fellow in 1963)