Pre-war awards by booksellers The first National Book Awards were presented in May 1936 at the annual convention of the
American Booksellers Association, one month after
The New York Times reported institution of the "new annual award". The winners were authors of four 1935 books selected by a vote of ABA members.
Virginia Kirkus chaired the central committee of seven including the ABA president, three bookshops,
Publishers Weekly, and
American News Company. Three were called "the most distinguished of 1935" (novel, biography, and general nonfiction) and one "the most original" (novel). The "Most Distinguished" Nonfiction, Biography, and Novel (for 1935 and 1936) In effect, his ballot says, "Of all the books of the year these are the three I enjoyed most –
in two ways! I enjoyed reading them; and I enjoyed selling them." And that to a bookseller means people who, on his recommendation, read and enjoyed – and sent in other people who also read and enjoyed. The National Book Awards give you perhaps a greater guarantee of reading pleasure than any other literary prizes.
Reestablished by the book industry In January 1950 three book industry organizations announced that "works by Americans published here" would be recognized by three awards in March (at the annual convention?). There would be three distinct panels of five judges. The fifteen judges were "Elmer Davis, John Kieran, Henry Steele Commager, Fairfield Osborn and Norman Cousins for non-fiction; Mary Colum, Glenway Wescott, Max Gissin, W. G. Rogers and
Malcolm Cowley for fiction; and
W. H. Auden,
Louise Bogan, Babett Duetsch, Horace Gregory and Louise Untermeyer for poetry." The awards were administered by the National Book Committee from 1950 to 1974, when the Committee disbanded after publishers withdrew support. The National Book Award for Translation was introduced in 1967 and split between two books, the first split. Two awards were split in 1973 for the first time. Publishers dropped their support after 1974 and the National Book Committee was disbanded. Three of 27 awards were split in 1983 The currently active Poetry category was added in 1991, followed by Young People's Literature in 1996, and Translated Literature in 2018.
"American Book Awards" In 1980 the "National Book Awards" were canceled and replaced by "American Book Awards" on the
film industry model (Oscars). "It will be run almost exactly the way the Academy Awards are run," a spokesman told reporters." There would be nearly 30 awards presented in an extravagant TV-friendly ceremony, to winners selected by a standing "academy" of more than 2,000 people in the book industry. In 1983 there were 30 award winners in 27 categories including 14 categories of literary achievement in writing for adults; in turn, five for hardcover editions, six for paperback editions, and three general. For 1983 publications (January to October) there would be no awards. A committee comprising American Book Awards executive director Barbara Prete and four publishers designed the new and improved program, implemented fall 1984 for a publication year beginning November 1983. They cut the roster to merely three (Nonfiction, Fiction, and First Work of Fiction), moved the ceremony from early spring to late fall, and redefined eligibility to require publication during the calendar year of the awards (roughly, see Annual eligibility).
1987present In 1987 the "National" award returned in name. Covering the November ceremony, Edwin McDowell of
The New York Times remarked upon the recurring changes in format and contrasted 1983 in particular, when there were 96 finalists in 27 awards categories (listed above). The surviving awards for general
Fiction and
Nonfiction, now with precisely five finalists each, were administered by National Book Awards, Inc., whose Chairman of the Board was the president of Hearst Trade Book Group. He declaimed that "Book people are really not actors, and there's a realization now that we should not try to reward things like who did the best book blurb." The fixed number five finalists was retained through 2012, while the number of book categories has doubled with the addition of
Poetry in 1991 and
Young People's Literature in 1996. It is for living translators and authors and for fiction and non-fiction. The foundation previously gave a translation award from 1967-1983, but did not require the author to be living and was for fiction only. In 2024, the National Book Foundation announced the awards would no longer require U.S. citizenship for eligibility, following a similar decision the
Pulitzer Prizes had made in 2023. == Annual eligibility ==