- 1948: Tales of the South Pacific by James A. Michener 10 April 2009
- 1949: Guard of Honor by James Gould Cozzens
- 1950: The Way West by A. B. Guthrie, Jr.
- 1951: The Town by Conrad Richter – February 2010
- 1952: The Caine Mutiny by Herman Wouk December 2009
- 1953: The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
- 1954: No award given
- 1955: A Fable by William Faulkner
- 1956: Andersonville by MacKinlay Kantor
- 1957: No award given
- 1958: A Death in the Family by James Agee January 2010
- 1959: The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters by Robert Lewis Taylor
- 1960: Advise and Consent by Allen Drury
- 1961: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
- 1962: The Edge of Sadness by Edwin O’Connor
- 1963: The Reivers by William Faulkner
- 1964: No award given
- 1965: The Keepers of the House by Shirley Ann Grau
- 1966: The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter by Katherine Anne Porter
- 1967: The Fixer by Bernard Malamud
- 1968: The Confessions of Nat Turner by William Styron
- 1969: House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday
- 1970: The Collected Stories of Jean Stafford by Jean Stafford
- 1971: No award given
- 1972: Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner
- 1973: The Optimist’s Daughter by Eudora Welty December 2009
- 1974: No award given
- 1975: The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara
- 1976: Humboldt’s Gift by Saul Bellow
- 1977: No award given
- 1978: Elbow Room by James Alan McPherson
- 1979: The Stories of John Cheever by John Cheever
- 1980: The Executioner’s Song by Norman Mailer
- 1981: A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
- 1982: Rabbit Is Rich by John Updike
- 1983: The Color Purple by Alice Walker
- 1984: Ironweed by William Kennedy
- 1985: Foreign Affairs by Alison Lurie
- 1986: Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry (current)
- 1987: A Summons to Memphis by Peter Taylor
- 1988: Beloved by Toni Morrison
- 1989: Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler
- 1990: The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love by Oscar Hijuelos November 2009
- 1991: Rabbit At Rest by John Updike
- 1992: A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley July 2009
- 1993: A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain by Robert Olen Butler
- 1994: The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx
- 1995: The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields June 2009
- 1996: Independence Day by Richard Ford 1 April 2009
- 1997: Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer by Steven Millhauser December 2009
- 1998: American Pastoral by Philip Roth
- 1999: The Hours by Michael Cunningham
- 2000: Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
- 2001: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon (now one of my favorite books)
- 2002: Empire Falls by Richard Russo (this one was amazing)
- 2003: Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
- 2004: The Known World by Edward P. Jones July 2009
- 2005: Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
- 2006: March by Geraldine Brooks
- 2007: The Road by Cormac McCarthy
- 2008: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
