Awards & Winners

1981 National Book Award

Check winners and nominations of 1981 National Book Award. Check awards winners of 1981 National Book Awards Ceremony. (Click on the Award name to show winners and nominees)

1981 National Book Awards Ceremony

National Book Award for Autobiography/Biography (Hardcover)

Justin Kaplan

Honored for : Walt Whitman: A Life

Nominations »

Nominee Nominated Work
Justin Kaplan Walt Whitman: A Life
Robert K. Massie Peter the Great: His Life and World
James R. Mellow Nathaniel Hawthorne in His Time
Peter Stansky Orwell, the transformation
William Miller Abrahams Orwell, the transformation
Ronald Steel Walter Lippmann and the American Century
National Book Award for Autobiography/Biography (Paperback)

Deirdre Bair

Honored for : Samuel Beckett : a biography

Nominations »

Nominee Nominated Work
Deirdre Bair Samuel Beckett : a biography
E. K. Brown Willa Cather
Leon Edel Bloomsbury, a House of Lions
Maureen Howard Facts of life
Meryle Secrest Being Bernard Berenson
National Book Award for First Novel

Ann Arensberg

Honored for : Sister Wolf

Nominations »

Nominee Nominated Work
Ann Arensberg Sister Wolf
Jean M. Auel The Clan of the Cave Bear
Philip Caputo Horn of Africa
Johanna Kaplan O My America
Lynne Sharon Schwartz Rough Strife
National Book Award for General Nonfiction (Hardcover)

Maxine Hong Kingston

Honored for : China Men

Nominations »

Nominee Nominated Work
Maxine Hong Kingston China Men
Malcolm Cowley The Dream of the Golden Mountains
John Graves From a Limestone Ledge
Victor Saul Navasky Naming Names
Studs Terkel American Dreams: Lost and Found
National Book Award for Poetry

Lisel Mueller

Honored for : The Need to Hold Still

Nominations »

Nominee Nominated Work
Lisel Mueller The Need to Hold Still
Philip Booth Before Sleep
Isabella Gardner That Was Then
Mark Strand Selected Poems
Robert Penn Warren Being Here: Poetry 1977 \u2013 1980
National Book Award for History (Paperback)

Leon Litwack

Honored for : Been in the Storm So Long

Nominations »

Nominee Nominated Work
Leon Litwack Been in the Storm So Long
Richard Drinnon Facing West: The Metaphysics of Indian-Hating and Empire-Building
Aloyisus Leon Higginbotham, Jr. In the Matter of Color: Race and the American Legal Process
Telford Taylor Munich: The Price of Peace
Howard Zinn A People's History of the United States
National Book Award for History (Hardcover)

John Boswell

Honored for : Christianity, Social Tolerance and Homosexuality

Nominations »

Nominee Nominated Work
John Boswell Christianity, Social Tolerance and Homosexuality
James H. Billington Fire in the Minds of Men: Origins of the Revolutionary Faith
Steven Ozment The Age of Reform, 1250-1550
Carl Emil Schorske Fin-de-Siècle Vienna
Page Smith The shaping of America
National Book Award for Children’s Books (Fiction, Paperback)

Beverly Cleary

Honored for : Ramona and Her Mother

Nominations »

Nominee Nominated Work
Beverly Cleary Ramona and Her Mother
Lloyd Alexander The High King
Sue Ellen Bridgers All together now
S. E. Hinton Tex
Ellen Raskin The Westing Game
National Book Award for Science (Hardcover)

Stephen Jay Gould

Honored for : The Panda's Thumb: More Reflections in Natural History

Nominations »

Nominee Nominated Work
Stephen Jay Gould The Panda's Thumb: More Reflections in Natural History
Claude C. Albritton The abyss of time, changing conceptions of the earth's antiquity after the sixteenth century
René Dubos The wooing of Earth
Timothy Ferris Galaxies
Carl Sagan Cosmos
National Book Award for Science (Paperback)

Lewis Thomas

Honored for : The Medusa and the Snail

Nominations »

Nominee Nominated Work
Lewis Thomas The Medusa and the Snail
Carl Sagan Broca's Brain: Reflections on the Romance of Science
Joe Silk The Big Bang
Walter Sullivan Black Holes, the Edge of Space, the End of Time
National Book Award for Fiction (Paperback)

John Cheever

Honored for : The Stories of John Cheever

Nominations »

Nominee Nominated Work
John Cheever The Stories of John Cheever
Thomas Flanagan The Year of the French
Norman Mailer The Executioner's Song
Scott Spencer Endless Love
Herman Wouk War and Remembrance
National Book Award for Children’s Books (Fiction, Hardcover)

Betsy Byars

Honored for : The Night Swimmers

Nominations »

Nominee Nominated Work
Betsy Byars The Night Swimmers
Katherine Paterson Jacob Have I Loved
Ouida Sebestyen Far from home
Jan Slepian The Alfred Summer
Paula Fox A Place Apart
National Book Award for Fiction (Hardcover)

Wright Morris

Honored for : Plains Song

Nominations »

Nominee Nominated Work
Wright Morris Plains Song
Shirley Hazzard The Transit Of Venus
William Keepers Maxwell So Long, See You Tomorrow
Walker Percy The Second Coming
Eudora Welty The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty
National Book Award for General Nonfiction (Paperback)

Jane Kramer

Honored for : The Last Cowboy

Nominations »

Nominee Nominated Work
Jane Kramer The Last Cowboy
Joan Didion The White Album
David Halberstam The Powers That Be
Dan Morgan Merchants of Grain
Paul Theroux The Old Patagonian Express
National Book Award for Children’s Books (Nonfiction, Hardcover)

Alison Cragin Herzig, Jane Lawrence Mali

Honored for : Oh, Boy! Babies

Nominations »

Nominee Nominated Work
Alison Cragin Herzig Oh, Boy! Babies
Jane Lawrence Mali Oh, Boy! Babies
Jean Fritz Where Do You Think You're Going, Christopher Columbus?
William Jaspersohn The Ballpark
Milton Meltzer All Times, All Peoples
Peter Spier People
National Book Award for Translation

Francis Steegmuller

Honored for : The letters of Gustave Flaubert

Nominations »

Nominee Nominated Work
Francis Steegmuller The letters of Gustave Flaubert
John E. Woods Evening Edged in Gold
Guy Davenport Archilochos, Sappho, Alkman: Three Lyric Poets of the Seventh Century B.C.
John Glad Varlam Shalamov\u2019s Kolyma Tales
Jean Milligan Kao Ming\u2019s The Lute
National Book Award for Translation

John E. Woods

Honored for : Evening Edged in Gold

Nominations »

Nominee Nominated Work
Francis Steegmuller The letters of Gustave Flaubert
John E. Woods Evening Edged in Gold
Guy Davenport Archilochos, Sappho, Alkman: Three Lyric Poets of the Seventh Century B.C.
John Glad Varlam Shalamov\u2019s Kolyma Tales
Jean Milligan Kao Ming\u2019s The Lute