| | 1918 |
| | His Family, Ernest Poole |
| | 1919 |
| | The Magnificent Ambersons, Booth Tarkington |
| | 1921 |
| | The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton |
| | 1922 |
| | Alice Adams, Booth Tarkington |
| | 1923 |
| | One of Ours, Willa Cather |
| | 1924 |
| | The Able McLaughlins, Margaret Wilson |
| | 1925 |
| | So Big, Edna Ferber |
| | 1926 |
| | Arrowsmith, Sinclair Lewis |
| | 1927 |
| | Early Autumn, Louis Bromfield |
| | 1928 |
| | The Bridge of San Luis Rey, Thornton Wilder |
| | 1929 |
| | Scarlet Sister Mary, Julia Peterkin |
| | 1930 |
| | Laughing Boy, Oliver La Farge |
| | 1931 |
| | Years of Grace, Margaret Ayer Barnes |
| | 1932 |
| | The Good Earth, Pearl S. Buck |
| | 1933 |
| | The Store, T. S. Stribling |
| | 1934 |
| | Lamb in His Bosom, Caroline Miller |
| | 1935 |
| | Now in November, Josephine Winslow Johnson |
| | 1936 |
| | Honey in the Horn, Harold L. Davis |
| | 1937 |
| | Gone With the Wind, Margaret Mitchell |
| | 1938 |
| | The Late George Apley, John Phillips Marquand |
| | 1939 |
| | The Yearling, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings |
| | 1940 |
| | The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck |
| | 1942 |
| | In This Our Life, Ellen Glasgow |
| | 1943 |
| | Dragon's Teeth, Upton Sinclair |
| | 1944 |
| | Journey in the Dark, Martin Flavin |
| | 1945 |
| | A Bell for Adano, John Hersey |
| | 1947 |
| | All the King's Men, Robert Penn Warren |
| | 1948 |
| | Tales of the South Pacific, James A. Michener |
| | 1949 |
| | Guard of Honor, James Gould Cozzens |
| | 1950 |
| | The Way West, A. B. Guthrie, Jr. |
| | 1951 |
| | The Town, Conrad Richter |
| | 1952 |
| | The Caine Mutiny, Herman Wouk |
| | 1953 |
| | The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway |
| | 1955 |
| | A Fable, William Faulkner |
| | 1956 |
| | Andersonville, MacKinlay Kantor |
| | 1958 |
| | A Death in the Family, James Agee |
| | 1959 |
| | The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters, Robert Lewis Taylor |
| | 1960 |
| | Advise and Consent, Allen Drury |
| | 1961 |
| | To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee |
| | 1962 |
| | The Edge of Sadness, Edwin O'Connor |
| | 1963 |
| | The Reivers, William Faulkner |
| | 1965 |
| | The Keepers of the House, Shirley Ann Grau |
| | 1966 |
| | Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter, Katherine Anne Porter |
| | 1967 |
| | The Fixer, Bernard Malamud |
| | 1968 |
| | The Confessions of Nat Turner, William Styron |
| | 1969 |
| | House Made of Dawn, N. Scott Momaday |
| | 1970 |
| | Collected Stories, Jean Stafford |
| | 1972 |
| | Angle of Repose, Wallace Stegner |
| | 1973 |
| | The Optimist's Daughter, Eudora Welty |
| | 1975 |
| | The Killer Angels, Michael Shaara |
| | 1976 |
| | Humboldt's Gift, Saul Bellow |
| | 1978 |
| | Elbow Room, James Alan McPherson |
| | 1979 |
| | The Stories of John Cheever, John Cheever |
| | 1980 |
| | The Executioner's Song, Norman Mailer |
| | 1981 |
| | A Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole |
| | 1982 |
| | Rabbit Is Rich, John Updike |
| | 1983 |
| | The Color Purple, Alice Walker |
| | 1984 |
| | Ironweed, William Kennedy |
| | 1985 |
| | Foreign Affairs, Alison Lurie |
| | 1986 |
| | Lonesome Dove, Larry McMurtry |
| | 1987 |
| | A Summons to Memphis, Peter Taylor |
| | 1988 |
| | Beloved, Toni Morrison |
| | 1989 |
| | Breathing Lessons, Anne Tyler |
| | 1990 |
| | The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love, Oscar Hijuelos |
| | 1991 |
| | Rabbit at Rest, John Updike |
| | 1992 |
| | A Thousand Acres, Jane Smiley |
| | 1993 |
| | A Good Scent From a Strange Mountain, Robert Olen Butler |
| | 1994 |
| | The Shipping News, E. Annie Proulx |
| | 1995 |
| | The Stone Diaries, Carol Shields |
| | 1996 |
| | Independence Day, Richard Ford |
| | 1997 |
| | Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer, Steven Millhauser |
| | 1998 |
| | American Pastoral, Philip Roth |
| | 1999 |
| | The Hours, Michael Cunningham |
| | 2000 |
| | Interpreter of Maladies, Jhumpa Lahiri |
| | 2001 |
| | The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Michael Chabon |
| | 2002 |
| | Empire Falls, Richard Russo |
| | 2003 |
| | Middlesex, Jeffrey Eugenides |
| | 2004 |
| | The Known World, Edward P. Jones |
| | 2005 |
| | Gilead, Marilynne Robinson |
| | 2006 |
| | March, Geraldine Brooks |
| | 2007 |
| | The Road, Cormac McCarthy |