For a distinguished biography or autobiography by an American author, Ten thousand dollars ($10,000).

Awarded to "Eden's Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father" by John Matteson (W.W. Norton)

Richard Oppel, Pulitzer Board co-chair (left), presents the 2008 Pulitzer Prize in Biography to John Matteson.

Finalists

Also nominated as finalists in this category were: "The Worlds of Lincoln Kirstein" by Martin Duberman (Alfred A. Knopf), and "The Life of Kingsley Amis" by Zachary Leader (Pantheon).