For a distinguished biography or autobiography by an American author, Ten thousand dollars ($10,000).
Awarded to "The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher" by Debby Applegate (Doubleday).
Also nominated as finalists in this category were: "John Wilkes: The Scandalous Father of Civil Liberty" by Arthur H. Cash (Yale University Press), and "Andrew Carnegie" by David Nasaw (The Penguin Press).