- 1969 in literature - Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut — Portnoy's Complaint, Philip Roth
- 1968 in literature -
- 1967 in literature -
- 1966 in literature - Wide Sargasso Sea, Jean Rhys
- 1965 in literature - The Magus, John Fowles
- 1964 in literature -
- 1963 in literature -
- 1962 in literature - Pale Fire, Vladimir Nabokov — A Clockwork Orange, Anthony Burgess — The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Muriel Spark
- 1961 in literature - Catch-22, Joseph Heller — The Moviegoer, Walker Percy — A House for Mr Biswas, V.S. Naipaul
- 1960 in literature -
- 1959 in literature - Henderson the Rain King, Saul Bellow
- 1958 in literature -
- 1957 in literature - On the Road, Jack Kerouac — The Wapshot Chronicle, John Cheever — Justine (The Alexandria Quartet volume 1), Lawrence Durrell
- 1956 in literature -
- 1955 in literature - Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov — The Ginger Man, J.P. Donleavy
- 1954 in literature - Lord of the Flies, William Golding — Under the Net, Iris Murdoch
- 1953 in literature - Go Tell It on the Mountain, James Baldwin — The Adventures of Augie March, Saul Bellow
- 1952 in literature - Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison
- 1951 in literature - A Question of Upbringing (A Dance to the Music of Time volume 1), Anthony Powell — From Here to Eternity, James Jones — The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger
- 1950 in literature -
- 1949 in literature - Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell — The Sheltering Sky, Paul Bowles
- 1948 in literature - The Heart of the Matter, Graham Greene — The Naked and the Dead, Norman Mailer
- 1947 in literature - Under the Volcano, Malcolm Lowry
- 1946 in literature - All the King's Men, Robert Penn Warren
- 1945 in literature - Animal Farm, George Orwell — Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh — Loving, Henry Green
- 1944 in literature -
- 1943 in literature -
- 1942 in literature -
- 1941 in literature -
- 1940 in literature - Darkness at Noon, Arthur Koestler — The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, Carson McCullers — Native Son, Richard Wright
- 1939 in literature - The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck — The Day of the Locust, Nathanael West — Finnegans Wake, James Joyce
- 1938 in literature - Scoop, Evelyn Waugh — The Death of the Heart, Elizabeth Bowen
- 1937 in literature -
- 1936 in literature -
- 1935 in literature -
- 1934 in literature - I, Claudius, Robert Graves — Appointment in Samarra, John O'Hara — Tender Is the Night, F. Scott Fitzgerald — A Handful of Dust, Evelyn Waugh — Tropic of Cancer, Henry Miller — The Postman Always Rings Twice, James M. Cain
- 1933 in literature -
- 1932 in literature - Brave New World, Aldous Huxley — Young Lonigan (Studs Lonigan trilogy volume 1), James T. Farrell — Light in August, William Faulkner — Tobacco Road, Erskine Caldwell
- 1931 in literature -
- 1930 in literature - The 42nd Parallel (U.S.A. trilogy volume 1), John Dos Passos — As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner — The Maltese Falcon, Dashiell Hammett
- 1929 in literature - The Sound and the Fury, William Faulkner — A High Wind in Jamaica, Richard Hughes — A Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway
- 1928 in literature - Point Counter Point, Aldous Huxley
- 1927 in literature - To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf — The Bridge of San Luis Rey, Thornton Wilder — Death Comes for the Archbishop, Willa Cather
- 1926 in literature - The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway
- 1925 in literature - The Great Gatsby, Francis Scott Fitzgerald — An American Tragedy, Theodore Dreiser
- 1924 in literature - A Passage to India, E. M. Forster — Some Do Not... (Parade's End volume 1), Ford Madox Ford
- 1922 in literature - Ulysses, James Joyce
- 1921 in literature -
- 1920 in literature - Women in Love, D.H. Lawrence — The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton — Main Street, Sinclair Lewis
- 1919 in literature - Winesburg, Ohio, Sherwood Anderson
- 1918 in literature - The Magnificent Ambersons, Booth Tarkington
- 1917 in literature -
- 1916 in literature - A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, James Joyce
- 1915 in literature - The Good Soldier, Ford Madox Ford — The Rainbow, D.H. Lawrence — Of Human Bondage, William Somerset Maugham
- 1914 in literature -
- 1913 in literature - Sons and Lovers, D.H. Lawrence
- 1912 in literature -
- 1911 in literature - Zuleika Dobson, Max Beerbohm
- 1910 in literature - Howards End, E.M. Forster
- 1909 in literature -
- 1908 in literature - A Room with a View, E.M. Forster — The Old Wives' Tale, Arnold Bennett
- 1907 in literature - The Secret Agent, Joseph Conrad
- 1906 in literature -
- 1905 in literature - The House of Mirth, Edith Wharton
- 1904 in literature - The Golden Bowl, Henry James — Nostromo, Joseph Conrad
- 1903 in literature - The Way of All Flesh, Samuel Butler — The Ambassadors, Henry James — The Call of the Wild, Jack London
- 1902 in literature - The Wings of the Dove, Henry James — Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad
- 1901 in literature - Kim, Rudyard Kipling
- 1900 in literature - Sister Carrie, Theodore Dreiser — Lord Jim, Joseph Conrad
