Samuel Johnson Prize

The Samuel Johnson Prize is one of the world's most prestigious awards for non-fiction writing. It was founded in 1999 based on an anonymous donation and is managed by BBC 4. Each winner receives £30000 and each finalist £2500.

Related Topics:
Non-fiction - 1999 - BBC 4

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The prize is named after Samuel Johnson.

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Past Winners:

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2004

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Winner:

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• Anna Funder Stasiland

Shortlist:

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• Anne Applebaum Gulag: A History of the Soviet Camps
• Jonathan Bate John Clare: A Biography
• Bill Bryson A Short History of Nearly Everything
• Aidan Hartley The Zanzibar Chest: A Memoir of Love and War
• Tom Holland Rubicon: The Triumph and Tragedy of the Roman Republic

2003

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Winner:

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• T.J. Binyon Pushkin

Shortlist:

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• Orlando Figes, Natasha's Dance: A Cultural History of Russia
• Aminatta Forna, The Devil that Danced on the Water: A Daughter's Memoir of her Father, her Family, her Country and a Continent
• Olivia Judson, Dr Tatiana's Sex Advice to All Creation
• Claire Tomalin, Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self
• Edgar Vincent, Nelson: Love and Fame

2002

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Winner

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• Margaret Macmillan, Peacemakers: The Paris Peace Conference of 1919 and Its Attempt to End War

Shortlist

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• Eamon Duffy, The Voices of Morebath
• William Fiennes, The Snow Geese
• Richard Hamblyn, The Invention of Clouds: How an Amateur Meteorologist Forged the Language of the Skies
• Roy Jenkins, Churchill: a Biography
• Brendan Simms, Unfinest Hour: Britain and the Destruction of Bosnia

2001

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Winner

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• Michael Burleigh, The Third Reich

Shortlist

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• Richard Fortey, Trilobite! Eyewitness to Evolution
• Catherine Merridale, Night of Stone
• Graham Robb, Rimbaud
• Simon Sebag Montefiore, Prince of Princes: The Life of Potemkin
• Robert Skidelsky, John Maynard Keynes

2000

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Winner

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• David Cairns, Berlioz: Volume 2

Shortlist

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• Tony Hawks, Playing the Moldovans at Tennis
• Brenda Maddox, Yeats's Ghosts
• Matt Ridley, Genome
• William Shawcross, Deliver Us From Evil
• Francis Wheen, Karl Marx

1999

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Winner

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• Antony Beevor, Stalingrad

Shortlist

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• Ian Kershaw, Hitler
• Ann Wroe, Pilate
• John Diamond, C: Because Cowards Get Cancer Too
• Richard Holmes, Coleridge: Darker Reflections
• David Landes, Wealth and Poverty of Nations
 
Samuel Johnson Prize: See also ►