Books by Ilyon Woo
Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom
by Ilyon Woo
🏆 Joint winner of the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for Biography
“Ilyon Woo’s Master Slave Husband Wife tells the incredible life stories of Ellen and William Craft, a married Black couple who escaped slavery in 1848 and disguised themselves as a disabled white man (Ellen) and his manservant (William). Together they fled Georgia for the North, became celebrities within the abolitionist movement but were later forced to flee the country after the imposition of the Fugitive Slave Act in 1850 left them again vulnerable.” Read more...
Award-Winning Biographies of 2024
Cal Flyn, Five Books Editor
Interviews where books by Ilyon Woo were recommended
-
1
Every Living Thing: The Great and Deadly Race to Know All Life
by Jason Roberts -
2
Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom
by Ilyon Woo -
3
King: A Life
by Jonathan Eig -
4
G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century
by Beverly Gage -
5
Chasing Me to My Grave: An Artist's Memoir of the Jim Crow South
by Winfred Rembert -
6
The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X
by Les Payne & Tamara Payne
Pulitzer Prize-Winning Biographies
Pulitzer Prize-Winning Biographies
The Pulitzer Prize for Biography is awarded annually to “a distinguished and appropriately documented” biography by an author from or based in the United States. The authors of winning books receive $15,000, and join a starry pantheon of great American writers. Here, we’ve put together a summary of all the Pulitzer-winning biographies since the turn of the millennium.
-
1
King: A Life
by Jonathan Eig -
2
Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom
by Ilyon Woo -
3
Winnie and Nelson: Portrait of a Marriage
by Jonny Steinberg -
4
Monet: The Restless Vision
by Jackie Wullschläger -
5
Traces of Enayat
by Iman Mersal, translated by Robin Moger -
6
Fassbinder: Thousands of Mirrors
by Ian Penman
Award-Winning Biographies of 2024, recommended by Cal Flyn
Award-Winning Biographies of 2024, recommended by Cal Flyn
We asked Five Books deputy editor Cal Flyn to put together a concise round-up of notable biographies of 2024, comprising the winners of relevant literary awards from the United Kingdom and the United States. The list includes two biographies of married couples and an “unclassifiable” literary detective story tracking down details of a forgotten Egyptian poet.