Who Won First? – Booker Prize Edition
Test your knowledge of Booker Prize history! For each pair of authors, select the one who won the prize FIRST.
The Booker Prize: Celebrating Literary Excellence in the English-Speaking World
The Booker Prize stands as one of the most coveted literary accolades in the English-speaking world, celebrating exceptional fiction that captivates, challenges, and transforms readers. Established in 1969 with P.H. Newby's "Something to Answer For" as its inaugural winner, the prize has evolved into a powerful cultural institution that spotlights outstanding literary achievement while consistently sparking conversation about what constitutes great literature.
A Prestigious Literary Tradition
Originally known as the Booker-McConnell Prize after its corporate sponsor, and now officially called the Booker Prize, this award was initially open only to writers from the United Kingdom, Ireland, South Africa and other countries in the world. In a significant shift, the prize expanded its eligibility criteria in 2014 to include any novel written in English and published in the UK, acknowledging the increasingly global nature of English-language literature.
Notable Winners and Milestones
Some fascinating Booker facts:
- The 2019 prize was controversially awarded to two authors simultaneously: Margaret Atwood and Bernardine Evaristo
- Salman Rushdie's "Midnight's Children" won the special "Booker of Bookers" award celebrating the prize's 25th and 40th anniversaries
- At 28, Eleanor Catton became the youngest winner with "The Luminaries" (2013)
- The shortest winning novel was Ian McEwan's "On Chesil Beach" at 166 pages
- The Man Booker International Prize, established in 2005, recognizes works translated into English, complementing the main prize
- The "Booker curse" refers to the observation that some authors' subsequent works fail to achieve the same critical success as their prize-winning novels
Cultural Impact and Literary Significance
The announcement of the Booker shortlist each year triggers a surge of interest in literary fiction, with bookstores creating dedicated displays and readers eagerly debating the merits of the selected works.
