Wall Award Winners, 1974-Present
Formerly known as the Theatre Library Association Award, the prize was renamed in 2010 to honor the memory of the late Richard Wall, longtime TLA member and Book Awards Chair. The winners are listed here under the award presentation year.
2024
Dimitrios Latsis, How the Movies Got a Past: A Historiography of American Cinema, 1894-1930, Oxford University Press, 2023.
Special Jury Prize:
Scott Eyman, Charlie Chaplin vs. America: When Art, Sex, and Politics Collided, Simon & Schuster, 2023.
2023
Ross Melnick, Hollywood’s Embassies: How Movie Theaters Projected American Power Around the World, Columbia University Press, 2022.
Special Jury Prize:
Eric Hoyt, Ink-Stained Hollywood: The Triumph of American Cinema’s Trade Press, University of California Press, 2022.
2022
Chris Grosvenor, Cinema on the Front Line: British Soldiers and Cinema in the First World War, University of Exeter Press, 2021.
Special Jury Prize:
Melanie Bell, Movie Workers: The Women Who Made British Cinema, University of Illinois Press, 2021.
2021
Steven C. Smith, Music by Max Steiner: The Epic Life of Hollywood’s Most Influential Composer, Oxford University Press, 2020.
Special Jury Prize:
Greg Mitchell, The Beginning or the End: How Hollywood Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, The New Press, 2020.
2020
Ian Christie, Robert Paul and the Origins of British Cinema, University of Chicago Press, 2019.
Special Jury Prize:
Rocky Lang and Barbara Hall, Letters from Hollywood: Inside the Private World of Classic American Moviemaking, Abrams Books, 2019.
2019
Maya Montañez Smukler, Liberating Hollywood: Women Directors and the Feminist Reform of 1970s American Cinema. Rutgers University Press, 2018.
Special Jury Prize:
J. E. Smyth, Nobody’s Girl Friday: The Women Who Ran Hollywood. Oxford University Press, 2018.
2018
Steven J. Ross, Hitler in Los Angeles: How Jews Foiled Nazi Plots Against Hollywood and America. Bloomsbury USA, 2017.
Special Jury Prize:
Kathryn H. Fuller-Seeley, Jack Benny and the Golden Age of American Radio Comedy. University of California Press, 2017.
2017
William Paul, When Movies Were Theater: Architecture, Exhibition, and the Evolution of American Film. Columbia University Press, 2016.
Special Jury Prize:
Alan Robert Ginsberg, The Salome Ensemble: Rose Pastor Stokes, Anzia Yezierska, Sonya Levien, and Jetta Goudal. Syracuse University Press, 2016.
2016
James Layton and David Pierce, The Dawn of Technicolor, 1915-1935. The George Eastman Museum, 2015.
Special Jury Prize:
Shelley Stamp, Lois Weber in Early Hollywood. University of California Press, 2015.
2015
Mark Harris. Five Came Back: A Story of Hollywood and the Second World War. Penguin, 2014.
Special Jury Prize:
Scott Eyman. John Wayne: The Life and Legend. Simon and Schuster, 2014.
2014
Glenn Frankel. The Searchers: The Making of an American Legend. Bloomsbury USA, 2013.
Special Jury Prize:
David S. Shields. Still: American Silent Motion Picture Photography. University of Chicago Press, 2013.
2013
The TLA Book Awards were not presented in 2013.
2012
Christopher Sieving. Soul Searching: Black-Themed Cinema from the March on Washington to the Rise of Blaxploitation. Wesleyan University Press, 2011.
Special Jury Prize:
Susan Orlean. Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend. Simon & Schuster, 2011.
2011
Scott Eyman. Empire of Dreams: The Epic Life of Cecil B. DeMille. Simon & Schuster, 2010.
Special Jury Prize:
Yunte Huang. Charlie Chan: The Untold Story of the Honorable Detective and His Rendezvous with American History. W.W. Norton, 2010.
2010
Michel Chion. Film, A Sound Art. Translated by Claudia Gorbman. Columbia University Press, 2009.
Special Jury Prize:
Rob King. The Fun Factory: The Keystone Film Company and the Emergence of Mass Culture. University of California Press, 2009.
2009
Mark Harris. Pictures at a Revolution: Five Movies and the Birth of the New Hollywood. Penguin Books, 2008.
2008
Jeanine Basinger. The Star Machine. Alfred A. Knopf, 2007.
2007
Amid Amidi. Cartoon Modern: Style and Design in Fifties Animation. Chronicle Books, 2006.
Special Jury Prizes:
Steve Higgins. Still Moving: The Film and Media Collections of the Museum of Modern Art. Museum of Modern Art, 2006.
Birgitta Steene. Ingmar Bergman: A Reference Guide. University of Chicago Press, 2006
2006
Richard Abel. Encyclopedia of Early Cinema. Routledge, 2005.
Special Jury Prize:
Daniel Goldmark. Tunes for ‘Toons: Music and the Hollywood Cartoon. University of California Press, 2005.
2005
Rick Altman. Silent Film Sound. Columbia University Press, 2004.
Special Jury Prize:
Ray Harryhausen and Tony Dalton. Ray Harryhausen: An Animated Life. Billboard Books, 2004.
2004
Scott Simmon. The Invention of the Western Film: A Cultural History of the Genre’s First Half Century. Cambridge University Press, 2003.
Special Jury Prize:
James Curtis. W. C. Fields: A Biography. Alfred A. Knopf, 2003.
2003
Mark Cotta Vaz and Craig Barron. The Invisible Art: The Legends of Movie Matte Painting. Chronicle Books, 2002.
Honorable Mention:
Louis Pizzitola. Hearst Over Hollywood: Power, Passion and Propaganda in the Movies. Columbia University Press, 2002.
2002
Gary Giddins. Bing Crosby: A Pocketful of Dreams–The Early Years, 1903-1940. Little Brown & Company, 2001.
Honorable Mention:
James Sanders. Celluloid Skyline: New York and the Movies. Alfred A. Knopf, 2001.
2001
Pearl Bowser and Louise Spence. Writing Himself into History: Oscar Micheaux, His Silent Films, and His Audiences. Rutgers University Press, 2000.
Honorable Mention:
Alan Dale. Comedy is a Man in Trouble: Slapstick in American Movies. University of Minnesota Press, 2000.
Mark Evan Swartz. Oz Before the Rainbow: L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz on Stage and Screen to 1939. John Hopkins University Press, 2000 (also a Freedley Award Finalist).
2000
Thomas Doherty. Pre-Code Hollywood: Sex, Immorality, and Insurrection in American Cinema, 1930-1934. Columbia University Press, 1999.
Honorable Mention:
Eric Schaefer. Bold! Daring! Shocking! True!: A History of Exploitation Films, 1919-1959.Duke University Press, 1999.
1999
Steven J. Ross. Working Class Hollywood: Silent Film and the Shaping of Class in America. Princeton University Press, 1998.
Honorable Mention:
Charles Musser. Edison Motion Pictures, 1890-1900: An Annotated Filmography. Smithsonian Institution Press, 1998.
1998
Cari Beauchamp. Without Lying Down: Frances Marion and the Powerful Women of Early Hollywood. Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1997.
Honorable Mention:
Donald C. Crafton. The Talkies: Hollywood Sound Cinema, 1926-1931. Charles Scribner’s Sons/Twayne, 1997.
1997
Geoffrey Nowell-Smith.The Oxford History of World Cinema. Oxford University Press, 1996.
Honorable Mention:
Frank Walsh. Sin and Censorship: The Catholic Church and the Motion Picture Industry. Yale University Press, 1996.
1996
Gregory A. Waller. Main Street Amusements: Movies and Commercial Entertainment in a Southern City, 1896-1930. Smithsonian Institution, 1995.
Honorable Mention:
Richard Barrios. A Song in the Dark: The Birth of the Musical Film. Oxford University Press, 1995.
1995
Richard Abel. The Cine Goes to Town: French Cinema, 1896-1914. University of California Press, 1994.
Honorable Mention:
Neal Gabler. Winchell: Gossip, Power, and the Culture of Celebrity. Knopf, 1994.
1994
David Bordwell. The Cinema of Eisenstein. Harvard University Press, 1993.
Honorable Mention:
Ed Guerrero. Framing Blackness: The African American Image in Film. Temple University Press, 1993.
1993
Donald Kirihara. Patterns of Time: Mizoguchi and the 1930s. University of Wisconsin Press, 1992.
Honorable Mention:
Douglas Gomery. Shared Pleasures: A History of Movie Presentation in the United States. University of Wisconsin Press, 1992.
1992
Tom Gunning. D. W. Griffith and the Origins of American Narrative Film: The Early Years at Biograph. University of Illinois Press, 1991.
Honorable Mention:
Melvin Patrick Ely. The Adventures of Amos ‘n’ Andy: A Social History of an American Phenomenon. The Free Press, 1991.
1991
Charles Musser. The Emergence of Cinema: The American Screen to 1907. Part of The History of the American Cinema Series. Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1990.
Honorable Mention:
Kevin Brownlow. Behind the Mask of Innocence. Knopf, 1990.
1990
Charles J. Maland. Chaplin and American Culture: The Evolution of a Star Image. Princeton University Press, 1989.
Honorable Mention:
Edward Baron Turk. Child of Paradise: Marcel Carné, and the Golden Age of French Cinema. Harvard University Press, 1989.
1989
Neal Gabler. An Empire of Their Own: How the Jews Invented Hollywood. Crown Publisher, 1988.
Honorable Mention:
Joseph E. Persico. Edward R. Murrow: An American Original. McGraw-Hill, 1988.
1988
John Canemaker. Winsor McCay: His Life and Art. Abbeville Press, 1987.
Honorable Mention:
John Sayles. Thinking in Pictures: The Making of the Movie “Matewan”. Houghton Mifflin, 1987.
1987
Ann M. Sperber. Murrow: His Life and Times. Freundlich, 1986.
Honorable Mention:
Donald Albrecht. Designing Dreams: Modern Architecture in the Movies. Harper & Row, 1986.
1986
The TLA Award was not presented in 1986.
1985
Richard Abel. French Cinema: The First Wave, 1915-1929. Princeton University Press, 1984.
1984
Richard Roud. A Passion for Films: Henri Langlois and the Cinematheque Française.Viking Press, 1983.
Honorable Mention:
Richard Koszarski. The Man You loved to Hate: Erich von Stroheim and Hollywood. Oxford University Press, 1983.
1983
Jay Leyda and Zina Voynow. Einstein at Work. Pantheon/MOMA, 1982.
Honorable Mention:
Thomas Nelson. Kubrick: Inside a Film Artist’s Maze. Indiana University Press, 1982.
1982
William Alexander. Film on the Left: American Documentary Film from 1931 to 1942. Princeton University Press, 1981.
1981
Kevin Brownlow and John Kobal. Hollywood: The Pioneers. Knopf, 1980.
Honorable Mention:
Alexander Sesonske. Jean Renoir: The French Films, 1924-1939. Harvard University Press, 1980.
1980
Herbert J. Gans. Deciding What’s News: A Study of CBS Evening News, NBC Nightly News, Newsweek and Time. Pantheon, 1979.
Honorable Mention:
James Monaco. American Film Now: The People, the Power, the Money, the Movies. Oxford University Press, 1979.
1979
Kevin Brownlow. The War, the West and the Wilderness. Knopf, 1978.
1978
Mira and Antonin J. Liehm. The Most Important Art: East European Film After 1945. University of California Press, 1977.
1977
Fred W. Friendly. The Good Guys, the Bad Guys and the First Amendment: Free Speech and Fairness in Broadcasting. Random House, 1976.
1976
Robert J. Sklar. Movie-Made America: A Social History of American Movies. Random House, 1975.
1975
Gerald S. Lesser. Children and Television: Lessons from Sesame Street. Random House, 1974.
1974
Donald Bogle. Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, and Bucks: An Interpretative History of Blacks in American Films. Viking Press, 1973.
Honorable Mention:
David C. Yellin. Special: Fred Freed and the Television Documentary. Macmillan, 1973.