This supplement volume documents the complete history of the development of the awards in the category drama. The presentation is mainly based on primary sources from the Pulitzer Prize Office at the New York Columbia University. The most important sources are the confidential jury protocols, reproduced completely as facsimiles for the first time in this volume, and providing detailed information about each year's evaluation process.

Volume 20 of the series describes the development of the award for Biographies and Autobiographies from 1917 through 2006. In addition, the complete jury reports from this period are reprinted by facsimile. So it can be documented how the annual deliberations went until a winner was selected. Among the prize-winners were John F. Kennedy before his presidency, the diplomat George F. Kennan or the aviator Charles Lindbergh.