Years indicate when annual TIL meetings took place. Until 1955, eligible books were published between
August 1 of the meeting year and the previous August 1. No awards were given in 1954, and beginning in 1955, eligible entries had to be published in the calendar year preceding the annual meeting.
1950
Carr P. Collins Prose Book Award ($1,000): Karankaway Country (University of Texas Press, 1950), by Roy Bedichek
A. Harris & Co. Award for ‘Texans Whose Careers in the Creative Arts are of National Significance’ ($1,000): Co-Winners — J. Frank Dobie for nonfiction and Katherine Anne Porter for fiction.
McMurray Bookshop Award for Best First Novel $250): The House of Breath (Random House, 1950), by William Goyen.
Dadaelian Poetry Award: Being in Night (Kaleidograph, 1949), by Mary Poole.
Cokesbury Bookstore Award for Best Children’s Book ($50): Johnny Texas (Wilcox & Follett, 1950), by Carol Hoff.
Dallas Museum of Fine Arts Award for Best Book Design $50):The Journey of Fray Marcos de Niz (University Press in Dallas, 1949), edited and translated by Cleve Hallenbeck. Designed by Carl Hertzog.
1951
Carr P. Collins Prose Book Award ($1,000): Gail Borden, Dairyman to a Nation (University of Oklahoma Press, 1951), by Joe B.Frantz.
Summerfield G. Roberts Award of the Sons of the Republic of Texas for Best Book on the Texas Republic, Regardless of Publication Date ($1,000): Stephen F. Austin (Cokesbury Press, 1925). by Eugene C. Barker.
McMurray Bookshop Award for Best First Novel $250): I and Claudie (Little, Brown, 1951), by Dillon Anderson.
Texas State College for Women Dadaelian Quarterly Poetry Award ($100): Furrow with Blackbirds (Kaleidograph, 1951), by Arthur M. Sampley.
Cokesbury Bookstore Award for Best Children’s Book ($50): Lonesome Longhorn (Westminster Press, 1951), by John Latham.
Dallas Museum of Fine Arts Award for Best Book Design $50): The Florida of the Inca (University of Texas Press, 1951), edited and translated by John and Jeannette Varner. Designed by Frank Wardlaw.
1952
Carr P. Collins Prose Book Award ($1,000): The Mustangs (Little, Brown, 1952), by J. Frank Dobie.
Summerfield G. Roberts Award of the Sons of the Republic of Texas for Best Book on the Texas Republic ($1,000): Fort Concho (San Angelo Standard-Times, 1952), by J. Evetts Haley.
McMurray Bookshop Award for Best First Novel $250): The Blind Bull (Abelard Press, 1952), by George Williams.
North Texas State College Poetry Award: Kneel to the Stone (Kaleidograph, 1952) by William D. Barney.
Cokesbury Bookstore Award for Best Children’s Book ($50): A Month of Christmases (Longmans, Green, 1952), by Siddie Joe Johnson.
Dallas Museum of Fine Arts Award for Best Book Design $50): The Typical Texan (Southern Methodist University Press), by Joseph Leach. Designed by Carl Hertzog.
1953
Carr P. Collins Prose Book Award ($1,000): The Great Frontier (Houghton- Mifflin, 1952), by Walter Prescott Webb.
Summerfield G. Roberts Award of the Sons of the Republic of Texas for Best Book on the Texas Republic ($1,000): Shanghai Pierce: A Fair Likeness (University of Oklahoma Press, 1953), by Chris Emmett.
McMurray Bookshop Award for Best First Novel $250): Sironia, Texas (Houghton-Mifflin, 1952), by Madison Cooper.
A. Harris & Co. Poetry Award ($100): The Hidden Harp (Kaleidograph, 1952), by Robert Lee Brothers.
Cokesbury Bookstore Award for Best Children’s Book ($50): Magic for Mary M. (David McKay), by Charlotte Baker Montgomery.
Dallas Museum of Fine Arts Award for Best Book Design $50):Life on the Texas Range (University of Texas Press), Photographs by E. E. Smith; text by J. Evetts Haley. Designed by Frank Wardlaw.
1954
NO AWARDS GIVEN
1955
Carr P. Collins Prose Book Award ($1,000): Great River: The Rio Grande in American History (Rinehart, 1954), by Paul Horgan.
Summerfield G. Roberts Award of the Sons of the Republic of Texas for Best Book on the Texas Republic ($1,000): Sam Houston: The Great Designer (University of Texas Press, 1954), by Llerena Friend.
McMurray Bookshop Award for Best First Novel ($250): Walking on Borrowed Land (Bobbs-Merrill, 1954), by William A. Owens.
McMurray Bookshop Special Award for Biography ($250) : Life of David Hume (University of Texas Press, 1954), by Ernest C. Mossner.
A. Harris & Co. Award for Best Book of Poetry ($100): Man Now (SMU Press, 1954), by William Burford.
Cokesbury Bookstore Award for Best Children’s Book ($50): Lone Star Fight (Dodd-Mead, 1954), by Irmengarde Eberle.
Dallas Museum of Fine Arts Award for Best Book Design ($50): Renaissance Dictionaries (University of Texas Press, 1954), by DeWitt T. Starnes. Designed by Van Courtright Walton.
1956
Carr P. Collins Prose Book Award ($1,000): The Road to Spindletop (SMU Press, 1955), by John S. Spratt.
Sons of the Republic of Texas Summerfield G. Roberts Award for Best Book on the Republic of Texas ($1,000): Bells Over Texas (Texas Western Press, 1955), by Bessie Lee Fitzhugh.
McMurray Bookshop Award for Best First Novel $250): Recollection Creek (Harper, 1955), by Fred Gipson.
TIL Poetry Award ($100): Permitted Proof (Kaleidograph, 1955), by William D. Barney.
Cokesbury Bookstore Award for Best Children’s Book ($100): The Trail-Driving Rooster (Harper, 1955), by Fred Gipson.
Dallas Museum of Fine Arts Award for Best Book Design $50): Bells Over Texas (Texas Western Press, 1955) , by Bessie Lee Fitzhugh. Designed by Carl Hertzog.
1957
Carr P. Collins Award for Best Texas Book ($1,000): Educational Competition: The Story of the University Interscholastic League (University of Texas Press, 1956), by Roy Bedichek.
McMurray Bookshop Award for Best First Novel ($250): The Hope of Refuge (Little, Brown, 1956), by Sikes Johnson.
Southwest Review Award for Best Book of Verse ($25): Adam’s Footprint (New Orleans Poetry Journal), by Vassar Miller.
Cokesbury Bookstore Award for Best Children’s Book ($50): How Medicine Man Buried Paleface Woman (Scott), by Jessie Brewer McGaw.
Dallas Museum of Fine Arts Award for Best Book Design ($50): Early Texas Homes (SMU Press, 1956), by D.K. Bracken and M. W. Redway. Designed by Ed Bearden
1958
Carr P. Collins Award for Best Texas Book ($1,000): Mighty Stonewall (McGraw-Hill, 1957), by FrankVandiver.
McMurray Bookshop Award for Best First Novel ($250): The Price of Courage (Sagamore Press, 1957), by Curt Anders.
Special Citation of Excellence in Translation: Platero and I (University of Texas Press, 1957), translated from the Spanish of Juan Ramon Jimenez by Eloise Roach.
Cokesbury Bookstore Award for Best Children’s Book ($50): Tame the Wild Stallion (Prentice-Hall, 1957), by J R. Williams.
Dallas Museum of Fine Arts Award for Best Book Design ($50): The King Ranch (Carl Hertzog), by Tom Lea. Design by Carl Hertzog (and Tom Lea).
1959
Carr P. Collins Award for Best Texas Book ($1,000): Thirteen Days to Glory (McGraw-Hill, 1958), by LonTinkle.
McMurray Bookshop Award for Best Texas First Novel ($250): Home from the Hill (Alfred A. Knopf, 1958), by William Humphrey.
Cokesbury Bookstore Award for Best Children’s Book ($50): Coronado and His Captains (Follett Publishing Co., 1958), by Camilla Campbell.
Dallas Museum of Fine Arts Award for Best Book Design ($50): Interwoven (University of Texas Press, 1958), by S. R.Matthews. Design by Carl Hertzog
