First fiction was dropped after 1985, leaving only the general fiction and nonfiction awards in 1986, the last year for "American" awards.

Patti Smith won the nonfiction award on Wednesday for her memoir of her relationship with Robert Mapplethorpe.

The nonfiction award went to "Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II."

The general nonfiction award went to "Time, Love, Memory: A Great Biologist and His Quest for the Origins of Behavior."

Bert Holldobler and Edward O. Wilson shared the general nonfiction award for "The Ants," published by Belknap/Harvard University Press.

The following titles won the nonfiction awards.

Following another lively discussion among board members, "The Making of the Atomic Bomb" by Richard Rhodes (Simon & Schuster) won the general nonfiction award.

It became a best seller and won a general nonfiction award from the National Book Critics Circle.

Mr. Wills was a finalist for the nonfiction award twice before, in 1979 for "Inventing America" and in 1973 for "Bare Ruined Choirs."