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Pulitzer Prize for Fiction

American award for distinguished novels From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
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The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes that are annually awarded for Letters, Drama, and Music. It recognizes distinguished fiction by an American author, preferably dealing with American life, published during the preceding calendar year.[citation needed]

As the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel (awarded 1918–1947), it was one of the original Pulitzers; the program was inaugurated in 1917 with seven prizes, four of which were awarded that year[1] (no Novel prize was awarded in 1917, the first one having been granted in 1918).[2]

The name was changed to the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1948, and eligibility was expanded to also include short stories, novellas, novelettes, and poetry, as well as novels.[citation needed]

Finalists have been announced since 1980, usually a total of three.[2]

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Definition

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As defined in the original Plan of Award, the prize was given "Annually, for the American novel published during the year which shall best present the wholesome atmosphere of American life, and the highest standard of American manners and manhood," although there was some struggle over whether the word wholesome should be used instead of whole, the word Pulitzer had written in his will.[3] In 1927, the advisory board quietly instituted Pulitzer's word choice, replacing wholesome with whole.

A new consideration arose when the Pulitzer jury was unanimous in recommending Thornton Wilder's The Bridge of San Luis Rey for the 1928 prize, although the book deals with Peruvians in Peru, not with Americans in America. The jury chair, Richard Burton of Columbia University, emphasized the moral value of the book in his report to the advisory board: "This piece of fiction is not only an admirable example of literary skill in the art of fiction, but also possesses a philosophic import and a spiritual elevation which greatly increases its literary value." Robert Morss Lovett disagreed, saying it would be "mere subterfuge to say that it has anything to do with the highest standard of American manners and manhood," but went along with the jury in finding "less literary merit" in the other novels under discussion. (Lovett rejected the runner-up Black April by Julia Peterkin, calling it "a rather unedifying picture of life in a primitive negro community" and "an ironical answer to the terms on which the prize is offered." Peterkin won nevertheless in 1929 for a similar novel, Scarlet Sister Mary.) Having settled on Bridge, the Advisory Board redefined the conditions from "whole atmosphere of American life, and the highest standard of American manners and manhood" to "preferably one which shall best present the whole atmosphere of American life," although this did not address the novel's setting.[4] Further refinement into "the best novel published that year by an American author" removed any impediment to Pearl S. Buck's The Good Earth in 1932, also with a foreign setting in its study of Chinese village life in Anhui, East China.[5]

With 1929 came the first of several much more substantive changes. The board changed the wording to "preferably one which shall best present the whole atmosphere of American life" and deleted the insistence that the novel portray "the highest standard of American manners and manhood". In 1936, emphasis was changed again, with the award going to "a distinguished novel published during the year by an American author, preferably dealing with American life". In 1948, the advisory board widened the scope of the award with the wording "For distinguished fiction published in book form during the year by an American author, preferably dealing with American life."[3] This change allowed the prize to go to a collection of short stories for the first time, James Michener's Tales of the South Pacific.

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Winners

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In 31 years under the "Novel" name, the prize was awarded 27 times; in its first 76 years to 2024 under the "Fiction" name, 70 times. There have been 11 years during which no title received the award. It was shared by two authors for the first time in 2023.[2] Since this category's inception in 1918, 31 women have won the prize. Four authors have won two prizes each in the Fiction category: Booth Tarkington, William Faulkner, John Updike, and Colson Whitehead.

Because the award is for books published in the preceding calendar year, the "Year" column links to the preceding year in literature.

1910s to 1970s

More information Year, Winner ...

1980s to 2020s

Entries from this point on include the finalists listed for each year.

More information Year, Winner ...
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Repeat winners

Four writers to date have won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction multiple times, one nominally in the novel category and two in the general fiction category. Ernest Hemingway was selected by the 1941 and 1953 juries, but the former was overturned with no award given that year.[s]

Authors with multiple nominations

4 nominations

3 nominations

2 nominations

Notes

  1. [a]
    The 1918 jury gave honorable mention to Bromley Neighborhood by Alice Brown.[6]
  2. [b]
    In 1920, first-time fiction juror Stuart P. Sherman initially recommended Java Head by Joseph Hergesheimer for the award; he rescinded his recommendation when the other jurors informed him that the word "whole" in a key phrase of the original description of the award, "the whole atmosphere of American life", had subsequently been changed to "wholesome".[7]
  3. [c]
    Juror Robert Morss Lovett wrote in the June 22, 1921 issue of The New Republic that in fact the jury had preferred Main Street by Sinclair Lewis. The Pulitzer board overturned their decision. The man with the deciding vote may have been Nicholas Murray Butler. Lovett thought the public had a right to know that the jury had chosen another book. Lewis was angry but wrote her a congratulatory note. Wharton wrote back, "When I discovered that I was being rewarded — by one of our leading Universities — for uplifting American morals, I confess I did despair. Subsequently, when I found the prize shd really have been yours, but was withdrawn because your book (I quote from memory) had 'offended a number of prominent persons in the Middle West,' disgust was added to despair."
  4. [d]
    The 1925 jury was split between whether the prize should go to Balisand by Joseph Hergesheimer, Plumes by Lawrence Stallings or eventual winner So Big by Edna Ferber.[9]
  5. [e]
    In 1926, Sinclair Lewis declined the prize for Arrowsmith. The jury stated Arrowsmith was "best deserving the award," and also deemed Porgy by DuBose Heyward and The Smiths by Janet Ayer Fairbank "worthy competitors."[10]
  6. [f]
    The 1928 jury unanimously recommended Thornton Wilder's The Bridge of San Luis Rey. The jury also considered Black April by Julia Peterkin, The Grandmothers by Glenway Wescott, Islanders by Helen Rose Hull and A Yankee Passional by Samuel Ornitz.[11]
  7. [g]
    The 1929 jury recommended Victim and Victor by John Rathbone Oliver for the prize. However, the Advisory Board named the jury's runner-up, Scarlet Sister Mary by Julia Peterkin, as the winner.[12]
  8. [h]
    The 1930 jury was split between It's a Great War by Mary Lee, Laughing Boy by Oliver La Farge and Look Homeward, Angel by Thomas Wolfe, ultimately recommending Laughing Boy as their consensus choice.[13]
  9. [i]
    The 1931 jury shortlisted The Deepening Stream by Dorothy Canfield Fisher, The Great Meadow by Elizabeth Madox Roberts and their top-ranked choice Years of Grace by Margaret Ayer Barnes.[14]
  10. [j]
    The 1932 jury was asked by Advisory Board secretary Frank D. Fackenthal to "list the books in the order of the jury's choice without indicating the ins and outs of the vote." Their report said that they had also "favorably considered" The Lady Who Came to Stay by R.E. Spencer and Shadows on the Rock by Willa Cather, noting "it's a rare year when three such excellent novels appear."[5]
  11. [k]
    The 1933 jury also considered God's Angry Man by Leonard Ehrlich, The Pilot Comes Aboard by Will Levington Comfort, Sons of the Martian by Donald C. Peattie and To Make My Bread by Grace Lumpkin.[15]
  12. [l]
    The 1934 jury was not unanimous, but recommended A Watch in the Night by Helen C. White as their "majority choice", with Lamb in His Bosom by Caroline Miller a "close second" and No More Sea by Wilson Follett a "good third." The Advisory Board named Lamb in His Bosom as the winner.[16]
  13. [m]
    The 1935 jury was not unanimous and sent a list of titles for recommendation: The American by Louis Dodge, The Folks by Ruth Suckow, The Foundry by Albert Halper, Goodbye to the Past by W. R. Burnett, Land of Plenty by Robert Cantwell, Now in November by Josephine Winslow Johnson, Slim by William Wister Haines and So Red the Rose by Stark Young. The Advisory Board selected Now in November as the winner.[17]
  14. [n]
    The 1936 jury submitted a ranked list with eventual winner Honey in the Horn by Harold L. Davis first, followed in order by This Body the Earth by Paul Green, Time Out of Mind by Rachel Field, Ollie Miss by George Wylie Henderson, Deep Dark River by Robert Rylee and Blessed Is the Man by Louis Zara.[18]
  15. [o]
    The 1937 jury also recommended Drums Along the Mohawk by Walter D. Edmonds, The Last Puritan by George Santayana, Mountain Path by Harriette Simpson Arnow, Three Bags Full by Roger Burlingame and Yang and Yin by Alice Tisdale Hobart.[19]
  16. [p]
    The 1938 jury recommended The Late George Apley by John Phillips Marquand based on majority vote, also shortlisting Northwest Passage by Kenneth Roberts and Sound of Running Feet by Josephine Lawrence.[20]
  17. [q]
    The 1939 jury unanimously recommended The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, also shortlisting All This and Heaven Too by Rachel Field, Black Is My True Love's Hair by Elizabeth Madox Roberts, May Flavin by Myron Brinig and Renown by Frank O. Hough.[21]
  18. [r]
    The 1940 jury unanimously recommended The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, also shortlisting Escape by Ethel Vance, Night Rider by Robert Penn Warren, Seasoned Timber by Dorothy Canfield Fisher and To the End of the World by Helen C. White.[22]
  19. [s]
    The 1941 jury had recommended the award be shared by The Ox-Bow Incident by Walter Van Tilburg Clark and The Trees by Conrad Richter. While the Pulitzer Board initially intended to give the award to the jury's third choice, Ernest Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls, the president of Columbia University, Nicholas Murray Butler, persuaded the board to reverse its judgment because he deemed the novel offensive, and no award was given that year.[7][23]
  20. [t]
    The 1942 jury's report stated that "none of the novels brought to its attention seemed of really outstanding merit... but since it is probably inadvisable to omit the award for two successive years, a list of possibilities is here submitted." Their shortlist consisted of The Great Big Doorstep by E. P. O'Donnell, Green Centuries by Caroline Gordon, Storm by George R. Stewart and Windswept by Mary Ellen Chase. The Advisory Board bypassed the jury's selections, recommending eventual winner In This Our Life by Ellen Glasgow.[24]
  21. [u]
    The 1943 jury unanimously recommended Dragon's Teeth by Upton Sinclair. They also considered The Just and the Unjust by James Gould Cozzens and The Valley of Decision by Marcia Davenport.[25]
  22. [v]
    The 1944 jury also shortlisted Indigo by Christine Goutiere Weston, So Little Time by John P. Marquand and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith.[26]
  23. [w]
    The 1945 jury also shortlisted Colcorton by Edith Pope and The History of Rome Hanks and Kindred Matters by Joseph Pennell.[27]
  24. [x]
    The 1946 jury shortlisted Apartment in Athens by Glenway Wescott, Black Boy by Richard Wright and The Wayfarers by Dan Wickenden. The jury as a whole could not reach a consensus; one point of contention over Black Boy specifically was that the book is a memoir, not a novel.[7]
  25. [y]
    The 1947 jury submitted ranked choices with The Fields by Conrad Richter as their top choice, followed by East River by Sholem Asch in second, eventual winner All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren and The Street by Ann Petry in a tie for third, and B.F.'s Daughter by John P. Marquand in a distant fifth.[28]
  26. [z]
    The 1948 jury submitted ranks choices with The Big Sky by A. B. Guthrie Jr. as their top choice, followed by Knock on Any Door by Willard Motley in second, The Garretson Chronicle by Gerald Warner Brace in third, The Stoic by Theodore Dreiser in fourth, The Gallery by John Horne Burns and eventual winner Tales of the South Pacific by James A. Michener in a tie for fifth.[29]
  27. [aa]
    The 1949 jury also shortlisted The Ides of March by Thornton Wilder, The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer and The Young Lions by Irwin Shaw.[30]
  28. [ab]
    The 1950 jury also shortlisted The Brave Bulls by Tom Lea and Hunter's Horn by Harriette Simpson Arnow.[31]
  29. [ac]
    The 1951 jury recommended The Wall by John Hersey for the prize. Asked to provide additional suggestions, they reiterated their support for The Wall, but also shortlisted Debbie by Max Steele, eventual winner The Town by Conrad Richter and World Enough and Time by Robert Penn Warren.[32]
  30. [ad]
    The 1952 jury also shortlisted Jenkins' Ear by William and Odell Shepard.[33]
  31. [ae]
    The two-man 1953 jury separately submitted ranked lists. One juror listed Jefferson Selleck by Carl Jonas first while the other listed eventual winner The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway first.[34]
  32. [af]
    The two-man 1954 jury could not agree on a single book to recommend to the Advisory Board, so no award was given; among the books recommended by juror Eric P. Kelly were Ramey by Jack D. Ferris, The Sands of Karakorum by James Ullman, The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow, and The Four Lives of Mundy Tolliver by Ben Lucien Burman, while juror Harris F. Fletcher recommended The Street of the Three Friends by Myron Brinig and The Deep Sleep by Wright Morris[7]
  33. [ag]
    The 1954 jury unanimously recommended The Last Hunt by Milton Lott. The Pulitzer board selected the jury's second place choice, A Fable by William Faulkner, as the winner.[35]
  34. [ah]
    The 1955 jury unanimously recommended Andersonville by MacKinlay Kantor. Their report qualified that "the runners-up in the field seem far behind," but they also shortlisted Band of Angels by Robert Penn Warren and Ten North Frederick by John O'Hara.[36]
  35. [ai]
    The 1957 jury recommended The Voice at the Back Door by Elizabeth Spencer for the prize, further shortlisting The Last Hurrah by Edwin O'Connor. The Pulitzer board chose to give no award.[37]
  36. [aj]
    The 1958 jury recommended By Love Possessed by James Gould Cozzens for the prize. They also provided a shortlist of other contenders led by eventual winner A Death in the Family by James Agee, followed in order by The Wapshot Chronicle by John Cheever, The Assistant by Bernard Malamud, The Town by William Faulkner, The Weather of February by Hollis Summers, The Goblins of Eros by Warren Eyster and The Velvet Horn by Andrew Nelson Lytle.[38]
  37. [ak]
    The 1959 jury recommended From the Terrace by John O'Hara for the prize. The Pulitzer board selected the jury's second choice, The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters by Robert Lewis Taylor, as the winner. Home from the Hill by William Humphrey was the jury's third choice.[39]
  38. [al]
    The 1960 jury recommended Henderson the Rain King by Saul Bellow for the prize, also shortlisting Dance Back the Buffalo by Milton Lott, Hawaii by James A. Michener and The Mansion by William Faulkner. The Pulitzer board substituted their own choice: Advise and Consent by Allen Drury.[40]
  39. [am]
    The 1961 jury listed The Child Buyer by John Hersey as runner-up and gave honorable mention to Lament for a City by Henry Beetle Hough and A Separate Peace by John Knowles.[41]
  40. [an]
    The 1962 jury shortlisted The Chateau by William Maxwell and Clock Without Hands by Carson McCullers.[42]
  41. [ao]
    The 1963 jury recommended Ship of Fools by Katherine Anne Porter for the prize. The Pulitzer board selected the jury's second place choice, The Reivers by William Faulkner, as the winner. The jury also commended A Long and Happy Life by Reynolds Price.[43]
  42. [ap]
    "Among the books the judges most seriously considered were the following: (1) Norman Fruchter's Coat Upon a Stick…, (2) May Sarton's novella Joanna and Ulysses…, (3) Sumner Locke Elliott's Careful, He Might Hear You…, [and] (4) John Killens' And Then We Heard the Thunder… If a prize were to be awarded for a 1963 novel we felt these to be the most serious candidates." However, the fiction jury ultimately recommended that no award be given because "no one of them imposes itself upon us as demanding recognition as 'distinguished fiction'…."[7]
  43. [aq]
    The 1966 jury shortlisted Miss MacIntosh, My Darling by Marguerite Young.[44]
  44. [ar]
    The 1968 jury was split. They offered The Eighth Day by Thornton Wilder as a consensus selection, also having considered All the Little Live Things by Wallace Stegner. Two jurors submitted The Manor by Isaac Bashevis Singer as a majority opinion while The Confessions of Nat Turner by William Styron, presented as a minority opinion by one jury member, was selected as the eventual winner.[45]
  45. [as]
    The 1969 jury chose A World of Profit by Louis Auchincloss as their second choice and And Other Stories by John O'Hara as their third choice.[46]
  46. [at]
    The 1970 jury recommended Them by Joyce Carol Oates for the prize. The Pulitzer board awarded the first runner-up, Collected Stories by Jean Stafford. The jury also listed Bullet Park by John Cheever as second runner-up.[47]
  47. [au]
    The 1971 jury put forth three novels for consideration to the Pulitzer board: Losing Battles by Eudora Welty, Mr. Sammler's Planet by Saul Bellow and The Wheel of Love by Joyce Carol Oates. The board rejected all three and opted for no award.[48]
  48. [av]
    The 1972 jury unanimously recommended Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner for the prize. They also shortlisted Love in the Ruins by Walker Percy and The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman by Ernest J. Gaines and suggested Death of the Fox by George Garrett for special commendation.[49]
  49. [aw]
    The 1974 jury unanimously recommended Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon for the prize. The Pulitzer board, which has sole discretion for awarding the prize, made no award. The jury also shortlisted The World of Apples by John Cheever and Burr by Gore Vidal.[50][23]
  50. [ax]
    The 1976 jury shortlisted Are We There Yet? by Diane Vreul, The Dead Father by Donald Barthelme, Ragtime by E. L. Doctorow and The Surface of Earth by Reynolds Price.[51]
  51. [ay]
    The 1977 jury recommended A River Runs Through It by Norman MacLean for the prize. The Pulitzer board, which has sole discretion for awarding the prize, made no award. They also shortlisted The Franchiser by Stanley Elkin and October Light by John Gardner.[52][23]
  52. [az]
    The 1978 jury unanimously recommended Elbow Room by James Alan McPherson for the prize. They also considered Earthly Possessions by Anne Tyler, In the Miro District and Other Stories by Peter Taylor, Over by the River and Other Stories by William Maxwell and The Thin Mountain Air by Paul Horgan.[53]
  53. [ba]
    The 1979 jury unanimously recommended The Stories of John Cheever by John Cheever for the prize. They also shortlisted Continental Drift by James D. Houston and The World According to Garp by John Irving.[54]
  54. [bb]
    "A collection of 13 short stories set in small-town Maine that packs a cumulative emotional wallop, bound together by polished prose and by Olive, the title character, blunt, flawed and fascinating."[55]
  55. [bc]
    "A powerful celebration of life in which a New England father and son, through suffering and joy, transcend their imprisoning lives and offer new ways of perceiving the world and mortality."[56]
  56. [bd]
    "An inventive investigation of growing up and growing old in the digital age, displaying a big-hearted curiosity about cultural change at warp speed."[57]
  57. [be]
    "An exquisitely crafted novel that carries the reader on an adventuresome journey into the depths of totalitarian North Korea and into the most intimate spaces of the human heart."[59]
  58. [bf]
    "A beautifully written coming-of-age novel with exquisitely drawn characters that follows a grieving boy's entanglement with a small famous painting that has eluded destruction, a book that stimulates the mind and touches the heart."[60]
  59. [bg]
    "An imaginative and intricate novel inspired by the horrors of World War II and written in short, elegant chapters that explore human nature and the contradictory power of technology."[61]
  60. [bh]
    "A layered immigrant tale told in the wry, confessional voice of a "man of two minds" -- and two countries, Vietnam and the United States."[62]
  61. [bi]
    "For a smart melding of realism and allegory that combines the violence of slavery and the drama of escape in a myth that speaks to contemporary America."[63]
  62. [bj]
    "A generous book, musical in its prose and expansive in its structure and range, about growing older and the essential nature of love."[64]
  63. [bk]
    "An ingeniously structured narrative that branches and canopies like the trees at the core of the story whose wonder and connectivity echo those of the humans living amongst them."[65]
  64. [bl]
    "A spare and devastating exploration of abuse at a reform school in Jim Crow-era Florida that is ultimately a powerful tale of human perseverance, dignity and redemption."[66]
  65. [bm]
    "A majestic, polyphonic novel about a community’s efforts to halt the proposed displacement and elimination of several Native American tribes in the 1950s, rendered with dexterity and imagination."[67]
  66. [bn]
    "A mordant, linguistically deft historical novel about the ambiguities of the Jewish American experience, presenting ideas and disputes as volatile as its tightly-wound plot."[68]
  67. [bo]
    "A riveting novel set in a bygone America that explores family, wealth and ambition through linked narratives rendered in different literary styles, a complex examination of love and power in a country where capitalism is king."[70]
  68. [bp]
    "A masterful recasting of “David Copperfield,” narrated by an Appalachian boy whose wise, unwavering voice relates his encounters with poverty, addiction, institutional failures and moral collapse–and his efforts to conquer them.[71]
  69. [bq]
    "A beautifully rendered novel set in West Virginia's Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in the aftermath of the Civil War, where a severely wounded Union veteran, a 12-year-old girl and her mother, long abused by a Confederate soldier, struggle to heal."[72]
  70. [br]
    "An accomplished reconsideration of ‘Huckleberry Finn’ that gives agency to Jim to illustrate the absurdity of racial supremacy and provide a new take on the search for family and freedom."[73]
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