After our discussion of the Pulitzer Prize earlier in the week, I thought it would be fascinating to discuss the history of the award. The Pulitzer Prize is named after a man named Joseph Pulitzer, who lived from 1847 to 1911. His entry into the world of journalism came in 1868, when he was observing a chess match between two journalist who worked for the Westliche Post. Pulitzer was highly critical of one of the chess moves made – which impressed the two gentleman. They offered him a job for the paper, and from there a career was started. At the age of 25, Pulitzer became publisher of the paper, and continued to work his way up, eventually becoming the owner of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. He would then maneuver his way into ownership of The New York World. With his use of sensationalized features and illustrations The New York World quickly became the nation’s most widely circulated paper.
Image taken from pulitzer.org
In 1904, Pulitzer called for the founding of a school of journalism. Sadly, he passed away in 1912 prior to the opening of the school. However, one year after his death, the Columbia School of Journalism opened. Pulitzer had set up in his will a fund to establish the Pulitzer Prize, which originally was intended to award these prizes: four awards in journalism, four in letters and drama, one for education, and four traveling scholarships. In 1917, the first Pulitzer Prize was awarded.
The first winner for the category of the novel was announced in 1918: Tales of the South Pacific by James A. Michener. In 1946, this category was renamed “fiction”. Here is a short list of some other notable fiction award winners:
1937 Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
1940 The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
1947 All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren
1953 The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
1961 To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
1983 The Color Purple by Alice Walker
1986 Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
1994 The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx
2007 The Road by Cormac McCarthy
2014 The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
Image taken from goldfinches.com
The judging process is a complicated procedure that begins with a jury. For each category the jury consists of 3 to 7 members who are both experts in their field and often former Pulitzer Prize winners. Each jury then presents the board with three nominees. The 19 or 20 board members then read the three pieces of literature, and declare the winner. The prize is awarded with the idea of excellence and author aspiration in mind.
Occasionally there is a year when no prize is awarded. This happens when the nominees of a category do not receive a majority vote.
All of my research for this blog was done via pulitzer.org.
I found this blog terribly interesting. I knew that the Pulitzer prize was awarded to great American novels but I had no idea that it was spawned from something more akin to journalism. I also found the bit about the chess match to be very cool. I wonder just what could he have said about one chess move that appeared in so critical and developed a color as to have garnered him a job! Its too bad that he passed away before his school was opened, but it is nice to know that he will be honored forever in the administering of his name as a prize for greatness.