Chronicle of the Pulitzer Prizes for fiction : discussions, decisions, and documents PDF
Preview Chronicle of the Pulitzer Prizes for fiction : discussions, decisions, and documents
THE PULITZER PRIZE ARCHIVE A History and Anthology of Award-winning Materials in Journalism, Letters, and Arts Series Editor: Heinz-Dietrich Fischer Ruhr University, Bochum Federal Republic of Germany PART G: SUPPLEMENTS Volume 21 Κ • G • Saur München 2007 Chronicle of the Pulitzer Prizes for Fiction Discussions, Decisions and Documents by Heinz-D. Fischer and Erika J. Fischer Κ • G • Saur München 2007 Gefördert durch Mittel der Stiftung Presse-Haus NRZ Essen Bibliographic information published by Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available in the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de © Printed on acid-free paper © 2007 by Κ. G. Saur Verlag, München An Imprint of Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG Printed in Germany All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system of any nature, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Printed / Bound by Strauss GmbH, Mörlenbach Cover design by Manfred Link, München ISBN 978-3-598-30191-9 ν PREFACE "One does not know precisely," Carlos Baker once stated, "what was in the mind of Joseph Pulitzer... when he realized a long dream and set up his literary prizes," since he was a newspaperman. When the Pulitzer Prizes were started in 1917, within the literature categories one was called "Novel." In 1949 this award group changed its name to "Fiction" to give it a broader basis so that also collections of short stories could be elegible for the prize. Now, after more than nine decades of existence of this award cat- egory one can say that rather often there were controversies between the jurors about the merits of fictional works, and in nine prize years the final decision was: no award! "The establishment of the prizes," in the words of Carlos Baker, "may be seen as a noble device for stirring up interest in American letters... Some of the Pulitzer Prize books in fiction are reasonably accurate mirrors of our native taste in literature. But if we try to measure the Pulitzer books on an absolute scale of value rather than on the relativistic scale of historical worth, how well has the system worked? Has it helped to produce the renaissance in letters that ought probably to be its aim? The best praise of any system is that it works and works for good. The Pulitzer Awards in fiction, as we employ the power of hindsight, seem to rise to, if not always always to maintain, the highest standards." The book at hand tells the fascinating history of the fiction awards and documents the discussions in the groups of nominating jurors and sometimes also among the members of the Pulitzer Prize Board. The complete written jury reports can be found in the second part of this volume, - they are excellent sources for further research in this field. This important material comes from the Pulitzer Prize Office at Columbia University, New York. Special thanks go to Professor Sig Gissler and Mr. Edward M. Kliment, the ad- ministrator of the annual award system. At the Ruhr-University of Bochum, again Mrs. Ingrid Dickhut helped in many ways to realize this book. Bochum, FRG July, 2007 H.-D.F./E.J.F. VII C O N T E N TS PREFACE V HISTORY OF THE AWARD 1 DEVELOPMENT OF THE PULITZER FICTION PRIZE 3 FACSIMILES OF JURY REPORTS 43 1917 AWARD: Winner 45 Jurors 45 Report 46 1918 AWARD: Winner 49 Jurors 49 Report 50 1919 AWARD: Winner 51 Jurors 51 Report 52 1920 AWARD: Winner 61 Jurors 61 Report 62 1921 AWARD: Winner 63 Jurors 63 Report. 64 1922 AWARD: Winner 65 Jurors 65 Report 66 Vlll 1923 AWARD: Winner 67 Jurors 67 Report 68 1924 AWARD: Winner 69 Jurors 69 Report 70 1925 AWARD: Winner 71 Jurors 71 Report 72 1926 AWARD: Winner 77 Jurors 77 Report 78 1927 AWARD: Winner. 83 Jurors 83 Report 84 1928 AWARD: Winner 85 Jurors 85 Report 86 1929 AWARD: Winner 89 Jurors 89 Report 90 1930 AWARD: Winner 95 Jurors 95 Report 96 1931 AWARD: Winner 99 Jurors 99 Report 100 1932 AWARD: Winner... 101 Jurors 101 Report 102 1933 AWARD: Winner 103 Jurors 103 Report 104 IX 1934 AWARD: Winner 109 Jurors 109 Report HO 1935 AWARD: Winner Ill Jurors Ill Report 112 1936 AWARD: Winner 115 Jurors 115 Report 116 1937 AWARD: Winner 119 Jurors 119 Report 120 1938 AWARD: Winner 123 Jurors 123 Report 124 1939 AWARD: Winner 127 Jurors 127 Report 128 1940 AWARD: Winner 129 Jurors 129 Report 130 1941 AWARD: Winner 131 Jurors 131 Report 132 1942 AWARD: Winner 135 Jurors 135 Report 136 1943 AWARD: Winner 145 Jurors 145 Report 146 1944 AWARD: Winner 149 Jurors 149 Report. 150 1945 AWARD: Winner 153 Jurors 153 Report . . . . 154 1946 AWARD: Winner 157 Jurors 157 Report 158 1947 AWARD: Winner 159 Jurors 159 Report 16° 1948 AWARD: Winner 165 Jurors 165 Report 166 1949 AWARD: Winner 169 Jurors 169 Report 170 1950 AWARD: Winner 173 Jurors . , 173 Report 174 1951 AWARD: Winner 175 Jurors 175 Report 176 1952 AWARD: Winner ' 179 Jurors 179 Report 180 1953 AWARD: Winner 193 Jurors 193 Report 194 1954 AWARD: Winner 213 Jurors 213 Report 214 1955 AWARD: Winner 227 Jurors 227 Report 228
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