I thought I'd post this list of novels that have won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction since its inception in 1948. I've highlighted the winners I've read to date (look for the color red) and some are links to my review on GoodReads. Putting this blog post together has given me the goal to significantly improve my percentage. Hope remains that something I write ends up on this list one day. Which of these titles have you read, and did you love them as much as the Pulitzer Prize committee did?
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1948 Tales of the South Pacific by James A. Michener
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1949 Guard of Honor by James Gould Cozzens
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1950 The Way West by A.B. Guthrie
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1951 The Town by Conrad Richter
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1952 The Caine Mutiny by Herman Wouk
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1953 The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
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1954 (no award)
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1955 A Fable by William Faulkner
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1956 Andersonville by MacKinlay Kantor
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1957 (no award)
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1958 A Death in The Family by James Agee (posthumous publication)
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1959 The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters by Robert Lewis Taylor
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1960 Advice and Consent by Allen Drury
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1961 To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
I discuss the "sequel / first draft" at Roy's Book Reviews. Check out my thoughts on Go Set a Watchman
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1962 The Edge of Sadness by Edwin O’Connor
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1963 The Reivers by William Faulkner
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1964 (no award)
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1965 The Keepers of the House by Shirley Ann Grau
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1966 Collected Stories by Katherine Anne Porter
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1967 The Fixer by Bernard Malamud
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1968 The Confessions of Nat Turner by William Styron
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1969 House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday
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1970 Collected Stores by Jean Stafford
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1971 (no award)
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1972 Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner
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1973 The Optimist’s Daughter by Eudora Welty
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1974 (no award)
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1975 The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara
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1976 Humboldt’s Gift by Saul Bellow
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1977 (no award)
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1978 Elbow Room by James Alan McPherson
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1979 The Stories of John Cheever by John Cheever
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1980 The Executioner’s Song by Norman Mailer
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1981 A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole (posthumous)
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1982 Rabbit is Rich by John Updike
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1983 The Color Purple by Alice Walker
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1984 Ironweed by William Kennedy
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1985 Foreign Affairs by Alison Lurie
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1986 Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
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1987 A Summons to Memphis by Peter Taylor
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1988 Beloved by Toni Morrison
I express my adoration for Toni Morrison in one of the videos recorded for Roy's Book Reviews
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1989 Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler
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1990 The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love by Oscar Hijuelos
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1992 A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley
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1993 A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain by Robert Olen Butler
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1994 The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx
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1995 The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields
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1996 Independence Day by Richard Ford
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1997 Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer by Steven Millhauser
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1999 The Hours by Michael Cunningham
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2000 Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
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2001 The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon
Discussed at Roy's Book Reviews
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2002 Empire Falls by Richard Russo
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2003 Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
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2004 The Known World by Edward P. Jones
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2005 Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
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2006 March by Geraldine Brooks
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2007 The Road by Cormac McCarthy
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2008 The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
I also discuss The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao at my booktube channel Roy's Book Reviews
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2009 Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
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2010 Tinkers by Paul Harding
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2011 A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
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2012 (no award)
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2013 The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson
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2014 The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
I also discuss The Goldfinch at my booktube channel Roy's Book Reviews
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2015 All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
I also discuss All the Light We Cannot See at my booktube channel Roy's Book Reviews
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2016 The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen
I also discuss The Sympathizer at my booktube channel Roy's Book Reviews
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2017 The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
I also discuss The Underground Railroad at my booktube channel Roy's Book Reviews
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2018 Less by Andrew Sean Greer
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2019 The Overstory by Richard Powers
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2020 The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead
I also discuss The Nickel Boys at my booktube channel Roy's Book Reviews
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2021 The Nightwatchman by Louise Erdrich
2021 The Nightwatchman by Louise Erdrich
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2022 The Netanyahus by Joshua Cohen
NOTE: Pulitzer Prize for Fiction originated as the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel, which was awarded between 1918 and 1947. I’ve read two of those winners to date.
· 1918: His Family by Ernest Poole
· 1919: The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington
· 1920: no award given
· 1921: The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
· 1922: Alice Adams by Booth Tarkington
· 1923: One of Ours by Willa Cather
· 1924: The Able McLaughlins by Margaret Wilson
· 1925: So Big by Edna Ferber
· 1926: Arrowsmith by Sinclair Lewis (declined prize)
· 1927: Early Autumn by Louis Bromfield
· 1928: The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder
· 1929: Scarlet Sister Mary by Julia Peterkin
· 1930: Laughing Boy by Oliver La Farge
· 1931: Years of Grace by Margaret Ayer Barnes
· 1932: The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck
· 1933: The Store by Thomas Sigismund Stribling
· 1934: Lamb in His Bosom by Caroline Miller
· 1935: Now in November by Josephine Winslow Johnson
· 1936: Honey in the Horn by Harold L. Davis
· 1937: Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
· 1938: The Late George Apley by John Phillips Marquand
· 1939: The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
· 1940: The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
· 1941: no award given
· 1942: In This Our Life by Ellen Glasgow
· 1943: Dragon's Teeth by Upton Sinclair
· 1944: Journey in the Dark by Martin Flavin
· 1945: A Bell for Adano by John Hersey
· 1946: no award given
· 1947: All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren
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2023 It's a tie! Trust by Hernan Diaz / Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
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2024 Night Watch by Jayne Anne Phillips
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· 1918: His Family by Ernest Poole
· 1919: The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington
· 1920: no award given
· 1921: The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
· 1922: Alice Adams by Booth Tarkington
· 1923: One of Ours by Willa Cather
· 1924: The Able McLaughlins by Margaret Wilson
· 1925: So Big by Edna Ferber
· 1926: Arrowsmith by Sinclair Lewis (declined prize)
· 1927: Early Autumn by Louis Bromfield
· 1928: The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder
· 1929: Scarlet Sister Mary by Julia Peterkin
· 1930: Laughing Boy by Oliver La Farge
· 1931: Years of Grace by Margaret Ayer Barnes
· 1932: The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck
· 1933: The Store by Thomas Sigismund Stribling
· 1934: Lamb in His Bosom by Caroline Miller
· 1935: Now in November by Josephine Winslow Johnson
· 1936: Honey in the Horn by Harold L. Davis
· 1937: Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
· 1938: The Late George Apley by John Phillips Marquand
· 1939: The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
· 1940: The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
· 1941: no award given
· 1942: In This Our Life by Ellen Glasgow
· 1943: Dragon's Teeth by Upton Sinclair
· 1944: Journey in the Dark by Martin Flavin
· 1945: A Bell for Adano by John Hersey
· 1946: no award given
· 1947: All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren
Posts
I'm rereading 1000 Acres right now as part of my MA in Creative Writing. It holds up so very well.
ReplyDeleteMake sure to read Breathing Lessons as well. Brilliant.
Not as many as I thought. Only 4. But this gives me a great reading list to work on. thanks.
ReplyDeleteThe prize has been around since 1917; the first winner was in 1918. Your reading list just got longer!
ReplyDeleteI fall woefully short with just 4.
ReplyDelete