For some reason, several of the books I have been reading lately have been either Pulitzer Prize winners or finalists in the fiction category. It got me thinking how many have I read since the prize was first awarded in 1947. Sadly, the answer is just 10 but interestingly, I have read five of them in the last year. Here is the list, taken from the Pulitzer web-site:
Winners
2011 A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan (Alfred A.. Knopf) For "A Visit From the Goon Squad," an inventive investigation of growing up and growing old in the digital age, displaying a big-hearted curiosity about cultural change at warp speed.
2010 Tinkers by Paul Harding(Bellevue Literary Press) 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.
2009 Olive Kitteridge byElizabeth Strout (Random House) 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.
2008 The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz(Riverhead Books) More details2007 The Road by Cormac McCarthy (Alfred A. Knopf) More details2004 The Known World byEdward P. Jones (Amistad/ HarperCollins) More details2002 Empire Falls by Richard Russo (Alfred A. Knopf) More details2001 The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon (Random House) More details2000 Interpreter of Maladies byJhumpa Lahiri (Mariner Books/Houghton Mifflin) More details1999 The Hours by Michael Cunningham (Farrar, Straus & Giroux) More details1998 American Pastoral byPhilip Roth (Houghton Mifflin) More details1997 Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer bySteven Millhauser (Crown) More details1996 Independence Day byRichard Ford (Alfred A. Knopf) More details1994 The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx (Charles Scribner's Sons) 1993 A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain by Robert Olen Butler (Henry Holt) 1992 A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley (Alfred A. Knopf) 1991 Rabbit At Rest by John Updike (Alfred A. Knopf) 1990 The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love by Oscar Hijuelos(Farrar) 1989 Breathing Lessons byAnne Tyler (Alfred A. Knopf) 1988 Beloved by Toni Morrison(Alfred A. Knopf) 1987 A Summons to Memphisby Peter Taylor (Alfred A. Knopf) 1986 Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry (Simon & Schuster) 1985 Foreign Affairs by Alison Lurie (Random House) 1984 Ironweed by William Kennedy (Viking) 1983 The Color Purple by Alice Walker (Harcourt Brace) 1982 Rabbit Is Rich by John Updike (Knopf) 1981 A Confederacy of Duncesby the late John Kennedy Toole(a posthumous publication) (Louisiana State U. Press) 1980 The Executioner's Song byNorman Mailer (Little) 1979 The Stories of John Cheever by John Cheever(Knopf) 1978 Elbow Room by James Alan McPherson (Atlantic Monthly Press) 1976 Humboldt's Gift by Saul Bellow (Viking) 1975 The Killer Angels byMichael Shaara (McKay) 1973 The Optimist's Daughterby Eudora Welty (Random) 1972 Angle of Repose byWallace Stegner (Doubleday) 1970 Collected Stories by Jean Stafford (Farrar) 1969 House Made of Dawn byN. Scott Momaday (Harper) 1968 The Confessions of Nat Turner by William Styron(Random) 1967 The Fixer by Bernard Malamud (Farrar) 1966 Collected Stories byKatherine Anne Porter(Harcourt) 1965 The Keepers Of The Houseby Shirley Ann Grau (Random) 1963 The Reivers by William Faulkner (Random) 1962 The Edge of Sadness byEdwin O'Connor (Little) 1961 To Kill A Mockingbird byHarper Lee (Lippincott) 1960 Advise and Consent byAllen Drury (Doubleday) 1959 The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters by Robert Lewis Taylor (Doubleday) 1958 A Death In The Family by the late James Agee (a posthumous publication) (McDowell, Obolensky) 1956 Andersonville byMacKinlay Kantor (World) 1955 A Fable by William Faulkner (Random) 1953 The Old Man and the Seaby Ernest Hemingway(Scribner) 1952 The Caine Mutiny byHerman Wouk (Doubleday) 1951 The Town by Conrad Richter (Knopf) 1950 The Way West by A. B. Guthrie (Sloane) 1949 Guard of Honor by James Gould Cozzens (Harcourt) 1948 Tales of the South Pacificby James A. Michener(Macmillan)
Interestingly, you will note there were a few years where no prize was given, that is because the Pulitzer board didn't think any of the submissions were up to the standard of the award and did not give the prize to anyone.
Finalists
2011 The Privileges by Jonathan Dee (Random House) A contemporary, wide ranging tale about an elite Manhattan family, moral bankruptcy and the long reach of wealth.
2011 The Surrendered by Chang-rae Lee (Riverhead Books) A haunting and often heartbreaking epic whose characters explore the deep reverberations of love, devotion and war.
2010 Love in Infant Monkeys byLydia Millet (Soft Skull Press) An imaginative collection of linked stories, often describing a memorable encounter between a famous person and an animal, underscoring the human folly of longing for significance while chasing trifles.
2010 In Other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyal Mueenuddin(W.W. Norton & Company) A collection of beautifully crafted stories that exposes the Western reader to the hopes, dreams and dramas of an array of characters in feudal Pakistan, resulting in both an aesthetic and cultural achievement.
2009 The Plague of Doves byLouise Erdrich (HarperCollins) A haunting novel that explores racial discord, loss of land and changing fortunes in a corner of North Dakota where Native Americans and whites share a tangled history.
2009 All Souls by Christine Schutt(Harcourt) A memorable novel that focuses on the senior class at an exclusive all-girl Manhattan prep school where a beloved student battles a rare cancer, fiercely honest, carefully observed and subtly rendered.
2008 Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) 2008 Shakespeare’s Kitchen byLore Segal (The New Press) 2007 After This by Alice McDermott (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) 2007 The Echo Maker by Richard Powers (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) 2006 The March by E.L. Doctorow(Random House) 2006 The Bright Forever by Lee Martin (Shaye Areheart Books/Crown Publishing) 2005 War Trash by Ha Jin(Pantheon Books) 2005 An Unfinished Season byWard Just (Houghton Mifflin) 2004 American Woman by Susan Choi (HarperCollins) 2004 Evidence of Things Unseen byMarianne Wiggins (Simon & Schuster) 2003 Servants of the Map: Storiesby Andrea Barrett (W.W. Norton) 2003 You Are Not a Stranger Hereby Adam Haslett (Nan A. Talese/Doubleday) 2002 The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen (Farrar) 2002 John Henry Days by Colson Whitehead (Doubleday) 2001 Blonde by Joyce Carol Oates(The Ecco Press/HarperCollins) 2001 The Quick and the Dead byJoy Williams (Alfred A. Knopf) 2000 Close Range: Wyoming Stories by Annie Proulx (Scribner) 2000 Waiting by Ha Jin (Pantheon Books) 1999 Cloudsplitter by Russell Banks (HarperFlamingo) 1999 The Poisonwood Bible byBarbara Kingsolver(HarperFlamingo) 1998 Underworld by Don DeLillo(Scribner) 1998 Bear and His Daughter: Stories by Robert Stone (Houghton Mifflin) 1997 Unlocking the Air and Other Stories by Ursula K. LeGuin(HarperCollins) 1997 The Manikin by Joanna Scott(Henry Holt) 1996 Mr. Ives' Christmas by Oscar Hijuelos (HarperCollins) 1996 Sabbath's Theater by Philip Roth (Houghton Mifflin) 1995 What I Lived For by Joyce Carol Oates (Dutton) 1995 The Collected Stories byGrace Paley (Farrar) 1994 The Collected Stories byReynolds Price (Atheneum) 1994 Operation Shylock: A Confession by Philip Roth (Simon & Schuster) 1993 At Weddings and Wakes byAlice McDermott (Farrar Straus Giroux) 1993 Black Water by Joyce Carol Oates (Dutton) 1992 Mao II by Don DeLillo(Viking) 1992 Jernigan by David Gates(Alfred A. Knopf) 1992 Lila: An Inquiry into Morals byRobert M. Pirsig (Bantam Books) 1991 Mean Spirit by Linda Hogan(Atheneum) 1991 The Things They Carried byTim O'Brien (Houghton Mifflin) 1990 Billy Bathgate by E.L. Doctorow (Random House) 1989 Where I'm Calling From by the late Raymond Carver (Atlantic Monthly) 1988 Persian Nights by Diane Johnson (Alfred A. Knopf) 1988 That Night by Alice McDermott (Farrar) 1987 Paradise by Donald Barthelme (G.P. Putnam's Sons) 1987 Whites by Norman Rush(Alfred A. Knopf) 1986 Continental Drift by Russell Banks (Harper & Row) 1986 The Accidental Tourist byAnne Tyler (Alfred A. Knopf) 1985 I Wish This War Were Overby Diana O'Hehir (Atheneum) 1985 Leaving the Land by Douglas Unger (Harper & Row) 1984 The Feud by Thomas Berger(Delacorte) 1984 Cathedral by Raymond Carver (Knopf) 1983 Rabbis and Wives by the lateChaim Grade (Knopf) 1983 Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant by Anne Tyler (Knopf) 1982 Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson (Farrar) 1982 A Flag for Sunrise by Robert Stone (Knopf) 1981 Godric by Frederick Buechner (Atheneum) 1981 So Long, See You Tomorrowby William Maxwell (Knopf) 1980 The Ghost Writer by Philip Roth (Farrar) 1980 Birdy by William Wharton(Knopf)
