The Truth behind the last 100 Years of the Pulitzer Prize in Novel & Fiction

The Pulitzer Prize in Novel & Fiction from 1917 to 2017

Overall Summary:

Technically, since no “specialized awards” were given in 1917, which was the first year of the program, the actual 100-year anniversary for the Pulitzer Prize in Novel or Fiction award would have been in 2017.

Regardless, Alfred A. Knopf (or Knopf) topped the list as the publisher with the most awards won with 13, with 9 of those wins coming after 1979. Doubleday won the bulk of its 9 awards prior to 1970, with only two awards coming after: the most recent in 2017 with Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad.

Random House (or Random) won the bulk of its 9 awards after 1970, with 5 wins since then. Farrar won a total of 6 awards with four of those six coming in only fifteen years, between 1990 and 2005. Shockingly, Simon & Schuster won only two awards and those were for the instant classic Lonesome Dove in 1986 and for Now in November in 1935.

A majority of the 90 winners were male with 60 males (three men won twice) compared to only 30 females (exactly half of the total number of men who won the Pulitzer Prize in Novel/Fiction). From 1943 to 1960, no woman won the award. John Updike, for two of his books in the Rabbit Angstrom series (1982 & 1991), tied William Faulkner (1955 & 1963) and Booth Tarkington (1919 & 1922) for the most awards (2) by any author to date.

The total number of winners born in America came to 83 while the number of winners born outside of the United States came to a total of 7, a few of which fully reside outside the United States. Five of those seven wins by writers born outside of the United States came between 2000 and 2016, showing a sudden and dramatic increase. From 1917 to 1999, only two writers who won the Pulitzer Prize in Novel/Fiction were born outside of the United States. There were eleven years when no award was given.

We are, however, all too familiar with the penchant judges and editors have for writers located in the coastal regions of the United States. From the list, the affiliated universities relating to the winners’ education and/or employment were found to be primarily located in the eastern coastal region of the United States: namely the New England Region and the Eastern Coastal Region which had an incredible 92 associated wins, the bulk of those coming from institutions in the state of New York (thought provoking); California, on the west coast, had an accredited 7 wins. Predictably and regrettably, since New York State and its institutions had the most associated wins by far for any state or region, the Pulitzer Prize in Novel/Fiction becomes, without question, the least diverse of all the book awards inside the United States of America.

It also comes as no surprise that Columbia University (which is the organization behind the Pulitzer Prize) has been affiliated with the winners an amazing 12 times in the last 100 years (1917-2017). Harvard University (more than any other university) collected 14 wins while Stanford University collected 9 wins, the third most by any university.

Very few wins, however, were actually located in America’s heartland: namely Michigan (2), Mississippi (4), Texas (5), and St. Louis (2). The University of Iowa, alone, has been affiliated with the awards an impressive 7 times. Surprisingly, the University of Chicago has been associated with the awards a total 5 times. Lastly, only three novelists from Texas have won the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction: Larry McMurtry in 1986; Katherine Anne Porter in 1966; and Allen Drury in 1960. As a result, in the last 50 years (1967-2017) only one novelist from Texas has won the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction.

It is without question, as a result of the facts, that novelists from America’s heartland have been grossly overlooked and ignored by the Pulitzer Prize selection committee and by their deciding board of directors and, at large, by the writing community located mainly throughout the eastern and western coastal regions of the United States. Because of this overlooked and ignored behavior, American Literature has started to become “less” diverse rather than “more” diverse, as some amateurs might try to argue. Choosing to publish and award writers from and found primarily in the coastal regions of the United States exhibits a tremendous amount of disrespect for American Literature as an American art form for all Americans, and illustrates the severe disconnect between all of America and for those found inside the liberal bubbles of any given mutual admiration society, as Leo Tolstoy feared would happen when he attempted to answer the question, What is Art?

Open your eyes. See. Be blind no more.

We are all now aware of the nepotism, favoritism and cronyism (call it what you will) currently ongoing in America’s writing and publishing industry where editors prefer to select, publish and award writers they personally know or from personal recommendations (i.e., cherry-picking or staying within the mutual admiration society on the east and west coasts). As a result, this remains a major problem for the Arts community in America, limits the freedom of expression, and sadly degrades American Literature in its entirety. The facts simply do not lie. The truth can no longer be ignored.

A Comprehensive List of Awards Given starting from the Most Recent Year & Organized by Book Title (Publisher), Author (Gender, Author’s birthplace), education, and employment:

2017:   The Underground Railroad (Doubleday) by Colson Whitehead (Male, born in America), educated at Harvard, teacher at Princeton University, New York University, the University of Houston, Columbia University, Brooklyn College, Hunter College, Wesleyan University

2016:   The Sympathizer (Grove Press) by Viet Thanh Nguyen (Male, born in Vietnam, refugee), educated at UC Berkeley, teacher at the University of Southern California

2015:   All the Light We Cannot See (Scribner) by Anthony Doerr (Male, born in America), educated at Bowdoin College & Bowling Green State University, full-time novelist

2014:   The Goldfinch (Little, Brown) by Donna Tartt (Female, born in America), educated at University of Mississippi & Bennington College, full-time writer & novelist

2013:   The Orphan Master’s Son (Random House) by Adam Johnson (Male, born in America), educated at Florida State University & Arizona State University, teacher at Stanford

2012:   No Award Given

2011:   A Visit from the Goon Squad (Alfred A.. Knopf) by Jennifer Egan (Female, born in America), educated at University of Pennsylvania & St. John’s College & Cambridge in England, full-time novelist

2010:   Tinkers (Bellevue Literary Press) by Paul C. Doherty OBE (pen name: Paul Harding) (Male, born in the U.K.), educated at the University of Oxford & the University of Liverpool & the University of Iowa & the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Headmaster at Trinity Catholic High School

2009:   Olive Kitteridge (Random House) by Elizabeth Strout (Female, born in America), educated at Bates College & Syracuse University College of Law & Syracuse University, full-time novelist

2008:   The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (Riverhead Books) by Junot Diaz (Male, born in the Dominican Republic), educated at Cornell University, teacher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

2007:   The Road (Alfred A. Knopf) by Cormac McCarthy (Male, born in America), educated at the University of Tennessee (but did not graduate), full-time novelist

2006:   March (Viking) by Geraldine Brooks (Female, born in Australia), educated at the University of Sydney & Bethlehem College, Ashfield & Columbia University, journalist

2005:   Gilead (Farrar) by Marilynne Robinson (Female, born in America), educated at Brown University & Pembroke College in Brown University & the University of Washington, full-time novelist and essayist

2004:   The Known World (Amistad/ HarperCollins) by Edward P. Jones (Male, born in America), educated at the College of the Holy Cross & University of Virginia, teacher at the George Washington University

2003:   Middlesex (Farrar) by Jeffrey Eugenides (Male, born in America), educated at Brown University & Stanford, teacher at the Peter B. Lewis Center for the Arts

2002:   Empire Falls (Alfred A. Knopf) by Richard Russo (Male, born in America), educated at the University of Arizona, full-time novelist

2001:   The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (Random House) by Michael Chabon (Male, born in America), not educated, full-time novelist

2000:   Interpreter of Maladies (Mariner Books/Houghton Mifflin) by Jhumpa Lahiri (Female, born in the U.K.), educated at Barnard College & Boston University, full-time novelist

1999:   The Hours (Farrar, Straus & Giroux) by Michael Cunningham (Male, born in America), educated at Stanford University and the University of Iowa, teacher at Yale University

1998:   American Pastoral (Houghton Mifflin) by Philip Roth (Male, born in America), educated at the University of Chicago & Bucknell University & Rutgers University, full-time novelist

1997:   Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer (Crown) by Steven Millhauser (Male, born in America), educated at Brown University & Columbia, teacher at Skidmore College

1996:   Independence Day (Alfred A. Knopf) by Richard Ford (Male, born in America), educated at University of California, Irvine & Washington University in St. Louis & Michigan State University, teacher at Columbia University

1995:   The Stone Diaries (Viking) by Carol Shields (Female, born in America), educated at the University of Exeter in England & the University of Ottawa, teacher at University of British Columbia & the University of Manitoba

1994:   The Shipping News (Charles Scribner’s Sons) by Edna Annie Proulx (Female, born in America), educated at the University of Vermont & Sir George Williams University (now Concordia University), full-time novelist

1993:   A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain (Henry Holt) by Robert Olen Butler (Male, born in America), educated at the University of Iowa & Northwestern University, teacher at McNeese State University & Florida State University

1992:   A Thousand Acres (Alfred A. Knopf) by Jane Smiley (Female, born in America), educated at the University of Iowa & Vassar College, full-time novelist

1991:   Rabbit At Rest (Alfred A. Knopf) by John Updike (Male, born in America), educated at Harvard University & the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art at the University of Oxford, full-time novelist

1990:   The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love (Farrar) by Oscar Hijuelos (Male, born in America), educated at the City College of New York, teacher at Hofstra University & Duke University

1989:   Breathing Lessons (Alfred A. Knopf) by Anne Tyler (Female, born in America), educated at Duke University & Columbia University, full-time novelist

1988:   Beloved (Alfred A. Knopf) by Chloe Ardelia Wofford (pen name: Toni Morrison) (Female, born in America), educated at Howard University & Cornell University, teacher at Princeton University

1987:   A Summons to Memphis (Alfred A. Knopf) by Peter Matthew Hillsman Taylor (Male, born in America), educated at Rhodes College & Vanderbilt University & Kenyon College, full-time novelist

1986:   Lonesome Dove (Simon & Schuster) by Larry McMurtry (Male, born in America), educated at University of North Texas & Rice University & Stanford University, teacher at Texas Christian University & Rice University

1985:   Foreign Affairs (Random House) by Alison Lurie (Female, born in America), educated at Radcliffe College, teacher at Cornell University

1984:   Ironweed (Viking) by William Kennedy (Male, born in America), educated at Siena College, journalist & full-time novelist

1983:   The Color Purple (Harcourt Brace) by Alice Walker (Female, born in America), educated at Sarah Lawrence College, full-time novelist

1982:   Rabbit Is Rich (Knopf) by John Updike (Male, born in America), educated at Harvard University & the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art at the University of Oxford, full-time novelist

1981:   A Confederacy of Dunces (Louisiana State U. Press) by John Kennedy Toole (Male, born in America), educated at Tulane University & Columbia University, teacher at Hunter College & Dominican College

1980:   The Executioner’s Song (Little) by Norman Mailer (pen name: Andreas Wilson) (Male, born in America), educated at Harvard University, full-time novelist

1979:   The Stories of John Cheever (Knopf) by John Cheever (Male, born in America), not educated, short story writer and novelist

1978:   Elbow Room (Atlantic Monthly Press) by James Alan McPherson (Male, born in America), educated at the University of Iowa & Harvard Law School & Morris Brown College & Morgan State University, teacher at University of California, Santa Cruz, Harvard University, Morgan State University, University of Virginia, and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop

1977:   No Award Given

1976:   Humboldt’s Gift (Viking) by Saul Bellow (Male, born in Canada), educated at the University of Chicago & Northwestern University & the University of Wisconsin-Madison, teacher at the University of Chicago

1975:   The Killer Angels (McKay) by Michael Shaara (Male, born in America), educated at Rutgers University, teacher at Florida State University

1974:   No Award Given

1973:   The Optimist’s Daughter (Random) by Eudora Welty (Female, born in America), educated at the Mississippi State College for Women & the University of Wisconsin & Columbia University, teacher at Harvard University

1972:   Angle of Repose (Doubleday) by Wallace Stegner (Male, born in America), educated at the University of Utah & the University of Iowa, teacher at University of Wisconsin & Harvard University & Stanford University

1971:   No Award Given

1970:   Collected Stories (Farrar) by Jean Stafford (Female, born in America), educated at Heidelberg University & the University of Colorado Boulder, teacher at Wesleyan University

1969:   House Made of Dawn (Harper) by Navarre Scott Momaday (Male, born in America), educated at the University of New Mexico & Stanford University, teacher at several uuniversities, including Stanford, Arizona, UC Berkeley, and UC Santa Barbara, Columbia, Princeton, and in Moscow

1968:   The Confessions of Nat Turner (Random) by William Styron (Male, born in America), educated at Duke University, editor

1967:   The Fixer (Farrar) by Bernard Malamud (Male, born in America), educated at the City College of New York & Columbia University, teacher at Oregon State University & Bennington College

1966:   Collected Stories (Harcourt) by Callie Russell Porter (pen name: Katherine Anne Porter) (Female, born in America), not educated, journalist & teacher at Stanford University, the University of Michigan, Washington and Lee University, and the University of Texas

1965:   The Keepers Of The House (Random) by Shirley Ann Grau (Female, born in America), educated at H. Sophie Newcomb Memorial College & Tulane University, full-time novelist

1964:   No Award Given

1963:   The Reivers (Random) by William Faulkner (Male, born in America), educated at the University of Mississippi (did not graduate), full-time novelist

1962:   The Edge of Sadness (Little) by Edwin O’Connor (Male, born in America), educated at the University of Notre Dame, journalist and radio personality

1961:   To Kill A Mockingbird (Lippincott) by Nelle Harper Lee (Female, born in America), educated at the University of Alabama (did not graduate), full-time novelist (wrote one novel)

1960:   Advise and Consent (Doubleday) by Allen Drury (Male, born in America), educated at Stanford University, journalist and novelist

1959:   The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters (Doubleday) by Robert Lewis Taylor (Male, born in America), educated at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, journalist

1958:   A Death In The Family (McDowell, Obolensky) by James Agee (Male, born in America), educated at Harvard University, full-time novelist

1957:   No Award Given

1956:   Andersonville (World) by MacKinlay Kantor (Male, born in America), not educated, journalist and novelist

1955:   A Fable (Random) by William Faulkner (Male, born in America), educated at the University of Mississippi (did not graduate), full-time novelist

1954:   No Award Given

1953:   The Old Man and the Sea (Scribner) by Ernest Hemingway (Male, born in America), not educated, journalist and novelist

1952:   The Caine Mutiny (Doubleday) by Herman Wouk (Male, born in America), educated at Columbia University, full-time novelist

1951:   The Town (Knopf) by Conrad Richter (Male, born in America), not educated, full-time novelist

1950:   The Way West (Sloane) by Alfred Bertram Guthrie Jr. (Male, born in America), educated at Harvard University & the University of Washington, journalist and novelist

1949:   Guard of Honor (Harcourt) by James Gould Cozzens (Male, born in America), educated at Harvard University (did not graduate), full-time novelist

1948:   Tales of the South Pacific (Macmillan) by James A. Michener (Male, born in America), educated at Swarthmore College & the University of St. Andrews & the University of Northern Colorado, editor and teacher at the University of Northern Colorado & Harvard University

The “Novel” category was re-named “Fiction” in 1947:

1947:   All the King’s Men (Harcourt) by Robert Penn Warren (Male, born in America), educated at Vanderbilt University & University of California at Berkeley & Oxford University & Yale University, teacher at Rhodes College

1946:   No Award Given

1945:   A Bell for Adano (Knopf) by John Hersey (Male, born in China), educated at Yale University & the University of Cambridge, master at Pierson College and journalist and novelist

1944:   Journey in the Dark (Harper) by Martin Flavin (Male, born in America), educated at the University of Chicago (did not graduate), playwright and novelist

1943:   Dragon’s Teeth (Viking) by Upton Sinclair (Male, born in America), educated at Columbia University (did not graduate), full-time novelist

1942:   In This Our Life (Harcourt) by Ellen Glasgow (Female, born in America), not educated, full-time novelist

1941:   No Award Given

1940:   The Grapes of Wrath (Viking) by John Steinbeck (Male, born in America), educated at Stanford University, full-time novelist

1939:   The Yearling (Scribner) by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings (Female, born in America), educated at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, writer and novelist

1938:   The Late George Apley (Little) by John Phillips Marquand (Male, born in America), educated at Harvard University, full-time novelist

1937:   Gone with the Wind (Macmillan) by Margaret Mitchell (Female, born in America), educated Smith College (did not graduate), full-time novelist

1936:   Honey in the Horn (Harper) by Harold L. Davis (Male, born in America), not educated, poet and novelist

1935:   Now in November (Simon & Schuster) by Josephine Winslow Johnson (Female, born in America), educated at the University of Washington in St. Louis (did not graduate), teacher at the University of Iowa

1934:   Lamb in His Bosom (Harper) by Caroline Miller (Female, born in America), not educated, full-time novelist

1933:   The Store (Doubleday) by T. S. Stribling (Male, born in America), educated at the University of Alabama School of Law, lawyer and novelist

1932:   The Good Earth (John Day) by Pearl S. Buck (Female, born in America), educated at Randolph-Macon Woman’s College, full-time novelist

1931:   Years of Grace (Houghton) by Margaret Ayer Barnes (Female, born in America), educated at Bryn Mawr College, full-time novelist

1930:   Laughing Boy (Houghton) by Oliver Lafarge (Male, born in America), educated at Harvard University, full-time novelist

1929:   Scarlet Sister Mary (Bobbs) by Julia Peterkin (Female, born in America), educated at Converse College, full-time novelist

1928:   The Bridge of San Luis Rey (Boni) by Thornton Wilder (Male, born in America), educated at Oberlin College & Yale University & Princeton University, teacher at the University of Chicago

1927:   Early Autumn (Stokes) by Louis Bromfield (Male, born in America), educated at Cornell University & Columbia University, full-time novelist

1926:   Arrowsmith (Harcourt) by Sinclair Lewis (Male, born in America), educated at Oberlin Academy & Yale University, full-time novelist

1925:   So Big (Doubleday) by Edna Ferber (Female, born in America), educated at Lawrence University (did not graduate), full-time novelist and playwright

1924:   The Able McLaughlins (Harper) by Margaret Wilson (Female, born in America), educated at the University of Chicago, teacher at West Pullman High School and full-time novelist

1923:   One of Ours (Knopf) by Willa Cather (Female, born in America), educated at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, editor and high school teacher

1922:   Alice Adams (Doubleday) by Booth Tarkington (Male, born in America), educated at Purdue University & Princeton University (never graduated), politician and novelist

1921:   The Age of Innocence (Appleton) by Edith Wharton (Female, born in America), not educated, full-time novelist

1920:   No Award Given

1919:   The Magnificent Ambersons (Doubleday) by Booth Tarkington (Male, born in America), educated at Purdue University & Princeton University (never graduated), politician and novelist

1918:   His Family (Macmillan) by Ernest Poole (Male, born in America), educated at Princeton University, journalist and novelist and playwright

1917:   No Award Given

No Award Given = 11 = Year = 2012, 1977, 1974, 1971, 1964, 1957, 1954, 1946, 1941, 1920, 1917

Most by a Single Author:

John Updike = 2 = 1991, 1982

William Faulkner = 2 = 1963, 1955

Booth Tarkington = 2 = 1922, 1919

Summary of Primary Occupation*:

Full-time Novelist = 45

Teacher or Academic = 34

Journalist = 9

Editor = 1

Lawyer = 1

*where a person was both a novelist and a journalist, or a novelist and a teacher, I chose the occupation the person was better known for and/or the occupation the person depended on more for primary source of income

Gender*:

Male* = 60

Female = 30

*three men won twice

*11 years no award was given

Birthplace*:

America = 83

Australia = 1

Canada = 1

China = 1

Dominican Republic= 1

Vietnam = 1

U.K. = 2

*11 years no award was given

 Affiliated Universities by Authors’ Education and/or Employment

& total Number of Wins

 Most associated Wins by a Single University:

Harvard University (or Harvard Law School) = 14

Columbia University = 12

Stanford University = 9

University of Iowa (or Iowa Writers’ Workshop) = 7

Princeton University = 6

University of Chicago = 5

Yale University = 5

Cornell University = 4

University of Oxford = 4

With 3 or less wins in Alphabetical Order:

Arizona State University = 1

Barnard College = 1

Bates College = 1

Bennington College = 2

Bethlehem College, Ashfield in Australia = 1

Boston University = 1

Bowdoin College = 1

Bowling Green State University = 1

Brooklyn College = 1

Brown University = 3

Bryn Mawr College = 1

Bucknell University = 1

City College of New York = 2

College of the Holy Cross = 1

Converse College = 1

Dominican College = 1

Duke University = 3

Florida State University = 3

George Washington University = 1

Sophie Newcomb Memorial College = 1

Heidelberg University in Germany = 1

Hofstra University = 1

Howard University = 1

Hunter College = 2

Kenyon College = 1

Lawrence University = 1

Massachusetts Institute of Technology = 1

McNeese State University = 1

Michigan State University = 1

Mississippi State College for Women = 1

Morgan State University = 1

Morris Brown College = 1

New York University = 1

Northwestern University = 2

Oberlin College (or Oberlin Academy) = 2

Oregon State University = 1

Pembroke College in Brown University = 1

Peter B. Lewis Center for the Arts = 1

Purdue University = 1

Radcliffe College = 1

Randolph-Macon Woman’s College = 1

Rhodes College = 2

Rice University = 1

Rutgers University = 2

Sarah Lawrence College = 1

Siena College = 1

Sir George Williams University (now Concordia University) in Canada = 1

Skidmore College = 1

Smith College = 1

St. John’s College = 1

Swarthmore College = 1

Syracuse University (or Syracuse University College of Law) = 2

Texas Christian University = 1

Tulane University = 2

University of Alabama (or University of Alabama School of Law) = 2

University of Arizona = 2

University of British Columbia = 1

University of California, Berkeley = 3

University of California, Irvine = 1

University of Cambridge = 2

University of Colorado, Boulder = 1

University of Exeter in England = 1

University of Houston = 1

University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign = 1

University of Liverpool = 1

University of Manitoba = 1

University of Massachusetts Amherst = 1

University of Michigan = 1

University of Mississippi = 3

University of Nebraska–Lincoln = 1

University of New Mexico = 1

University of North Texas = 1

University of Northern Colorado = 1

University of Notre Dame = 1

University of Ottawa = 1

University of Pennsylvania = 1

University of Southern California = 1

University of California, Santa Cruz = 1

University of California, Santa Barbara = 1

University of St. Andrews in Scotland = 1

University of Sydney = 1

University of Tennessee = 1

University of Texas = 1

University of Utah = 1

University of Vermont = 1

University of Virginia = 2

University of Washington = 2

University of Wisconsin = 2

University of Wisconsin-Madison = 2

Washington University in St. Louis = 2

Washington and Lee University = 1

Wesleyan University = 2

Vanderbilt University = 2

Vassar College = 1

Affiliated Publishers assorted by most Prizes/Awards Received:

Alfred A. Knopf (or Knopf) = 14

Doubleday = 9

Random House (or Random) = 9

Farrar = 6

Harcourt (or Harcourt Brace) = 6

Harper (or HarperCollins) = 6

Viking = 6

Houghton (or Houghton Mifflin) = 4

Little (or Little, Brown) = 4

Scribner (or Charles Scribner’s Sons) = 4

More Publishers (with 3 or less wins) assorted in Alphabetical Order:

Amistad = 1

Appleton = 1

Atlantic Monthly Press = 1

Bellevue Literary Press = 1

Bobbs = 1

Boni = 1

Crown = 1

Grove Press = 1

Henry Holt = 1

John Day = 1

Lippincott = 1

Louisiana State U. Press = 1

Macmillan = 3

Mariner Books = 1

McDowell, Obolensky = 1

McKay = 1

Riverhead Books = 1

Simon & Schuster = 2

Straus & Giroux = 1

Sloane = 1

Stokes = 1

World = 1

Applicable Links:

http://www.pulitzer.org/prize-winners-by-category/219

http://www.pulitzer.org/prize-winners-by-year

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulitzer_Prize_for_Fiction

http://www.pulitzer.org/page/history-pulitzer-prizes

http://www.pulitzer.org

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