That’s right! This year a Pulitzer Prize was not awarded for the fiction category. How can this be you may ask? Doesn’t the committee pick a winner every year? Where did this all start?
According to The World Book Encyclopedia, Joseph Pulitzer was a Hungarian immigrant who became one of the greatest American newspaper publishers. Pulitzer was born on April 10, 1847. At the early age of 17 he tried to join the military, but was rejected because of poor eyesight. Once in the United States he fought for the Union Army in the American Civil War.
Following the war, Pulitzer settled in St. Louis, became a U.S. citizen and began his career as a reporter for a German-language newspaper in St. Louis. After a short time he became managing editor and part owner of the paper. In 1869 he won a seat in the Missouri House of Representatives and became a democrat selling his interest in the Republican paper. He also served as a correspondent in Washington D.C. Within a few years he made a fortune after he bought the St. Louis Dispatch and Evening Post and combined them into one. In 1833, Pulitzer bought The World. Pulitzer was able to transform this financially challenged newspaper into the country’s largest circulating paper.
Pulitzer gave money to Columbia University to start a journalism school and establish the Prize. Since 1917, the Pulitzer prizes have been given annually. The prizes and fellowships are awarded by the University on the recommendation of The Pulitzer Prize Board. Nominating judges are appointed by the Board. Works are judged independently by the reviewers, then collectively as a group and finally three nominations are submitted to the Board by the jury. The list submitted is alphabetical and accompanied by a statement from the jury stating why it believes it merits a Pulitzer Prize. Presently there are 103 judges selected by the Board to serve on 20 separate juries for the 21 award categories.
Three final selections were made after a three person jury read a total of 314 fiction books. The selections then were turned over to the Pulitzer Prize Board. The board, which consists of 20 people, met over two days. Not all board members can vote with perhaps 18 voting this time. If a selection fails to get the majority of the votes then no award is given. This has happened for the 2011 selections and 11 times since the fiction award was first given out in 1917.
This year’s final three fiction selections include the following books:
Train dreams by Denis Johnson
This is the story of an early twentieth- century day laborer Robert Grainer, who endures the harrowing loss of his family while struggling for survival in the American West against the backdrop of radical historical changes.
The pale king by David Foster Wallace
The character David Foster Wallace is introduced to the banal world of the IRS Regional Examination Center in Peoria, Illinois and the host of strange people who work there, in a novel that was unfinished at the time of the author’s death.
Swamplandia! by Karen Russell.
The Bigtree children struggle to protect their Florida Everglades alligator-wrestling theme park from a sophisticated competitor after losing their parents.
Selected past fiction award winners include familiar titles such as those listed below:
Picture courtesy of: http://www.powells.com/images/awards/pulitzer-prize.jpg
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