Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a prestigious American award that honors exceptional achievement in journalism, literature, drama, and music. Established through the will of newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer, the prizes were first awarded in 1917 after his estate donated funds to Columbia University. Each year, up to twenty-one awards may be conferred, predominantly in journalism and various literary categories. The selection process involves over 2,400 entries reviewed by juries, culminating in a final decision by the Pulitzer Prize board, which can choose to withhold awards in any category if deemed appropriate. Winners, who receive a cash prize of $10,000 and a certificate, are announced in April and celebrated in a ceremony held at Columbia University in May. The awards have occasionally sparked controversy, particularly when the board has diverged from jury recommendations or opted not to award a prize in specific years. Overall, the Pulitzer Prize remains a significant accolade that recognizes outstanding contributions to American culture and society.
Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer (pronounced PULL-it-sir) Prizes are American awards that recognize excellence in journalism, letters, drama, or music. Pulitzer Prizes are named for Joseph Pulitzer, the American newspaper publisher who allocated funds for the establishment of the awards. Up to twenty-one Pulitzer Prizes may be awarded each year. The administrator of the prizes announces winners in April, and winners receive their prizes from the president of Columbia University in New York in May.
Joseph Pulitzer
Born April 10, 1847, in Hungary, Joseph Pulitzer left home at seventeen and eventually made his way to the United States, where he served in the Union Army toward the latter end of the Civil War. Following the war, Pulitzer worked several jobs before becoming a journalist for a German-language newspaper in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1868. Pulitzer had a knack for producing stellar exposés and was part owner of the newspaper by 1871.
Pulitzer dabbled in politics during the early 1870s but returned to newspaper publishing full time in 1878 when he purchased two struggling St. Louis papers and combined them into the new St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Pulitzer brought his brand of hard-hitting journalism to the Post-Dispatch and quickly turned it into a profitable enterprise.
Pulitzer purchased the New York City–based New York World in 1883. Within three years, he increased circulation of the World more than sixteen-fold, making it one of New York City's top newspapers by the 1890s.
In 1904, Pulitzer drafted a will, which allocated funds to create the Pulitzer Prizes and established an advisory board to oversee their administration. Pulitzer passed away on October 29, 1911.
Establishment and History
Upon Pulitzer's death, his estate donated $2 million to Columbia University to fund both the Pulitzer Prizes and the creation of the Graduate School of Journalism. The journalism school was founded in 1912. The first Pulitzer Prizes were awarded five years later on June 4, 1917.
In his will, Pulitzer identified nine specific prizes and four scholarships but tasked the advisory board with adapting and modifying the awards as needed over time. Of the nine prizes Pulitzer specified, four were for journalism, four were for letters and drama, and one was for education. Since then, additional prizes and fellowships have been added. For example, prizes for poetry and music were added in 1922 and 1943, respectively, and a nonfiction category was added in 1962. Today the Pulitzer Prize board bestows up to twenty-one prizes each year, including fourteen for journalism, five for letters (fiction, nonfiction, poetry, history, and biography/autobiography), one for drama, and one for music. The board also grants five fellowships each year.
When the Pulitzer Prizes first began, winners received cash prizes of $1,000. Over time, the amount of the prizes grew. By 2001, the prize had risen to $7,500. The following year, the prize increased to $10,000, where it remains today. Winners in twenty of the twenty-one categories receive both the cash award and a certificate. However, the winner of the public service prize in journalism—which is always an entire newspaper or news site and never an individual—receives a gold medal instead of a cash prize. Today, the winner of each of the five fellowships receives $7,500.
Nomination and Administration
Each year, journalists, photographers, authors, playwrights, and composers submit more than 2,400 entries for Pulitzer Prize consideration. From these entries, 102 judges comprising twenty juries work carefully to review each entry and identify three outstanding nominees for each of the twenty-one categories.
After the juries have identified nominees in each category, members of the Pulitzer Prize board read, watch, or listen to the various nominees. In early April, the members meet to deliberate and choose a winner for each category. The board has the final say and maintains the right to withhold an award for a particular category in any given year. For example, in 2012, the board chose not to award a Pulitzer Prize for fiction. In addition, the board may shift nominees from one category to another, or may choose an entry that was not nominated by a jury as the winner of a particular category.
The Pulitzer Prize board keeps the details of its deliberations secret and generally refuses to speak about or defend its decisions. Once the board has finalized its decisions, the administrator of the Pulitzer Prizes announces the names of the winners and the fellow nominees in each category at a news conference held in late April. In May, Pulitzer Prize winners gather at a luncheon at Columbia University, where they receive their awards from the university's president.
Controversies
Winning a Pulitzer Prize is a prestigious honor that can elevate a winner's career, but the awards have sparked controversy at times. On several occasions, the board has overlooked a jury's top recommendation and has chosen another nominee as the winner. For example, in 1980, a jury recommended Ghost Writer by Philip Roth for the fiction prize, but the board selected The Executioner's Song by Norman Mailer instead. In 1941, both the jury and the board selected For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway to receive the Pulitzer Prize for fiction; however, because the president of Columbia University found the book offensive, the board opted not to bestow a fiction award that year. More than sixty times in the history of the prizes, the board has opted not to name a winner in a particular category. In 1926, author Sinclair Lewis refused to accept the Pulitzer Prize for his novel Arrowsmith.
Bibliography
Bloomgarden-Smoke, Kara. "Why Wasn't There a Pulitzer Prize Winner for Fiction This Year?" Christian Science Monitor. The Christian Science Monitor. 17 Apr. 2012. Web. 10 Mar. 2016. http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2012/0417/Why-wasn-t-there-a-Pulitzer-Prize-winner-for-fiction-this-year
McDowell, Edwin. "Publishing: Pulitzer Controversies." New York Times. The New York Times Company. 11 May 1984. Web. 10 Mar. 2016. http://www.nytimes.com/1984/05/11/books/publishing-pulitzer-controversies.html
"Pulitzer, Joseph." American Inventors, Entrepreneurs, and Business Visionaries.Ed. Charles W. Carey, Jr. New York: Facts on File, 2011. 332–334. Print.
"Pulitzer Prize." Encyclopedia of the Modern World: 1900 to the Present. Ed. William R. Keylor. New York: Facts on File, 2009. 1018. Print.
"Pulitzer Prizes Fast Facts." CNN. Cable News Network, Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. 23 Apr. 2015. Web. 10 Mar. 2016. http://www.cnn.com/2013/09/13/us/pulitzer-prizes-fast-facts/
Topping, Seymour, and Sig Gissler. "Administration of the Pulitzer Prizes." The Pulitzer Prizes. The Pulitzer Prizes. Web. 10 Mar. 2016. http://www.pulitzer.org/page/13990
Topping, Seymour, and Sig Gissler. "History of the Pulitzer Prizes." The Pulitzer Prizes. The Pulitzer Prizes. Web. 10 Mar. 2016. http://www.pulitzer.org/page/13989