Pulitzer Prize Winning Novels List: Greatest Books of the 20th Century

The Pulitzer Prize is considered one of the most prestigious American awards. First established by a publisher by the name of Joseph Pulitzer, the Pulitzer Prize is awarded by Columbia University on an annual basis. The prize is awarded for outstanding achievements within newspaper journalism, literature, drama, and music composition. The first Pulitzer Prizes were awarded on June 4, 1917, just months after America’s entry into World War I. Due to political influences, inability to come to a consensus, and other factors, the Pulitzer Prize for literature was not issued in certain years. Typically, however, prizes are awarded on an annual basis in twenty-one different categories. In all but one of these categories, winners are awarded a certificate and $10,000. In the final and largely representative category, a gold medal is awarded to the American newspaper that wins the Public Service category. This site chronicles a complete list, along with links, of every Pulitzer Prize winning novel. These are the books that are usually considered the best examples of writing in the English language. They include many of the essential books, the books everybody should read.

Over the years, there have been many famous, talented Pulitzer Prize winners. Some of the fiction winners were Ernest Hemingway, Eudora Welty, Saul Bellow, William Faulkner, and Margaret Mitchell. President John F. Kennedy won a Pulitzer Prize in the biography category. Robert Frost won a Pulitzer for Poetry. Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, Rodgers and Hammerstein, and Stephen Sondheim won in drama.

A select few have received more than one Pulitzer Prize. David McCullough won two Pulitzers in biography. Robert Frost won four times in poetry! Margaret Leech won twice in history. William Faulkner, Norman Mailer, John Updike, and Booth Tarkington all won twice for fiction.

Interestingly, seven Pulitzer Prize winners in fiction have also won the Nobel Prize for literature. Sinclair Lewis, Pearl S. Buck, William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck, Saul Bellow and Toni Morrison each won both prestigious awards. Of these amazing authors, all but two won the Pulitzer first. Faulkner won his Nobel Prize in 1949 before he won the first of his two Pulitzer Prizes, in 1955 and 1963. In 1976, Bellow won both prizes in the same year!

"Put it before them briefly so they will read it, clearly so they will appreciate it, picturesquely so they will remember it and, above all, accurately so they will be guided by its light." - Joseph Pulitzer

Please take a moment to page down to the bottom of this site. There is a readers' poll and a forum. We'd really love to know what you think. Please let us know what your favorite Pulitzer Prize novel is, and feel free to tell us about any of these fine books.  Enjoy!

I've rated the Pulitzer books based on input given by hundreds of teachers, multiple reviews found throughout the Internet, my own recommendations, and comments from over 2,000 students. Additional input and book reviews are always welcomed and reviewed. Just leave a comment at the bottom of this site.  Don't forget to vote!

Arizonataylor's rating system:

!         The book is merely okay.

!!        This is a good book.

!!!       This is a very good book.

!!!!      This book is great.

!!!!!     This book is amazing!

2010: Tinkers by Paul Harding

Score: Currently Under Review

2009

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

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2008

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz

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2007

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

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2006

March by Geraldine Brooks

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2005

Gilead by Marilynne Robinson

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2004

The Known World by Edward P. Jones

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2003

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

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2002

Empire Falls by Richard Russo

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2001

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon

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2000

Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri

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1999

The Hours by Michael Cunningham

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1998

American Pastoral by Philip Roth

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1997

Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer by Steven Millhauser

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1996

Independence Day by Richard Ford

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1995

The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields

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1994

The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx

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1993

A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain by Robert Olen Butler

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1992

A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley

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1991

Rabbit at Rest by John Updike

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1990

The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love by Oscar Hijuelos

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1989

Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler

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1988

Beloved by Toni Morrison

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1987

A Summons to Memphis by Peter Taylor

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1986

Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry

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1985

Foreign Affairs by Alison Lurie

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1984

Ironweed by William Kennedy

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1983

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

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1982

Rabbit Is Rich by John Updike

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1981

A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole (won posthumously)

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1980

The Executioner's Song by Norman Mailer

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1979

The Stories of John Cheever by John Cheever

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1978

Elbow Room by James Alan McPherson

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1977

No Pulitzer Prize was awarded this year. (See Pulitzer Prize Controversy at the bottom of this site.)

1976

Humboldt's Gift by Saul Bellow

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1975

The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara

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1974

No Pulitzer Prize was awarded this year. (See Pulitzer Prize Controversy at the bottom of this site.)

1973

The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty

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1972

Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner

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1971

No Pulitzer Prize was awarded this year. (See Pulitzer Prize Controversy at the bottom of this site.)

1970

The Collected Stories of Jean Stafford by Jean Stafford

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1969

House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday

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1968

The Confessions of Nat Turner by William Styron

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1967

The Fixer by Bernard Malamud

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1966

The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter by Katherine Anne Porter

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1965

The Keepers of the House by Shirley Ann Grau

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1964

No Pulitzer Prize was awarded this year.

1963

The Reivers by William Faulkner

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1962

The Edge of Sadness by Edwin O'Connor

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1961

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

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1960

Advise and Consent by Allen Drury

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1959

The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters by Robert Lewis Taylor

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1958

A Death in the Family by James Agee

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1957

No Pulitzer Prize was awarded this year. (See Pulitzer Prize Controversy at the bottom of this site.)

1956

Andersonville by MacKinlay Kantor

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1955

A Fable by William Faulkner

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1954

No Pulitzer Prize was awarded this year.

1953

The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway

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1952

The Caine Mutiny by Herman Wouk  (See Pulitzer Prize Controversy at the bottom of this site.)

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1951

The Town by Conrad Richter

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1950

The Way West by A. B. Guthrie, Jr.

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1949

Guard of Honor by James Gould Cozzens

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1948

Tales of the South Pacific by James A. Michener

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1947

All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren

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1946

No Pulitzer Prize was awarded this year.

1945

A Bell for Adano by John Hersey

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1944

Journey in the Dark by Martin Flavin

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1943

Dragon's Teeth by Upton Sinclair

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1942

In This Our Life by Ellen Glasgow

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1941

No Pulitzer Prize was awarded this year. (See Pulitzer Prize Controversy at the bottom of this site.)

1940

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

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1939

The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

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1938

The Late George Apley by John Phillips Marquand

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1937

Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

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1936

Honey in the Horn by Harold L. Davis

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1935

Now in November by Josephine Winslow Johnson

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1934

Lamb in His Bosom by Caroline Miller

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1933

The Store by Thomas Sigismund Stribling

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1932

The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck

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1931

Years of Grace by Margaret Ayer Barnes

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1930

Laughing Boy by Oliver La Farge

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1929

Scarlet Sister Mary by Julia Peterkin

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1928

The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder

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1927

Early Autumn by Louis Bromfield (See Pulitzer Prize Controversy at the bottom of this site.)

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1926

Arrowsmith by Sinclair Lewis (declined prize - See Pulitzer Prize Controversy at the bottom of this site.)

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1925

So Big by Edna Ferber

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1924

The Able McLaughlins by Margaret Wilson

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1923

One of Ours by Willa Cather

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1922

Alice Adams by Booth Tarkington

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1921

The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton

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1920

No Pulitzer Prize was awarded this year.

1919

The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington

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1918

His Family by Ernest Poole

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Joseph Pulitzer

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In 1977, the fiction jury recommended Norman MacLean’s A River Runs Through It, but the Pulitzer Board decided against this recommendation. Ultimately, no Pulitzer Prize was awarded in 1977.

In 1974, the fiction jury recommended Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow. The board, however, decided that there would be no winner.

In 1971, no award was issued. The fiction jury narrowed the selection process down to three books: Eudora Welty’s Losing Battles, Saul Bellow’s Mr. Sammler’s Planet, and Joyce Carol Oates’s The Wheel of Love. Ultimately, the board decided that none of these novels were good enough.

In 1957, the fiction jury recommended Elizabeth Spencer’s The Voice at the Back Door. The board makes the ultimate decision, and it instead, decided that there would be no winner.

In 1952, Herman Wouk's The Caine Mutiny won the Pulitzer. It certainly is a good book, but controversy lingers. Should it have beat Catcher in the Rye or From Here to Eternity? Obviously, this was a great year in American literature. Ultimately, all three books deserve mention, because all three are fine books.

In 1941, the fiction jury recommended Ernest Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls. The president of Columbia University, Nocholas Murray Butler, argued that the novel was offensive, and ultimately, no award was issued that year. In today’s era, the book would surely have won the Pulitzer Prize. Back then, however, the social norms were quite different.

In 1927, Lois Bromfield won the Pulitzer for Early Autumn. At the time, it probably wasn't that controversial. In retrospect, one has to wonder if it really should have beat The Sun Also Rises, a far, far superior book.

In 1926, Sinclair Lewis won with Arrowsmith. Sinclair Lewis declined the award. Interestingly, Arrowsmith is often considered the weakest of his major novels. That being said, it is a good book. Additional controversy enters into the equation when you consider the books that it beat. Even if you overlook Maugham’s The Painted Veil, Ford’s No More Parades, and Dresier’s American Tragedy, it still leaves you with a tough decision. Should Arrowsmith have beat The Great Gatsby?

There was no fiction prize in 1957, but the Pulitzer judges did bestow an honorary award to Kenneth Roberts for all of his historical novels, written between 1930 and 1956. Only one other novelist has won such an award. In 2007, Ray Bradbury (The Martian Chronicles, Fahrenheit 451) was honored with an honorary award. Additionally, Theodor Seuss Geisel, a.k.a. Dr. Seuss, received an honorary award in 1984.

Unfortunately, winning the Pulitzer Prize isn't always a clear path to success. If it were, all of the Pulitzer novels would still be in print.  Unfortunately, that's not the case.  In reality, critical acclaim and sales figures are the two most popular ways to measure a book’s success, but they don’t usually support each other. Winning a prestigious award, like the Pulitzer Prize, can make a novelist’s literary standing. However, critical acclaim doesn't necessarily equate to sales. James Patterson has never won a Pulitzer Prize, and he probably never will.  His sales figures, however, undoubtedly reflect massive success. It’s rare for a novelist to win a Pulitzer. It’s also rare to be a best-selling novelist. Winning a Pulitzer and being a best-selling novelist is almost impossible.  Consequently, a growing number of winners, some quite good, have largely been overlooked by time.  We're hopeful that readers will consider reading some of these forgotten American classics.

Give a forgotten classic a chance! These are the Pulitzer Prize Winners that time forgot. Each is listed according to lack of sales and lack of notoriety. Ultimately, these are the Pulitzer novels that need a second chance. Let’s change this list by reading these books!

Guard of Honorby James Gould Cozzens - 1949

Advise and Consent by Allen Drury – 1960

Journey in the Darkby Martin Flavin - 1944

Now in November by Josephine Winslow Johnson - 1935

His Family by Ernest Poole - 1918

Early Autumnby Louis Bromfield - 1927

Scarlet Sister Maryby Julia Peterkin - 1929

Laughing Boyby Oliver Lafarge - 1930

Years of Graceby Margaret Ayer Barnes - 1931

The Storeby T.S. Stribling - 1933

Lamb in His Bosom by Caroline Miller - 1934

Honey in the Horn by Harold L. Davis - 1936

In This Our Life by Ellen Glasgow - 1942

The Town by Conrad Richter - 1951

There has long been a debate between phonics and whole language. Google “whole language”, and you’ll find almost 20,000,000 articles about the subject. Google “phonics’, and you’ll find almost 9,000,000 articles. Google “novels”, and you’ll find over 81,000,000 articles!

There are numerous opposing beliefs when it comes to teaching reading. Ultimately, regardless of how a child is taught to read, the reading material largely dictates his/her interest level. Can anybody truly be interested in the reading material contained in most reading texts? At what point is a child’s interest level as important as the method in which they are being taught to read? In my twenty years of teaching, I’ve found that the single best way to improve in reading is to read. I know that sounds simple, but it’s true. The problem with reading texts is that they really don’t provide a lot of reading opportunities that are interesting, so students never read from them on their own. Novels, on the other hand, are far more engaging and tend to motivate students to read both in groups and independently. As a result, I highly recommend novel reading over text reading when it comes to increasing student interest.

It’s easy to overlook the value of Pulitzer Prize books within the classroom, because many consider them appropriate for adults only, both in reading level and content. Consequently, Pulitzer Prize books tend to be overlooked by teachers, and few of these books are regularly used within the classroom. There are a few exceptions. To Kill a Mockingbird and a few select books are commonly used, but the vast majority of Pulitzer books are entirely overlooked. This is truly unfortunate, because Pulitzer books are among the best and most appropriate for the classroom.

Before selecting Pulitzer books for any class, one needs to remember that most books, including Pulitzer books, are written between a 5^th and 10^th grade level. Few books go above or below these grade levels. To Kill a Mockingbird, for example, is rated at 5^th grade, and Gone with the Wind is rated at 7^th grade. This doesn’t mean, however, that these are appropriate for these grade levels. Further, it doesn’t mean that students will actually understand what they are reading. It only means that students will be able to fluently read the material. The concepts may be too advanced, as is the case with both To Kill a Mockingbird and Gone with the Wind. Consequently, one has to consider content too. Basically, as a general rule, every Pulitzer book is appropriate for the following:

7^th grade gifted

8^th grade gifted

9^th grade

10^th grade

11^th grade

12^th grade

Some of the books, such as The Old Man and the Sea, are fine for lower grades, often as low as fourth grade, but care must be taken in selecting appropriate material that will interest young readers and be appropriate for them.

Ultimately, it is our hope that educators will both continue to use Pulitzer winners and begin to incorporate even more winners into their plans. If you're looking for a great American novel to read with your class, look no futher.  These books won for a reason. They truly are among the greatest books of the 20^th century, so enjoy!

By creating this site, we're hopeful that it will become a working forum for people to discuss Pulitzer Prize novels and ultimately celebrate the genius behind them.  Please help us make this forum a success by leaving a comment about any of the Pulitzer books or authors.  Also, please don't forget to vote for your favorite book. 

In an effort to improve this site, we would like to, once again, encourage visitors to leave book reviews and any comments that may be helpful for others that may wish to select books from this list. Most of all, we hope you enjoy these novels. They truly are among the best novels ever written. Enjoy!