Never too Late to Read Classics discussion
On-Going Challenges
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The Pulitzer Prize OnGoing Challenge
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I would like to try to do a list for different Countries as well.
Maybe specialty awards like the Newberry?
If you or any Member has suggests for Literary Prize list please let us know.
Thanks for compiling this list, Lesle. I was contemplating whether I should start tackling these, and I think I will...As for other prizes, there's the Man-Booker prize, but they started awarding that one in 1969, so that's just after our cut-off point for classics...
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I always thought it interesting that 4 out of the first 7 Pulitzer fiction winners were female, including two of my favorites, Willa Cather and Edith Wharton. Interesting since it was at a time when women weren't allowed into or recognized for achievements in many other areas.
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I will try to look into that list this weekend.
I have a long-term ongoing goal to read all the Pulitzer novel winners. It's so interesting to read some of the older books, and their view of the American experience.
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Just missing the cut-off date, but if I can just briefly make mention: two rarely-talked about mid-century Pulitzer winners still make superb reading experiences down to this day. 'Guard of Honor'(1948) and 'Andersonville'.(1956) Rich, lengthy reads with memorable characters and flawless prose. The latter is the best Civil War novel I've ever encountered, even beating Michael Shaara.
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1953: Hemingway - The Old Man and the Sea 2017 (5 stars)
1959: Taylor The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters 2018 (4 stars)
1939: Rawlings - The Yearling 2018 (4 stars)
1961: Lee - To Kill a Mockingbird 2015 (5 stars)
1986: McMurtry - Lonesome Dove also won the Spur Award 1988/2019 (5 stars)
1927: Wilder - The Bridge of San Luis Rey 2019 (5 stars)
1972: Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner 2021 (5 stars)
1925: So Big by Edna Ferber 2021 (2 stars)
1935: Now in November by Josephine Winslow Johnson (4.5 stars)
I own 12 that I have not read:
1921: The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
1967: The Fixer by Bernard Malamud
1950: The Way West by A. B. Guthrie, Jr.
1932: The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck
1940: The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck
1988: Driving Miss Daisy (Drama)
1976: A River Runs Through It (nominated-no award given)
1995: Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (non-fiction)
1955: A Fable by William Faulkner
1934: Lamb in His Bosom by Caroline Miller
1952: The Natural by Bernard Malamud (Pulitzer Author)
1969: House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Momady
Excellent idea, Lesle. I’m going to do so too.The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton1921
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell 1937
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway 1935
Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri 2000
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
Beloved by Toni Morrison
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot DÃaz 2008
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr 2015
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead 2017
That leaves a lot to be read!
2018
The Good Earth byPearl S. Buck 1932 read 25/8/2018
1961 To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee 1961
Lesle wrote: "Rosemarie,I would like to try to do a list for different Countries as well.
Maybe specialty awards like the Newberry?
If you or any Member has suggests for Literary Prize list please let us know."
I would definitely recommend making a list of Newbery winners. Though they're supposed to be for children, I count many of these books among the best I've read. Here's a few I particularly love:
2015: The Crossover by Kwame Alexander
2009: A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park
1990: Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
1987: The Whipping Boy by Sid Fleischman
1972: Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien
1968: From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg
1959: The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare
1941: Call It Courage by Armstrong Sperry
1933: Invincible Louisa by Cornelia Meigs
1923: The Voyages of Dr. Dolittle by Hugh Lofting
Usually, several runners-up are named Newbery Honors also. Of those, I particularly love 2010's Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin, 2006's Princess Academy by Shannon Hale, 1998's Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine, and 1953's Charlotte's Web by E. B. White.
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We actually have several other awards as well, they are under the topic "Read, Should Read List"
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and your more than welcome to list your reads in the comment section.
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Samantha, A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole won the 1981 Pulitzer, 12 years after the author's suicide. Its considered a classic on New Orleans characters, Personally, I had enough of the main character, Ignatius J. Reilly after 100 pages and never finished it.Rosemarie, I have read 40 Pulitzer winning novels, less than half, including The Stone Diaries by American born Canadian author Carol Shields, the only book to get both the Pulitzer and Governor's General Award.
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I hope this is helpful for those that want to read the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction.
You are more than welcome to post a comment of your reads and edit your comment for your updates.
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I read All the Light we Cannot See as soon as it was available at the library and loved it. (long before it won the prize.)
I found out about Now in November on goodreads. Luckily, the library system had one copy. The author's descriptive writing was excellent.
I read The Stone Diaries but couldn't relate to the author's writing style. The story was fine, but the characters seemed flat to me.
I really liked The Orphan Master's Son. I would have liked All the Light We Cannot See more but its one of those instances a movie or book suffers because you say "its not quite as good as they said," when you might have liked it more if you started without any expectations. Now in November is one of those Pulitzer winners I had not even heard of. Now, in January, I have. One for the TBR pile.
Edited 11/23/20My total is 19. I remember liking The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck when I read it in high school. I don't know what I'd think if I read it now. In recent years I've read The Optimist's Daughter, Middlesex and All the Light We Cannot See and enjoyed them all.
I plan to read these winners in 2018, some of which aren't classics:
5/5
�The Age of Innocence - Edith Wharton (1921)
�Interpreter of Maladies - Jhumpa Lahiri (2000)
�March - Geraldine Brooks (2006)
�The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters (1959)
�A Visit from the Goon Squad - Jennifer Egan (2011)
2019-2020 read
�One of Ours - Willa Cather (1923)
�The Keepers of the House - Shirley Ann Grau (1965)
�The Goldfinch - Donna Tartt (2014)
�Less - Andrew Sean Greer (2018)
� The Overstory - Richard Powers (2019)
My Pulitzer reads:1928 The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder
1932 The Good Earth by Pearl Buck
1937 Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
1940 The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
1959 The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters by Robert Lewis Taylor
1961 To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
1977 Roots: The Saga of an American Family by Alex Haley
1983 The Color Purple by Alice Walker
1986 Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
1988 Beloved by Toni Morrison
1992 Maus I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History by Art Spigelman (letters award)
The Complete Maus by Art Speigelman (special citation)
1994 The Shipping News by Annie Proulx (bailed)
1999 The Hours by Michael Cunningham
2005 Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
2006 March by Geraldine Brooks
2007 The Road by Cormac McCarthy
2008 August: Osage County by Tracy Letts (drama)
2015 All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
2017 The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
2018 Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder by Caroline Fraser (biography)
2021 The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich
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I didn't like it that much but forced myself to finish it. Parts of it were very violent.
Rosemarie wrote: "I just finished The Confessions of Nat Turner by William Styron. I didn't like it that much but forced myself to finish it. Parts of it were very violent."
I did not like it that much either but I loved Styron's Sophie's Choice
Well I knew I wasn’t particularly interested in American Litt, but only 2? (I’ve watched most of the film versions it seems!)Update: Made it three now!
(view spoiler)
Own / TBR:
1921 The Age of Innocence, by Edith Wharton
1961: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Read:
2011: A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
2015: All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
2017: The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
Well at least I found out what I can read for one of this year’s challenges!
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Ive only read 3 before this year now at 4!!!
:) I've been using that trick for the extremely long list of Nobel Prize Winners - as it's nice to have the full list at hand, but the posts get ridiculously long and annoying to scroll by...
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From the winners listed I read:
1932 The Good Earth, by Pearl S. Buck
1961: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
1983: The Color Purple by Alice Walker
I enjoyed the last two ones. They were remarkable.
Rafael wrote: "I read a book not listed in this list, but awarded with the Pulitzer, The Complete Maus. It was awarded in 1992. The 1992 Pulitzer Prize winners.The Pulitzers give out Special Awards every few years and, technically, the special award is to a person rather than a work, but the 1992 award was to Spiegelman for The Complete Maus.
But who pays attention to the Pulitzer special awards, anyway. They even gave one in 2008 to Bob Dylan, of all people.
Rafael, about 5 years ago, I saw a special exhibit of Spiegelman at the Vancouver Museum of Art in Canada. It included a lot from Maus, including preliminary sketches, storyboards and research materials. Very entertaining and enlightening.
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For those wanting to read Pulitzer winners, remember that the upcoming May YA read will be 1939 Pulitzer winner The Yearling
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The Pulitzers give ou..."
Oh! It should had been amazing.
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Me too. His father was a fascinating character.
2018 Pulitzer winners have been announced and include:Fiction:Less by Andrew Sean Greer
& Biography: Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder by Caroline Fraser
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Pulitzer's description:
A deeply researched and elegantly written portrait of Laura Ingalls Wilder, author of the Little House on the Prairie series, that describes how Wilder transformed her family’s story of poverty, failure and struggle into an uplifting tale of self-reliance, familial love and perseverance.
I'm gonna keep track of my so-far-read Pulitzer winning books as well. Got a long way to go, I guess 😂 I think I'll try to read the rest next year as a challenge.-------------------------------------------------------------
1918: His Family, by Ernest Poole
1919: The Magnificent Ambersons, by Booth Tarkington
1922: Alice Adams, by Booth Tarkington
1923: One of Ours, by Willa Cather
1924: The Able McLaughlins, by Margaret Wilson
1925: So Big, by Edna Ferber
1926: Arrowsmith by Sinclair Lewis
1927: Early Autumn: A Story of a Lady, by Louis Bromfield
1929: Scarlet Sister Mary, by Julia Peterkin
1930: Laughing Boy: A Navajo Love Story, by Oliver Lafarge
1931: Years of Grace, by Margaret Ayer Barnes
1932: The Good Earth, by Pearl S. Buck
1933: The Store, by T. S. Stribling
1934: Lamb in His Bosom, by Caroline Miller
🌸 1935: Now in November, by Josephine Winslow Johnson
1936: Honey in the Horn, by Harold L. Davis
1937: Gone with the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell
1938: The Late George Apley, by John Phillips Marquand
1939: The Yearling, by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
1942: In This Our Life by Ellen Glasgow
1943: Dragon's Teeth by Upton Sinclair
1944: Journey in the Dark by Martin Flavin
1945: A Bell for Adano by John Hersey
1947: All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren
1948: Tales of the South Pacific by James A. Michener
1949: Guard of Honor by James Gould Cozzens
1950: The Way West by A. B. Guthrie, Jr.
1951: The Town by Conrad Richter
1952: The Caine Mutiny by Herman Wouk
1955: A Fable by William Faulkner
🌸 1956: Andersonville by MacKinlay Kantor
1959: The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters by Robert Lewis Taylor
1960: Advise and Consent by Allen Drury
1962: The Edge of Sadness by Edwin O'Connor
1963: The Reivers by William Faulkner(posthumous win)
1965: The Keepers of the House by Shirley Ann Grau
1966: The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter by Katherine Anne Porter
1968: The Confessions of Nat Turner by William Styron
1969: House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday
1970: The Collected Stories of Jean Stafford by Jean Stafford
1972: Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner
1973: The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty
1975: The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara
1976: Humboldt's Gift by Saul Bellow
1977: Roots by Alex Haley (special Pulitzer Prize)
1978: Elbow Room by James Alan McPherson
1979: The Stories of John Cheever by John Cheever
1980: The Executioner's Song by Norman Mailer
1981: A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole (posthumous win)
1982: Rabbit Is Rich by John Updike
1983: The Color Purple by Alice Walker
1984: Ironweed by William Kennedy
1985: Foreign Affairs by Alison Lurie
1986: Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
1987: A Summons to Memphis by Peter Taylor
🌸1988: Beloved by Toni Morrison
1989: Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler
1990: The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love by Oscar Hijuelos
1991: Rabbit at Rest by John Updike
1992: A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley
1993: A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain by Robert Olen
1994: The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx
1995: The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields
1996: Independence Day by Richard Ford
1997: Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer by Steven Millhauser
1998: American Pastoral by Philip Roth
1999: The Hours by Michael Cunningham
2000: Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
2001: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon
2002: Empire Falls by Richard Russo
2003: Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
2004: The Known World by Edward P. Jones
2005: Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
2006: March by Geraldine Brooks
2007: The Road by Cormac McCarthy
2008: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot DÃaz
2009: Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
2010: Tinkers by Paul Harding
2011: A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
2012: No award given
2013: The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson
2015: All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
2016: The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh
2017: The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
2018: Less by Andrew Sean Greer
2019: The Overstory by Richard Powers
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Three outstanding books you have read on the list!
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Cather's going to WWI part in One of Ours got a lot of criticism for merely copying people's accounts while other authors who were writing war novels had been to the war.I really liked the Nebraska part and thought the story faded when the hero went to war. I remember putting my own story together of how it should have gone without the war intervening.
I really like The Lost Lady which. like Lucy Gayheart is great novella-length Cather. I enjoy the heroines in Gayheart and Song of the Lark, probably because both study music in Chicago.
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Two books that really describe the war are Undertones of War by Edmund Blunden and Goodbye to All That by Robert Graves.
Rosemarie wrote: "I have just read One of Ours by Willa Cather which one the prize in 1923. I found this one heavy going and not nearly as good as O Pioneers! or [book:A L..."I read Cather's My Antonia some years back, and the story has really stuck with me over time. I was introduced to Willa Cather short stories in high school, and have had an interest in this author ever since. Must revisit her soon.
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Rosemarie wrote: "I have jusr finished So Big by Edna Ferber and absolutely loved it! The main character is just delightful and the author has a light touch, as well as an important mess...""Cabbages are beautiful."
I like that story. It takes place is what is now the south Chicago suburb of South Holland, near where I grew up. The book gives a good picture of the city of Chicago and the nearby rural area at the time.
The side story of neighbor Roelf going off to Europe and becoming a sculptor reminded me of Willa Cather's Song of the Lark, the story of a young rural girl becoming a world class opera singer - both were rural young people who at that time in the U.S. had to go to Europe to establish their legitimacy as great artists
Updated with the finished read of The Fixer. I'll edit my comment (msg. 42) with finished books as I go.I'm excited to do this, so far I think the Pulitzer books have been some of my favourites.
Never too Late to Read Classics
Books mentioned in this topic
The Stories of John Cheever (other topics)Early Autumn: A Story of a Lady (other topics)
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A Summons to Memphis (other topics)
Buried Child (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
John Cheever (other topics)Louis Bromfield (other topics)
Sam Shepard (other topics)
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Joseph Pulitzer stood out as the very embodiment of American journalism. Hungarian-born, an intense indomitable figure, Pulitzer was the most skillful of newspaper publishers, a passionate crusader against dishonest government, a fierce, hawk-like competitor who did not shrink from sensationalism in circulation struggles, and a visionary who richly endowed his profession.
1949 Guard of Honor by James Gould Cozzens
1948 Tales of the South Pacific by James A. Michener
1947 All the King's Men, by Robert Penn Warren (Harcourt)
1945 A Bell for Adano, by John Hersey (Knopf)
1944 Journey in the Dark, by Martin Flavin (Harper)
1943 Dragon's Teeth, by Upton Sinclair (Viking)
1942 In This Our Life, by Ellen Glasgow (Harcourt)
1940 The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck (Viking)
1939 The Yearling, by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings (Scribner)
1938 The Late George Apley, by John Phillips Marquand (Little)
1937 Gone With the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell (Macmillan)
1936 Honey in the Horn, by Harold L. Davis (Harper)
1935 Now in November, by Josephine Winslow Johnson (Simon & Schuster)
1934 Lamb in His Bosom, by Caroline Miller (Harper)
1933 The Store, by T. S. Stribling (Doubleday)
1932 The Good Earth, by Pearl S. Buck (John Day)
1931 Years of Grace, by Margaret Ayer Barnes (Houghton)
1930 Laughing Boy, by Oliver Lafarge (Houghton)
1929 Scarlet Sister Mary, by Julia Peterkin (Bobbs)
1928 The Bridge of San Luis Rey, by Thornton Wilder (Boni)
1927 Early Autumn, by Louis Bromfield (Stokes)
1926 Arrowsmith, by Sinclair Lewis (Harcourt)
1925 So Big, by Edna Ferber (Doubleday)
1924 The Able McLaughlins, by Margaret Wilson (Harper)
1923 One of Ours, by Willa Cather (Knopf)
1922 Alice Adams, by Booth Tarkington (Doubleday)
1921 The Age of Innocence, by Edith Wharton (Appleton)
1919 The Magnificent Ambersons, by Booth Tarkington (Doubleday)
1918 His Family, by Ernest Poole (Macmillan)
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More of the Pulitzer Winners
1950: The Way West by A. B. Guthrie, Jr.
1951: The Town by Conrad Richter
1952: The Caine Mutiny by Herman Wouk
1953: The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
1954: No award given
1955: A Fable by William Faulkner
1956: Andersonville by MacKinlay Kantor
1957: No award given
1958: A Death in the Family by James Agee (posthumous win)
1959: The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters by Robert Lewis Taylor
1960: Advise and Consent by Allen Drury
1961: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
1962: The Edge of Sadness by Edwin O'Connor
1963: The Reivers by William Faulkner (posthumous win)
1964: No award given
1965: The Keepers of the House by Shirley Ann Grau
1966: The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter by Katherine Anne Porter
1967: The Fixer by Bernard Malamud
1968: The Confessions of Nat Turner by William Styron
1969: House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday
1970: The Collected Stories of Jean Stafford by Jean Stafford
1971: No award given
1972: Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner
1973: The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty
1974: No award given
1975: The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara
1976: Humboldt's Gift by Saul Bellow
1977: No award given : Roots by Alex Haley (special Pulitzer Prize)
1978: Elbow Room by James Alan McPherson
1979: The Stories of John Cheever by John Cheever
1980: The Executioner's Song by Norman Mailer Birdy by William Wharton
1981: A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole (posthumous win) Godric by Frederick Buechner
1982: Rabbit Is Rich by John Updike A Flag for Sunrise by Robert Stone
1983: The Color Purple by Alice Walker Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant by Anne Tyler
1984: Ironweed by William Kennedy Cathedral by Raymond Carver
1985: Foreign Affairs by Alison Lurie I Wish This War Were Over by Diana O'Hehir
1986: Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
1987: A Summons to Memphis by Peter Taylor
1988: Beloved by Toni Morrison
1989: Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler
1990: The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love by Oscar Hijuelos
1991: Rabbit at Rest by John Updike
1992: A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley
1993: A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain by Robert Olen
1994: The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx
1995: The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields
1996: Independence Day by Richard Ford
1997: Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer by Steven Millhauser
1998: American Pastoral by Philip Roth
1999: The Hours by Michael Cunningham
2000: Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
2001: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon
2002: Empire Falls by Richard Russo
2003: Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
2004: The Known World by Edward P. Jones
2005: Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
2006: March by Geraldine Brooks
2007: The Road by Cormac McCarthy
2008: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot DÃaz 2009: Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
2010: Tinkers by Paul Harding
2011: A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
2012: No award given
2013: The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson
2014: The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
2015: All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
2016: The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh
2017: The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
2018: Less by Andrew Sean Greer
2019: The Overstory by Richard Powers
2020: The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead