Pulitzer Prize Winning Books

I love to read, and being a fast reader have gone through quite a number of books. I try to keep it varied, both because I harbor a fantasy of knowing all the things about everything ever and because I find it more interesting. As far as fiction goes at this point I have read most of the "classics" and in a fair selection of world literature (in translation, sadly I am too lazy to excel in languages, at least at the moment).

One big gap, though, is in American literature, particularly twentieth century American literature (I have actually read quite a bit of earlier stuff). I saw the Pulitzer challenge (in which one reads all of the Pulitzer winners in the novel/fiction category) on some blog last year (unfortunately I can no longer remember which one) and it seems tailor-made for this goal. I haven't even heard of many of these, particularly the older ones!

I will be trying to read at least one from this list per month (which means it will take me years to finish, but that's fine! Reading is a lifelong activity.). The ones I have read so far are crossed out, and I will update this list as I make progress.

2014 - The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
2013 - The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson
2012 - No award given

2011 - A Visit From The Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
2010 - Tinkers by Paul Harding
2009 - Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
2008 - The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
2007 - The Road by Cormac McCarthy
2006 - March by Geraldine Brooks
2005 - Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
2004 - The Known World by Edward P. Jones
2003 - Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
2002 - Empire Falls by Richard Russo
2001 - The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon
2000 - Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
1999 - The Hours by Michael Cunningham
1998 - American Pastoral by Philip Roth
1997 - Martin Dressler: The Tale of An American Dreamer by Steven Millhauser
1996 - Independence Day by Richard Ford
1995 - The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields
1994 - The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx
1993 - A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain by Robert Olen Butler
1992 - A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley
1991 - Rabbit At Rest by John Updike
1990 - The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love by Oscar Hijuelos
1989 - Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler
1988 - Beloved by Toni Morrison
1987 - A Summons to Memphis by Peter Taylor
1986 - Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
1985 - Foreign Affairs by Alison Lurie
1984 - Ironweed by William Kennedy
1983 - The Color Purple by Alice Walker
1982 - Rabbit Is Rich by John Updike
1981 - A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
1980 - The Executioner's Song by Norman Mailer
1979 - The Stories of John Cheever by John Cheever
1978 - Elbow Room by James Alan McPherson
1977 - no award given
1976 - Humboldt's Gift by Saul Bellow
1975 - The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara
1974 - no award given
1973 - The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty
1972 - Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner
1971 - no award given
1970 - Collected Stories by Jean Stafford
1969 - House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday
1968 - The Confessions of Nat Turner by William Styron
1967 - The Fixer by Bernard Malamud
1966 - Collected Stories by Katherine Anne Porter
1965 - The Keepers of the House by Shirley Ann Grau
1964 - no award given
1963 - The Reivers by William Faulkner
1962 - The Edge of Sadness by Edwin O'Connor
1961 - To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
1960 - Advise and Consent by Allen Drury
1959 - The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters by Robert Lewis Taylor
1958 - A Death In the Family by James Agee
1957 - no award given
1956 - Andersonville by MacKinlay Kantor
1955 - A Fable by William Faulkner
1954 - no award given
1953 - The Old Man and the Sea - Ernest Hemingway
1952 - The Caine Mutiny by Herman Wouk
1951 - The Town by Conrad Richter
1950 - The Way West by A.B. Guthrie
1949 - Guard of Honor by James Gould Cozzens
1948 - Tales of the South Pacific - James A. Michener
1947 - All The King's Men by Robert Penn Warren
1946 - no award given
1945 - A Bell for Adano by John Hersey
1944 - Journey in the Dark by Martin Flavin
1943 - Dragon's Teeth by Upton Sinclair
1942 - In This Our Life by Ellen Glasgow
1941 - no award given
1940 - The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
1939 - The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
1938 - The Late George Apley by John Phillips Marquand
1937 - Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell
1936 - Honey in the Horn by Harold L. Davis
1935 - Now in November by Josephine Winslow Johnson
1934 - Lamb in His Bosom by Caroline Miller
1933 - The Store by T.S. Stribling
1932 - The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck
1931 - Years of Grace by Margaret Ayer Barnes
1930 - Laughing Boy by Oliver Lafarge
1929 - Scarlet Sister Mary by Julia Peterkin
1928 - The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder
1927 - Early Autumn by Louis Bromfield
1926 - Arrowsmith by Sinclair Lewis
1925 - So Big by Edna Ferber
1924 - The Able McLaughlins by Margaret Wilson
1923 - One of Ours by Willa Cather
1922 - Alice Adams by Booth Tarkington
1921 - The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
1920 - no award given
1919 - The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington
1918 -  His Family by Ernest Poole