Tuesday, December 12, 2006

No Award

I was looking over my list of Pulitzer Prize Winning Novels since I have two at home from the library and two more on interlibrary loan and I noticed that there are several instances where no award was given. I knew that already. The longest gap before 1977 was the 21 years between 1920 and 1941. Interestingly enough 1920 would have been the third year for the award and they couldn't come to a consensus that year. Then: 1941, 1946, 1954, 1957, 1964, 1971, 1974, and 1977. So, every few years the Pulitzer committee did not hand out an award. The next awarding in 2007 will mark 30 years since the last time the Pulitzer committee failed to recognize a novel.

By my count, they're overdue.

I think I'm going through a Pulitzer stretch because after finishing the rather bad A Confederacy of Dunces I have the following either at home or on reserve at the library:

One of Ours (1923) - Willa Cather
Alice Adams (1922) - Booth Tarkington
The Able McLaughlins (1924) - Margaret Wilson
Gilead (2005) - Marilynne Robinson

I might hit up the Pulitzer novels I own and haven't read, as well.

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