Pulitzer Reading Challenge

[PabloQ]

What an ambitious endeavor. I've actually read 12 of these already. I wish you luck. I'll be interested to know if you can find them all. Some of the olders ones are not the best known works by those authors and not even the Pulitzer is enought to keep them on modern book shelves, either in shops or in librariess. I'm looking at stuff like Alice Adams, So Big, and Dragon's Teeth. I'd say you're more likely to have success from 1950 through today, but it's going to be catch as catch can before that. GWTW is enough to chase me off this list.

[papayahed]

Wow, I've only read 4 on the list. Between this and the litnet top 100 I'm going to be pretty busy.

I did get partly through All the Kings Men as my intro to LA maybe I'll pick that up again.

[semi-fly]

As silly of question as it might seem are all of these books actually available in English? If not are you planning on reading these books in their original language?

[bouquin]

It would be good if we could discuss these books here. I have read 13 of them. For this year The Stone Diaries and The Confessions of Nat Turner are on my TBR list.

[thomas212]

As silly of question as it might seem are all of these books actually available in English? If not are you planning on reading these books in their original language?

I don't think they translate Americain into English,but with an effort it might be ok.

[Scheherazade]

I think it's a geat idea, although I have a little list to finish first, then I'll be more than glad to join you.

Take your time... We have six years, give or take couple!

I'll see if I can finish this next month

I could not put it down while reading it couple of years ago. It is a great book in my opinion (there should be review of it in the Reviews section as well).

I'll be interested to know if you can find them all. Some of the olders ones are not the best known works by those authors and not even the Pulitzer is enought to keep them on modern book shelves, either in shops or in librariess.

Hmph. To be honest, the possibility that I may not be able to find them did not occur to me. I usually get my books from the library so I will try different counties (as well as the College and university libraries).

I did get partly through All the Kings Men as my intro to LA maybe I'll pick that up again.

I remember you wanting to read this a lot. If you like, I will get it and we can read it together like we did that Chinese book?

As silly of question as it might seem are all of these books actually available in English? If not are you planning on reading these books in their original language?

Semi-fly,

The Pulitzer novel prize is given to works by American authors only so they are all in English.

It would be good if we could discuss these books here. I have read 13 of them. For this year The Stone Diaries and The Confessions of Nat Turner are on my TBR list.

That would be great. I try to post a review of the book I have read so we can exchange our views in those threads as well.

[semi-fly]

For some reason I was thinking Nobel prize when I wrote that post, my mistake.

[The Comedian]

Starting from next month, I am hoping to read all the Pulitzer winners (fiction) by 2015 (yes, yes... 6 whole years).

If anyone would like to join me, they are more than welcome.

Here is a list of the winners so far:

2008 The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz (Riverhead Books)

2007 The Road by Cormac McCarthy (Alfred A. Knopf)

2006 March by Geraldine Brooks (Viking)

2005 Gilead by Marilynne Robinson (Farrar)

2004 The Known World by Edward P. Jones (Amistad/ HarperCollins)

2003 Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides (Farrar)

2002 Empire Falls by Richard Russo (Alfred A. Knopf)

2001 The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon (Random House)

2000 Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri (Mariner Books/Houghton Mifflin)

1999 The Hours by Michael Cunningham (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)

1998 American Pastoral by Philip Roth (Houghton Mifflin)

1997 Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer by Steven Millhauser (Crown)

1996 Independence Day by Richard Ford (Alfred A. Knopf)

1995 The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields (Viking)

1994 The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx (Charles Scribner's Sons)

1993 A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain by Robert Olen Butler (Henry Holt)

1992 A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley (Alfred A. Knopf)

1991 Rabbit At Rest by John Updike (Alfred A. Knopf)

1990 The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love by Oscar Hijuelos (Farrar)

1989 Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler (Alfred A. Knopf)

1988 Beloved by Toni Morrison (Alfred A. Knopf)

1987 A Summons to Memphis by Peter Taylor (Alfred A. Knopf)

1986 Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry (Simon & Schuster)

1985 Foreign Affairs by Alison Lurie (Random House)

1984 Ironweed by William Kennedy (Viking)

1983 The Color Purple by Alice Walker (Harcourt Brace)

1982 Rabbit Is Rich by John Updike (Knopf)

1981 A Confederacy of Dunces by the late John Kennedy Toole (a
posthumous publication) (Louisiana State U. Press)

1980 The Executioner's Song by Norman Mailer (Little)

1979 The Stories of John Cheever by John Cheever (Knopf)

1978 Elbow Room by James Alan McPherson (Atlantic Monthly Press)

1977 (No Award)

1976 Humboldt's Gift by Saul Bellow (Viking)

1975 The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara (McKay)

1974 (No Award)

1973 The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty (Random)

1972 Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner (Doubleday)

1971 (No Award)

1970 Collected Stories by Jean Stafford (Farrar)

1969 House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday (Harper)

1968 The Confessions of Nat Turner by William Styron (Random)

1967 The Fixer by Bernard Malamud (Farrar)

1966 Collected Stories by Katherine Anne Porter (Harcourt)

1965 The Keepers Of The House by Shirley Ann Grau (Random)

1964 (No Award)

1963 The Reivers by William Faulkner (Random)

1962 The Edge of Sadness by Edwin O'Connor (Little)

1961 To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee (Lippincott)

1960 Advise and Consent by Allen Drury (Doubleday)

1959 The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters by Robert Lewis Taylor (Doubleday)

1958 A Death In The Family by the late James Agee (a posthumous publication) (McDowell, Obolensky)

1957 (No Award)

1956 Andersonville by MacKinlay Kantor (World)

1955 A Fable by William Faulkner (Random)

1954 (No Award)

1953 The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway (Scribner)

1952 The Caine Mutiny by Herman Wouk (Doubleday)

1951 The Town by Conrad Richter (Knopf)

1950 The Way West by A. B. Guthrie (Sloane)

1949 Guard of Honor by James Gould Cozzens (Harcourt)

1948 Tales of the South Pacific by James A. Michener (Macmillan)

1947 All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren (Harcourt)

1946 (No Award)

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)

1941 (No Award)

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)

1920 (No Award)

1919 The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington (Doubleday)

1918 His Family by Ernest Poole (Macmillan)

1917 (No Award)


I have read only 10 books from this list; all I can is that "Hurray for "No-award years!"

This sounds like a great project. I'd like to read updates of your progress. Are you going to tackle this list in some kind of order?

Just of kicks I highlighted the ones that I have read. No many, I'm afraid.

[Scheherazade]

I am slightly panicking now; I checked about 35 titles today and my library branch did not have even one of them (though most are available somewhere in the county; it is a matter of time to get them delivered to my branch).

[subterranean]

Ok, I'm ready now. I bought The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder today.

So it's going to be 3 books for me:
The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

[optimisticnad]

I thought I was obsessed with lists! BUt this is a great idea, another list I can do! Thanks! And i've read only a handful from the list like 'the age of innocence' and 'the colour purple'. If I'm honest I prefer JBI's idea of reading Nobel Prize Winners - there's more variety there.

[Niamh]

I dont know how you do it Scher! I would probably give up after a while! no patience for lists!, But in saying that there are a lot of books on that i want to read so i might join you for some of it anyway!

[Scheherazade]

OK, before starting, here are the ones I have read so far:

2003 Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides (Farrar)

1999 The Hours by Michael Cunningham (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)

1994 The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx (Charles Scribner's Sons)

1983 The Color Purple by Alice Walker (Harcourt Brace)

1961 To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee (Lippincott)

1953 The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway (Scribner)

1940 The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (Viking)

1937 Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell (Macmillan)

1921 The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton (Appleton)

If I'm honest I prefer JBI's idea of reading Nobel Prize Winners - there's more variety there.

The thing is that the Nobel Prize is given to an author, not to a particular work; so it is a little hard to read all the works of those authors.

I dont know how you do it Scher! I would probably give up after a while! no patience for lists!, But in saying that there are a lot of books on that i want to read so i might join you for some of it anyway!

If you are interested, Papaya and I will be reading All the King's Men soon (I will start a thread); why don't you join us?

Meanwhile, I am reading Laughing Boy and I am enjoying it very much. For more info, wait for my review!

[Virgil]

Interestingly enouglh, I would like to read something "American" because recently all my reading has been British and Indian. I have always felt that I am lacking when it comes to American literature.

I'm with JBI. That list is not that great. But then there is a lot on that list I've never heard of.

[Scheherazade]

I'm with JBI. That list is not that great. But then there is a lot on that list I've never heard of.

I don't think any lists will ever be complete or perfect.

I just would like to read a worthy portion of American Literature and this list will do the trick for me.

If anyone is interested, we will be having a group reading soon:

http://www.online-literature.com/for...ad.php?t=42434