Pulitzer Prize Winners Archive Screensaver

The Pulitzer Prizes were established by the will of the newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer and are administered by Columbia University. The first prizes were given in 1917, and the first prize for a novel was awarded in 1918. From 1918 to 1947 it was the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel; from 1948 it became the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, wording that opened it to short-story collections.

The 1917 plan of award called for a novel that would best present “the wholesome atmosphere of American life”. In 1927 “wholesome” was replaced with “whole”, the word in Pulitzer’s will, and by 1936 the wording asked for a distinguished novel by an American author, preferably dealing with American life. The 1948 wording is “distinguished fiction published in book form during the year by an American author, preferably dealing with American life.”

Each year a jury recommends finalists and the Pulitzer Prize Board makes the final decision, and the board has overridden juries before. The prize has been withheld in several years, most recently in 2012, so the list is not strictly one winner per year. This saver cycles through the winners as a historical list, so the interest lies in seeing how tastes shift from decade to decade.