Pulitzer-Prize Fiction I’ve Read and Rated

From The Baochi Book Collection

Sometime over the last decade, I set the goal to read every Pulitzer Prize winner in Fiction. To date, I’ve read twenty-two of the eighty-five Pulitzer winners in Fiction, which means I have sixty-three more to go. I’ll update this post as I progress…

The Pulitzer Prize is considered by many to be the Grand Daddy of all literary awards. I can attest to the high quality and originality of the Pulitzer Fiction I’ve read thus far. Even when I didn’t absolutely enjoy a particular Pultizer book, I still appreciated its literary merits.

Below is the complete list of Pulitzer Winners in Fiction by year (source: www.pulitzer.org). Note that from 1918 through 1947, the category was named “Novel.” In 1948, the category was re-named “Fiction.” If you notice a few gaps between some years, it’s because no prize was awarded in that specific year. I’ve highlighted the ones I’ve read and assigned a rating based on my level of enjoyment, with 4 stars denoting a maximum level of ecstasy.

2011    A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan (2.5 stars)
2010    Tinkers by Paul Harding (2 stars)
2009    Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout (2.5 stars)
2008    The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz (2 stars)
2007    The Road by Cormac McCarthy (2.5 stars)
2006    March by Geraldine Brooks (1 star)
2005    Gilead by Marilynne Robinson (4 stars)
2004    The Known World by Edward P. Jones
2003    Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides (4 stars)
2002    Empire Falls by Richard Russo (2.5 stars)
2001    The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon (4 stars)
2000    Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri (2.5 stars)
1999     The Hours by Michael Cunningham (4 stars)
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 (1 star)
1993    A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain by Robert Olen Butler
1992    A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley (1 star)
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 (2.5 stars)
1987    A Summons to Memphis by Peter Taylor
1986    Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry (3.5 stars)
1985    Foreign Affairs by Alison Lurie
1984    Ironweed by William Kennedy
1983    The Color Purple by Alice Walker (3.5 stars)
1982    Rabbit Is Rich by John Updike
1981    A Confederacy of Dunces by the late John Kennedy Toole (1 star)
1980    The Executioner’s Song by Norman Mailer
1979    The Stories of John Cheever by John Cheever
1978    Elbow Room by James Alan McPherson
1976    Humboldt’s Gift by Saul Bellow
1975    The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara
1973    The Optimist’s Daughter by Eudora Welty
1972    Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner
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
1963    The Reivers by William Faulkner
1962    The Edge of Sadness by Edwin O’Connor
1961    To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee (3.5 stars)
1960    Advise and Consent by Allen Drury
1959    The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters by Robert Lewis Taylor
1958    A Death In The Family by the late James Agee
1956    Andersonville by MacKinlay Kantor
1955    A Fable by William Faulkner
1953    The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway (1 star)
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 by James A. Michener
1947    All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren
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
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 (3.5)
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 (2 stars)
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
1919    The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington
1918    His Family by Ernest Poole