The Pulitzer Trip

    1926  Arrowsmith Sinclair Lewis  456 pages  Summary This winner is famous--and infamous--for many reasons. First, the book occupies a special place in Pulitzer history because Sinclair Lewis was the first author to decline the Pulitzer. He wrote a lengthy letter to the committee explaining his reservations. After not receiving the prize for his previous novels, Main Street and Babbit , Lewis objected to the idea of literary awards that single out one work over others. He is not alone in thinking that his earlier novels were the real basis for the 1926 award. Second, Lewis both accurately describes the state of 1920s medicine, and predicts the future fault lines  of the industry. Public Health Reports (2001) said this novel predicted, among other things, that research goals would diverge from clinicians' aims, and that pharmaceutical companies would begin to stress profits over scientific research. Lewis worked so closely with science writer...

1925 So Big by Edna Ferber 230 pages Summary Selina Peake De Jong is an artistic young lady raised by a high-living but itinerant father in various hotels of Chicago. When he suddenly dies, she is left penniless. She decides to teach school in the Dutch-settled community of South Holland. She marries an immigrant onion farmer, and soon finds herself widowed with a young son. She decides to run her husband’s onion farm herself in order to support her son. This involves hard work in the fields, regular trips to the produce markets of Chicago, and dealing with produce buyers as a woman in a man’s world. After watching his mother scrape out a living and sacrifice for his well-being, Dirk grows up wanting to be rich. He attends college, becomes an architect, and then a stockbroker. His mother worries that despite his success, Dirk has no joy in his life. When Dirk falls in loves with a sculptor, he must grapple with the lessons his mother tried to teach him, about making space for be...

  1924 The Able McLaughlins by Margaret Wilson 262 pages Summary This book is virtually forgotten today, probably for three reasons. First, the author uses Scottish dialect for dialogue, which makes for slow reading. Second, the plot revolves around the rape of a young woman, but the word “rape” is never used anywhere in the book. Third, following the rape, the author’s focus lies not on the woman’s reaction, but on how the man in her life will cope with the terrible aftermath. However, the book was praised in its day for its folkloric detail. Christie McNair is part of a strict Scots Covenanters community in Iowa. She is engaged to Wully, and her cousin Peter is the town low-life. After Wully leaves to fight in the Civil War, Peter rapes Christie. Christie is pregnant when Wully returns from war. The focus of the novel is how Wully will deal with Peter and how Wully's life is now changed. Wully chases Peter out of town. He is committed to marrying Christie, but in doing ...

  1923 One of Ours by Willa Cather 459 pages  Summary Cather was skewered by Sinclair Lewis and Ernest Hemingway for including romantic conventions in a novel set in World War I.  However, one unique strength of this book is Cather's (heretical) opinion that the European war was a freeing experience for some Americans; it was not just an unrelenting horror.  I personally find Cather's writing to be uneven. She insists on writing from the male perspective--and doesn't do so convincingly. But she is correct in observing that World War I  (as costly as it was to the nation and to individuals) did help Americans see beyond their own borders.    In this novel, a young man from a Nebraska farm, Claude Wheeler, is sent to a Christian college by his parents. There he befriends a fun-loving, free-thinking family, the Ehrlichs. He is called home to help with the family farm, and marries a childhood friend. His wife values Christian and political work over th...

1922 Alice Adams   by  Booth Tarkington 264 pages  Summary  Booth Tarkington won both the second and fifth Pulitzers ever awarded (see Entry #2, 1919: The Magnificent Ambersons ). Once again, this story examines the interplay of class, ambition, and personal happiness at just the right moment, when rapid changes were transforming choices for young people. Critics have said that this book verges on being a morality play because it carries such a strong message. However, the broad appeal of this book is evident in the successful movie adaptation. Alice Adams is the daughter of a modest Indiana business man. She is a likely candidate to attend the local secretarial school, but she disdains the idea of work. Alice and her mother harbor ambitions that cause them to act grander than the family really is. In contrast, Alice's brother goes to the other extreme. He flaunts his disregard for hypocritical conventions and keeps very low company . Alice sets her sights on...

1921 The Age of Innocence ,  by Edith Wharton  384 pages Summary: Wharton’s reputation suffered for a time from the "Jane Austen effect." Because she wrote about social mores and marriageable women, her books are often dismissed as escapist fluff or melodrama. In reality, Wharton was a rebel in her day, tackling unpleasant topics and social gray areas. In this novel, Wharton based the story on the uncomfortable question: Is an abused wife obligated to stay with her husband? What is a family’s duty to support a daughter after an untenable marriage?  Archer Newland is a lawyer among the New York blue bloods. He is resigned to marry a stolid, unimaginative young woman--until her exciting, unconventional cousin comes to town. Countess Ellen Olenska is fleeing an abusive marriage to a Polish count. As a potential divorcee, Ellen is a social embarrassment to her family. Newland, as a lawyer and practically a family  member, is enlisted to talk Ellen out of a scandalous di...

1920  No Award  No Pulitzer for the Novel was awarded in 1920 because of one small word. Late in 1919, the Pulitzer Board tweaked the original mission language. The mission language was changed from from recognizing a book that depicts "the whole atmosphere of American life" to depicting "the wholesome  atmosphere of American life." The difference in meaning is quite interesting to contemplate. The intent of Joseph Pulitzer has been a matter of speculation ever since.  The front running book for the 1920 prize was Java Head by Joseph Hergesheimer. The committee disagreed on how the "wholesomeness" clause applied to this novel; thus no award was made. Hergesheimer and his novel are virtually forgotten today. Reviews on this hard-to-find book vary widely. The book averages a 3 1/2-star rating on GoodReads. Some people say it is little more than a melodrama, and others say it is a fair depiction of a society widened by trade and intermarriage. ( https://www...

  1919 The Magnificent Ambersons, by Booth Tarkington 320 pages Book Summary Read this book to get a front-row seat on the birth of the automotive industry. The auto changed A merican’s towns forever by shifting populations to where land was cheap and plentiful. The story delves into the human reaction to change. George Minafer is a spoiled son living on the wealth of his grandfather's land speculation. He considers himself aristocracy, and he abhors anyone in “trade.” His mother indulges him, so he acquires no practical work experience. When his mother’s old beau comes to town, George objects to them re-kindling their relationship. He believes that that the old beau,  Eugene Morgan, is lower in social prominence. In reality, Eugene Morgan is an automobile inventor who moved to town to open a factory there. Eventually Morgan's auto business  booms, changing the social order of the town. The Minafer fortune has been in decline for years. Eventually it all comes down to...

  1918  H is Family, by Ernest Poole 320 pages Book Summary: This book is interesting for a few reasons. First, it deals with women’s issues and their growing independence on the cusp of the Roaring '20s. Second, the main character’s business is a glimpse into the world before computers: Roger Gale, a widower with three daughters, runs a successful business clipping newspaper articles and society page references on behalf of wealthy clients wishing to manage their reputations. Third, the Settlement House movement is a large part of the book, which is an unusual choice. Roger promised his wife, who passed away, to always watch over their three girls. One daughter, a party girl, lives a self-indulgent life, like the 1920s flappers to come. Another daughter moves out of the established city neighborhood to raise her children in that wholesome new invention, the suburbs. The third daughter--Deborah--lives at home. She works as a school principal in a settlement house school. B...

  Day Trip, or Trip of a Lifetime    This blog stems from my goal to read all the Pulitzers novels. (For my method, see the page "Sticks and Carrots.") I hope this blog helps you tackle the challenging books on your to-read lists. Or maybe even inspire you to read the entire Pulitzer list. You might use these entries singly, to plan reading selections for your book group. Seeing the movie version or taking a related field trip can be a powerful motivator for your club. The posts take you through each Pulitzer Novel and Fiction winner by winning year, with the following information for each title:  Pulitzer Winning Year Title Page Count    Summary Adaptations (movies, plays, etc.)  Related Activities  FAQs Why does the Pulitzer list include "Novels" and "Fiction"? In the first 31 years of the Pulitzer Prizes, the prize for "Novels" was awarded 27 times. In 1948 the Pulitzer Board recognized that excellent literature might take the form of collect...