The book that started my Pulitzer shelf

As I said in my previous post, my interest in reading winners of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction started with One of Ours by Willa Cather. However, I have since learned that I had read a number of other great winners of the award: Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath, Wallace Stegner's Angle of Repose, Pearl S. Buck's The Good Earth, Upton Sinclair's Dragon's Teeth, Allen Drury's Advise and Consent, William Faulkner's The Reivers, Alice Walker's The Color Purple, and Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove. Before learning about the award, I didn't pay much attention to whether any of these books had won the Pulitzer. I found out later they had won the award and realized that the Pulitzer had been given to some of my favorite novels.

Some people might wonder why I have focused only on the winners of the fiction award and have not gone in for reading winners of the Pulitzer Prize for history, biography, drama, or non-fiction. My only explanation is that I love a good story with the characters, the situations with whick they struggle, and the ways they resolve their problems. The Pulitzer Prize for fiction is usually given to an American author dealing with life in America. What could be better than reading to find out whether Jody in The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings gets to keep the young deer he has raised as a pet even though it is eating the family's crops? What could be better than reading the Caine Mutiny by Herman Wouk to find out whether the officers on the USS Caine who relieved Captain Queeg of his command during World War II were justified because of Queeg's irrational behavior? So, fiction fits my interests and gives me enjoyment in my leisure reading. Also, I don't have time to read everything, even if it won the Pulitzer for some category other than fiction. Therefore, I choose fiction.


Now more about the book that got me started on my Pulitzer reading. I will share some of my views of One of Ours by Willa Cather, 1922, the Pulitzer Prize winner for fiction in 1923.

In One of Ours Cather writes of a young man, Claude Wheeler, who grows up on his family’s prosperous farm in Nebraska during the years leading up to World War I. It’s a rather contented time for the people on the large Midwest farms, at least for the Wheeler’s in Nebraska. There seems to be plenty of land, corn, and cattle. The farm life required a lot of work but families assisted by hired hands were able to produce a surplus. Better tractors, trucks and automobiles were purchased with the surplus. Prosperity also made it possible for some of the sons to leave the farm to seek other employment or a college education. Claude’s older brother got to be a farm implement dealer in their town. Claude wanted to go to the University of Nebraska but, instead, ended up being obedient to his father’s wish that he stay on the farm and take it over one day.

Claude married a woman who seems to love him but leaves the farm to help her sister with the missionary work she is doing in China. Claude continues to work on the farm but isn’t contented. World War I comes along in time to give Claude a chance for a new life and he is eager to go to war. One of Ours suggests that America was ready for a war and the Nebraska farms were able to send their sons into battle. The boys were ready to go over there and teach the Kaiser a lesson. Claude loves his war experience in France and finally finds what he has been looking for in life. He finally starts living but does he really? I won’t give away the end but I strongly recommend One of Ours by Willa Cather.

How I Started My Pulitzer Shelf

I decided to start a blog about my experiences in collecting and reading the winners of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction because of the enjoyment and satisfaction this pursuit has given me over the last seven years. Right up-front I want to make it clear that I am not an expert in American literature. I am a clinical professor of counseling psychology and work in a university counseling center. I read for the love of reading that I started developing as a little kid reading the Landmark series of biographies of great people like George Washington and Babe Ruth. I don't let a day go by without reading a work of fiction just for the enjoyment of it. Reading the Pulitzer Prize winners has been a wonderful way to pursue my love of reading. Here is how I started on this adventure.

On a Saturday in January of 2004 I came across a book that caught my eye while rumaging around in our local used bookstore. One of Ours written by Willa Cather in 1922 was the book. I had never heard of it though I had read other works by Cather including her well-known My Antonia and Death Comes for the Archbishop. I was not familiar with One of Ours and decided to read it.

I didn't know at the time that I was about to start an adventure in reading great American fiction, much of it seemingly forgotten or, at least, not known to me. Not only would I read One of Ours but would go on to read many other works of fiction that I might have overlooked. This is because I noticed "Winner of the Pulitzer Prize" on the top of the cover of One of Ours. As I read and enjoyed the book, I started wondering what other works of fiction had won the Pulitzer Prize and if I would find them as satisfying as One of Ours. These questions have led me into a fun search for the other winners of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction and a great experience in reading them. I have been able to collect an early copy, in many cases a first edition, of all of the Pulitzer Prize winners for fiction, starting with His Family by Ernest Poole that won in 1918 through Tinkers by Paul Harding that won in 2010.

Because of my focus on Pulitzer winners for fiction, I have become acquainted with many authors and their prize-winning works that I probably would never had learned about. This seems to be a good reason for giving awards to books and I am grateful that the Pulitzer Prize, endowed by Joseph Pulitzer, was launched in 1917. You can learn more about the Pulitzer Prize at http://www.pulitzer.org/history.html. In the Pulitzer website you can find the winners for fiction and the many other areas where awards are given annually.

In this blog, I will share some of my experiences in collecting and reading the Pulitzer prize-winning works of fiction. A large part of the fun is looking for the books. I will list some bookstores and online sources where you can start your own Pulitzer shelf. I will also post some of my opinions of the Pulitzer winners. I don't mind sharing my opinion but I remind you that I am an amateur. So, if you are involved in reading Pulitzer winners or are just getting interested, your comments are welcome.