The+Pulitzer+Prize



1 The Pulitzer Prize came about as part of an attempt by newspaperman Joseph Pulitzer to upgrade the profession of journalism. Pulitzer, the owner of the New York world and the St. Louis Post- Dispatch, made a proposal in 1903 to Columbia University for the dual purposes of establishing a school of journalism at the university and also establishing prizes for exceptional work in journalism and other fields. However, the university didn’t initially respond as one might to expect to such a seemingly generous offer.

2 Interestingly, Columbia University was not immediately amenable to the proposal by Pulitzer inasmuch as journalism was not held in high regard in general and Pulitzer’s papers were more known for their sensation of the news than for the high quality of the journalism. The trustees of the university were not at all sure that they wanted a school of journalism because newspapers reporting was considered more of a trade than a profession at the time and they didn’t want to decrease the academic prestige of their institution. It took years of discussions and negotiations before the terms for the establishment of the school of journalism and the prizes bearing Pulitzer’s name were agreed upon, and it was not actually until the year after Pulitzer’s death in 1911 that construction began on the building to house Columbia’s new school of journalism. The school of journalism opened in 1913, and the first prizes were awarded in 1917, for work done the previous year. 3 The method for selecting Pulitzer Prize winners and the categories for prizes have changed slightly over the years. Today twenty-one different awards are given in three different areas, with the majority of awards going to journalists, fourteen of the twenty-one awards are from various aspects of journalism i.e. news reporting, feature writing, cartoons and photography), six awards are given in letters (in fiction, nonfiction, history, poetry, drama, and biography), and one award in music. Columbia University appoints nominating juries comprised of experts in each field, and the nominating juries submit these nominations for each category to the Pulitzer Prize Board, which makes the final decisions and awards the prizes.

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