Wednesday, August 19, 2009

How Well Read Are you in Pulitzer Prize Winning Fiction?

I've seen a lot of postings wondering where the top 100 American Lit list came from. I used a wide variety of lists to come up with ... including a list of the Pulitzer Prize winners for fiction. Lets see how I stack up with this list, I don't think it will be pretty. X for books read, M for movies watched, O for read other books by this author, S for on my shelf not read yet.

1. 2009 Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

2. 2008 The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz

3. 2007 The Road by Cormac McCarthy (X)

4. 2006 March by Geraldine Brooks (X)(O)
(bonus based on Little Women by Louisa May Alcott X, M,O, S)

5. 2005 Gilead by Marilynne Robinson

6. 2004 The Known World by Edward P. Jones (X)

7. 2003 Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides (X)

8. 2002 Empire Falls by Richard Russo

9. 2001 The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon

10. 2000 Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri (O)

11. 1999 The Hoursby Michael Cunningham (X)

12. 1998 American Pastoral by Philip Roth (O)

13. 1997 Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer by Steven Millhauser

14. 1996 Independence Day by Richard Ford

15. 1995 The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields (S)

16. 1994 The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx

17. 1993 A Good Scent From a Strange Mountain by Robert Olen Butler

18. 1992 A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley (X) (M)

19. 1991 Rabbit At Rest by John Updike (O)

20. 1990 The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love by Oscar Hijuelos

21. 1989 Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler (O)

22. 1988 Beloved by Toni Morrison(O)

23. 1987 A Summons To Memphis by Peter Taylor

24. 1986 Lonesome Dove by Larry Mcmurtry

25. 1985 Foreign Affairs by Alison Lurie

26. 1984 Ironweed by William Kennedy

27. 1983 The Color Purple by Alice Walker (X) (M)

28. 1982 Rabbit Is Rich by John Updike (O)

29. 1981 A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole

30. 1980 The Executioner's Song by Norman Mailer

31. 1979 The Stories of John Cheever by John Cheever

32. 1978 Elbow Room: Stories by James Alan Mcpherson

1977 No award was given.

33. 1976 Humboldt's Gift by Saul Bellow

34. 1975 The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara

1974 No award was given.

35. 1973 The Optimist's Daughter (large Print) by Eudora Welty

36. 1972 Angle of Repose by Wallace Earle Stegner

1971 No award was given.

37. 1970 The Collected Stories of Jean Stafford by Jean Stafford

38. 1969 House Made of Dawn by N Scott Momaday

39. 1968 The Confessions of Nat Turner by William Styron

40. 1967 The Fixer by Bernard Malamud

41. 1966 The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter by Katherine Anne Porter (X)

42. 1965 The Keepers of the House by Shirley Ann Grau

1964 No award was given.

43. 1963 The Reivers: A Reminiscence by William Faulkner (O)

44. 1962 The Edge of Sadness by Edwin O'Connor

45. 1961 To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (X) (M)

46. 1960 Advise and Consent by Allen Drury

47. 1959 The Travels of Jaimie Mcpheeters by Robert Lewis Taylor

48. 1958 A Death in the Family by James Agee

1957 No award was given.

49. 1956 Andersonville by Mackinlay Kantor

50. 1955 A Fable by William Faulkner (O)

1954 No award was given.

51. 1953 The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway (O)

52. 1952 The Caine Mutiny: A Novel of World War II by Herman Wouk

53. 1951 The Town by Conrad Richter

54. 1950 The Way West by A B Guthrie

55. 1949 Guard of Honor by James Gould Cozzens

56. 1948 Tales of the South Pacific by James A. Michener

57. 1947 All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren

1946 No award was given.1945

58. A Bell for Adano by John Hersey

59. 1944 Journey in the Dark by Martin Flavin

60. 1943 Dragon's Teeth I by Upton Sinclair

61. 1942 In This Our Life by Ellen Glasgow1941

No award was given.

62. 1940 The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (X) (M) (O)

63. 1939 The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

64. 1938 The Late George Apley by John Phillips Marquand

65. 1937 Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell (X) (M)

66. 1936 Honey in the Horn by Harold Lenoir Davis

67. 1935 Now in November by Josephine W. Johnson

68. 1934 Lamb in His Bosom by Caroline Miller

69. 1933 The Store by Thomas Stribling

70. 1932 The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck (X) (O)

71. 1931 Years of Grace by Margaret Ayer Barnes

72. 1930 Laughing Boy by Oliver Lafarge

73. 1929 Scarlet Sister Mary by Julia Peterkin

74. 1928 The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder (S)

75. 1927 Early Autumn by Louis Bromfield

76. 1926 Arrowsmith by Sinclair Lewis (O)

77. 1925 So Big by Edna Ferber

78. 1924 The Able Mclaughlins by Margaret Wilson

79. 1923 One of Ours by Willa Silbert Cather (O)

80. 1922 Alice Adams by Booth Tarkington

81. 1921 The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton (X) (O) (M)

1920 No award was given.

82. 1919 The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington (X) (M)

83. 1918 His Family by Ernest Poole

Books Read = 15
Movies Watched = 8
Other Books Read by author =16
On my Shelf to read = 2

This is pretty sad. It's interesting how the Pulitzer Prize often goes to lesser known works by famous authors. Almost an ...well we really should have given Willa Cather an award by now. . .lets give her an award for this inferior patriotic book. What are your thoughts? If you post this list, please post a link back here on my comments. I love to see what other people are reading and learn their thoughts!

Top five reads from this list:

1. The Road by Cormac McCarthy
2. Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
3. The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter by Katherine Anne Porter
4. The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
5. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Top five I would like to read:

1. Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
2. Empire Falls by Richard Russo
3. The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder
4. Beloved by Toni Morrison
5. So Big by Edna Ferber

3 comments:

  1. I've only read 5!! Yikes!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I've only read 4!!! I will have to add more books to my list now!! :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Without even trying to read Pulitzers, I've read 7 of the latest 11! Many of these are on my wishlist.

    ReplyDelete