JOSEPH PULITZER:
History, Heritage & the Georgia Connection
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his year, the Coastal Georgia Historical Society’s annual Chautauqua Lecture Series is celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Pulitzer Prize. In the 5-lecture series, the Society will explore connections between the state of Georgia and the coveted prize. Established in 1917 to recognize excellence in American journalism, letters and drama, education, and public service, the Pulitzer Prize has since had its original categories modified and new ones incorporated. By 2009, Pulitzers were awarded in 21 categories, including biography, drama, fiction, history, nonfiction, poetry, and numerous kinds of journalistic writing.
City every May during which the president of Columbia University presents the awards. Several Georgia writers have won Pulitzer Prizes for their work in the various categories of letters, drama, and journalism. Other notable writers have won for their works about Georgia and its residents. But Georgia and the Golden Isles have an even stronger connection to Joseph Pulitzer. He was one of the original 53 members of the Jekyll Island Club, with other millionaires J.P. Morgan, William K. Vanderbilt, Marshall Field, and Henry Hyde. In 1903, he built a 26 room winter cottage
Jekyll Island, 1911. Cottage of Joseph Pulitzer. (Courtesy of Vanishing Georgia, Georgia Archives,
The prize is named for Joseph University System of Georgia) Pulitzer, the influential owner and publisher of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the New York World who was known for journalism that exposed corruption in both the public and private sectors. He established the prizes in his will, stipulating that they be administered by the journalism school at Columbia University in New York City and awarded by an advisory board, known today as the Pulitzer Prize Board. A jury of three to seven board members is assigned to each category (dependon Jekyll Island. In 1911, Pulitzer died on his ing on how many entries fall within a categoyacht in Charleston, South Carolina, while en ry). Many of these jurors are former Pulitzer route to the cottage in which he had hoped to prize winners themselves. Each jury chooses spend the remainder of his life. three unranked finalists and presents their choices for final determination by the Pulitzer In 2008, Jekyll Island played host to a four-day Prize Board. A banquet is held in New York celebration held by Georgia Review for recent 62
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winners of the Pulitzer Prize in Georgia. Historian Edward J. Larson and journalist Hank Klibanoff were in attendance, and they will also be speakers at this summer’s Chautauqua Lecture Series. There have been quite a few noteworthy Pulitzer Prize winners from Georgia over the years. Savannah native Conrad Aiken won in 1930 for his poetry. Margaret Mitchell took home the prize for Gone With the Wind in 1937. In 1978, James Alan McPherson, became the first African American to win the prize for fiction with his win for Elbow Room, a collection of short stories. Alice Walker followed in his footsteps, winning a Pulitzer in 1983 for The Color Purple. William S. McFeely took home the prize in 1982 for his extremely popular Grant: A Biography, about the life of Union general Ulysses S. Grant. In 1988, Atlanta native Alfred Uhry won the prize for his play Driving Miss Daisy. The Pulitzer Prize awards marked several impressive achievements for Georgia newspapers and journalists. The first was in 1926, when the Columbus Enquirer-Sun received the first public service award ever given to (continues)
