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Pulitzer Prize

This annual award is the nation’s highest honor in newspaper and online journalism, literature, and musical composition. Established in 1904, the prize is administered by the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism.

  • 2013 Fiction. Adam Johnson, Associate Professor of English, for The Orphan Master’s Son.
  • 2000 History. David M. Kennedy, Donald J. McLachlan Professor Emeritus of History, for Freedom From Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929–1945.
  • 1997 History. Jack Rakove, William Robertson Coe Professor of History and American Studies, for Original Meanings: Politics and Ideas in the Making of the Constitution.
  • 1979 
History. Don E. Fehrenbacher, William Robertson Coe Professor of History and American Studies, for The Dred Scott Case: Its Significance in American Law and Politics.
  • *1976 National Reporting. James Risser, Professor of Communication (1985 to 2000), was a reporter at the Des Moines Register recognized “for disclosing large-scale corruption in the American grain exporting trade.” In 1979, Risser won a second Pulitzer (National Reporting), for a series on damage by farming to the environment.
  • 1972
 History. Carl N. Degler, Margaret Byrne Professor Emeritus of American History, for Neither Black nor White: Slavery and Race Relations in Brazil and the United States.
  • 1972 Fiction. Wallace Stegner, Jackson Eli Reynolds Professor of the Humanities, for Angle of Repose.
  • 1958 International Reporting. Elie Abel, Harry and Norman Chandler Professor of Communication, was part of a team at The New York Times “cited for its distinguished coverage of foreign news, which was characterized by admirable initiative, continuity and high quality during the year.” Abel covered the 1957 Hungarian uprising.