I have zero current Pulitzer predictions, but I am reminded that in high school once I was going on a rant about how Gone With the Wind was a terrible book that should never have won a prize. (I almost never stay books are bad, but I stand by that assertion—it is a terrible book by every single measure except that a lot of people love it…
I have zero current Pulitzer predictions, but I am reminded that in high school once I was going on a rant about how Gone With the Wind was a terrible book that should never have won a prize. (I almost never stay books are bad, but I stand by that assertion—it is a terrible book by every single measure except that a lot of people love it.) Anyway, my very smart teacher said, okay, so what book should have won?
Reader, it was hard to find a list of books published in 1936 in the early 1990s. I even went and asked someone at the university library. I suspect it is still hard to get an inclusive list, but based on my brief Googling and not very extensive reading, I would like to suggest Katherine Anne Porter’s Pale Horse, Pale Rider. I’m not sure how the Pulitzer committee feels about the short story/novella category, but the title story/novella is a banger and a decidedly good depiction of American life at a particular time. (There were also a lot of excellent children’s books published that year—Caddie Woodlawn won the Newbery, but I saw many others I enjoyed when skimming through lists.)
Thank you for allowing me to use your comments section for my own mini-blogging, as always!
I have zero current Pulitzer predictions, but I am reminded that in high school once I was going on a rant about how Gone With the Wind was a terrible book that should never have won a prize. (I almost never stay books are bad, but I stand by that assertion—it is a terrible book by every single measure except that a lot of people love it.) Anyway, my very smart teacher said, okay, so what book should have won?
Reader, it was hard to find a list of books published in 1936 in the early 1990s. I even went and asked someone at the university library. I suspect it is still hard to get an inclusive list, but based on my brief Googling and not very extensive reading, I would like to suggest Katherine Anne Porter’s Pale Horse, Pale Rider. I’m not sure how the Pulitzer committee feels about the short story/novella category, but the title story/novella is a banger and a decidedly good depiction of American life at a particular time. (There were also a lot of excellent children’s books published that year—Caddie Woodlawn won the Newbery, but I saw many others I enjoyed when skimming through lists.)
Thank you for allowing me to use your comments section for my own mini-blogging, as always!
LitHub has a good list of the top ten books from every decade in the 1900s :)
It is both bad and very, very good that LitHub did not exist when I was in high school.