The Pulitzer Prizes, 1917-1957

JOHN HOHENBERG"^
 

Editor's Note: Through his energetic collecting of the articles about the
Pulitzer Prizes, Professor Hohenberg has made possible the special
contents of this issue. We are greatly indebted to him.
 

IAl
 

ATE in August, 1902, Joseph Pulitzer somewhat impulsively
dictated a confidential memorandum roughing out his
A "germ of an idea" for a School of Journalism at Columbia
University. Toward the end of this rambling, highly personal doc¬
ument, he said:

". . .Incidentally, I strongly wish the College to pay from the
large income I am providing, a sum of (blank) in annual prizes to
particular journalists or writers for various accomplishments,
achievements and forms of excellence. . ."

This was the genesis of the Pulitzer Prizes. That he thought well
of the idea from the first is evident in the suggestion he attached to
the memorandum, setting the annual sum to be provided for the
prizes at St20,000 or more. It was a sizeable way to fill in a blank
in a rough draft. Under the terms of agreement reached April 10,
1903, with the Trustees of Columbia University (not Columbia
College, as contemplated in the memorandum), it turned out that
the prize idea and prize sum estimate were both practical and dur¬
able. The influence which the Pulitzer Prizes have exerted on
American letters and journalism is the best evidence of that.

At the time he concluded the first agreement with the University,
Mr. Pulitzer was at the height of his fame as publisher of the New
York World and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. As was evident from

*Secretary of the Advisory Board on the Pulitzer Prizes and Professor of
Journalism, Columbia University.