PULITZER PRIZES of the 1950s

 1950 Winner

The Caine Mutiny 
Herman Wouk

1952 Winner

Here is the story of the old American destroyer "Caine" and the men who sailed in her.  From the time Ensign Willie Keith comes aboard, on through the mutiny and the trial of the paranoic Captain Queeg, it is a novel of action, character development, and intrigue.So if you want to read a story about World War II and the trials and tribulations from an American sailor's perspective, this is the book for you.

DEATH OF A SALESMAN by Arthur Miller

Willy Loman is a traveling salesman who has worked for the Wagner Company for thirty-four years. He is now sixty-one years old and has been taken off salary and put back on straight commission, and he is unable to earn enough money to pay the bills. Charley, the Lomans' neighbor, has been giving money to Willy every month to meet his payments, even though Willy is too proud to accept a payroll job from him. Charley's son Bernard, who was in school with Willy's sons, has become a successful lawyer.  Willy's two sons, Biff and Happy, come back home and are temporarily sharing their old room. Biff is the oldest son who was a football star in high school with several scholarships, but for the last fourteen years he has been unable to find himself. He returned from somewhere in the West due to his mother's request for him to see his father. Happy works in a department store and has his own apartment in another part of New York.  Willy has been plagued by daydreams and illusions, and the play begins with his driving home prematurely from one of his New England business trips due to the fact that he cannot concentrate on the road.  

1956 Winner

Brooding, vivid chronicle of man's tragic inhumanity to man, based on events taking place in and around Georgia's Andersonville prison during the Civil War. The prison has been built on the land of humane planter Ira Claffey, but with his daughter, he witnesses the misery, despair, heartache, and brutality of a wartime prison.