1979 Pulitzer Prize

Last updated November 11, 2024

The following are the Pulitzer Prizes for 1979.

Journalism awards

Public Service:
- The Point Reyes Light , a California weekly. For its investigation of Synanon, (written by Dr. Richard Ofshe).^[1]
Local General or Spot News Reporting:
- The San Diego Evening Tribune , for its coverage of the collision of a Pacific Southwest air liner with a small plane over its city.
Local Investigative Specialized Reporting:
- Gilbert M. Gaul and Elliot G. Jaspin of the Pottsville Republican (Pennsylvania), for stories on the destruction of the Blue Coal Company by men with ties to organized crime.
National Reporting:
- James Risser of the Des Moines Register , for a series on farming damage to the environment.
International Reporting:
- Richard Ben Cramer of The Philadelphia Inquirer , for reports from the Middle East.
Feature Writing:
- Jon D. Franklin, science writer of The Baltimore Evening Sun , for an account of brain surgery.
Commentary:
- Russell Baker of The New York Times .
Criticism:
- Paul Gapp, architecture critic of the Chicago Tribune .
Editorial Writing:
- Edwin M. Yoder Jr. of the Washington Star .
Editorial Cartooning:
- Herbert Lawrence Block (Herblock) of The Washington Post , for the body of his work.
Spot News Photography:
- Thomas J. Kelly III of the Pottstown Mercury (Pennsylvania), for a series called Tragedy on Sanatoga Road.
Feature Photography:
- Staff Photographers of the Boston Herald American , for photographic coverage of the blizzard of 1978.

Letters, Drama and Music Awards

Fiction:
- The Stories of John Cheever by John Cheever (Alfred A. Knopf)
Drama:
- Buried Child by Sam Shepard (Urizen)
History:
- The Dred Scott Case by Don E. Fehrenbacher (Oxford University Press)
Biography or Autobiography:
- Days of Sorrow and Pain: Leo Baeck and the Berlin Jews by Leonard Baker (Macmillan Publishers (United States))
Poetry:
- Now and Then by Robert Penn Warren (Random House)
General Nonfiction:
- On Human Nature by Edward O. Wilson (Harvard University Press)
Music:
- Aftertones of Infinity by Joseph Schwantner (C. F. Peters)
  first performed by the American Composers Orchestra on January 29, 1979, in Alice Tully Hall New York City.

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The Pulitzer Prizes for 1980 were announced on April 14, 1980. A total of 1,550 entries were submitted for prizes in 19 categories of journalism and the arts. Finalists were chosen by expert juries in each category, and winners were then chosen by the 16-member Pulitzer Prize Board, presided over by Clayton Kirkpatrick. For the first time in the Prizes' history, juries were asked to name at least three finalists in each category, and the finalists were announced in addition to the winners. Each prize carried a $1,000 award, except for the Public Service prize, which came with a gold medal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2005 Pulitzer Prize</span>

The Pulitzer Prizes for 2005 were announced on April 4, 2005:

The Pulitzer Prizes for 1999 were announced on April 12, 1999.

The Point Reyes Light is a weekly newspaper published since 1948 in western Marin County, California. It is generally considered the newspaper of record for the region. The Light gained national attention in 1979 due to its reporting on a cult, Synanon, and the Pulitzer Prize awarded to the paper for this coverage. The paper is owned by Tess Elliott and David Briggs.

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The following are the Pulitzer Prizes for 1987.

The 1971 Pulitzer Prizes are:

The following are the Pulitzer Prizes for 1959.

The following are the Pulitzer Prizes for 1966.

The Pulitzer Prizes for 1968 are:

The Pulitzer Prizes for 1972 are:

The following are the Pulitzer Prizes for 1973.

The Pulitzer Prizes for 1975, the 59th annual prizes, were ratified by the Pulitzer Prize advisory board on April 11, 1975, and by the trustees of Columbia University on May 5. For the first time, the role of accepting or rejecting recommendations of the advisory board was delegated by the trustees to the university's president, William J. McGill; the change was prompted by the desire of the trustees to distance themselves from the appearance of approval of controversial awards based on work involving what some considered to be illegal leaks, such as the 1972 Pulitzer Prize awarded for the publication of the Pentagon Papers.

The following are the Pulitzer Prizes for 1977.

The Pulitzer Prizes for 1978 are:

The following are the Pulitzer Prizes for 1983.

David Vokes Mitchell was an American editor and publisher of a small-town newspaper, the Point Reyes Light. In 1979, while he and his former wife Cathy Casto Mitchell together published The Light, the paper became one of the few weekly newspapers to ever win a Pulitzer Prize.

The 2017 Pulitzer Prizes were awarded by the Pulitzer Prize Board for work during the 2016 calendar year. Prize winners and nominated finalists were announced by Mike Pride at 3:00 p.m. EST April 10, 2017.

References

↑ John J. O'Connor. "CBS's Attack on Fear", The New York Times , October 10, 1984.
T. S. Cook's script is based on the book The Light in Synanon, in which Dave Mitchell, Cathy Mitchell and Dr. Richard Ofshe recount the details of covering a story that won them a 1979 Pulitzer Prize for public- service reporting.

External links

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[1] John J. O'Connor. "CBS's Attack on Fear", The New York Times , October 10, 1984.
T. S. Cook's script is based on the book The Light in Synanon, in which Dave Mitchell, Cathy Mitchell and Dr. Richard Ofshe recount the details of covering a story that won them a 1979 Pulitzer Prize for public- service reporting.

[1]