Pulitzer Prize

The Pulitzer Prizes are annual awards given by Columbia University in New York City for outstanding public service and achievement in American journalism, letters, and music. The prizes, originally endowed with a gift of $500,000 from the newspaper magnate Joseph Pulitzer, have been awarded each May since 1917. Currently there are 14 prizes in journalism, six prizes in letters, and one prize in music. The first prizes for letters went to Laura E. Richards and Maude H. Elliott for the biography Julia War Howe and to Jean Jules Jusserand for the history With Americans of Past and Present Days. The only U.S. president to win a Pulitzer was John F. Kennedy (1957) in Biography for Profiles in Courage