The 1954 Pulitzer Fiction Jury was composed of two men: Eric P. Kelly, a returning juror from Dartmouth and author of children’s books, most notably the Newbury Award-winner The Trumpeter of Krakow (1929); and Harris F. Fletcher, an English professor at the University of Illinois and America’s foremost authority on John Milton. Unfortunately neither juror could agree on a novel to win the award in 1954. Eric Kelly recommended several finalists: Ramey by Jack D. Ferris, The Sands of Karakorum by James Ullman, The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow, and The Four Lives of Mundy Tolliver by Ben Lucien Burman. Meanwhile, Harris Fletcher recommended The Street of the Three Friends by Myron Brinig and The Deep Sleep by Wright Morris. Since neither side could agree, the Pulitzer Board elected not to issue a Pulitzer Prize in 1954 (just one year after Hemingway won the Pulitzer in 1953 for The Old Man and the Sea –read my reflections on The Old Man and the Sea and the 1953 Pulitzer Prize decision here).
According to The Pulitzer Diaries, Pulitzer Administrator John Hohenberg notes that in 1954 “various board members commented on the sickness that seemed to have overtaken American literature with the decline of the American novel.” No matter how many board members suggested books for the prize –novels that few if any members had read– the decision not to issue an award remained intact and the Advisory Board passed on a 1954 fiction award.
Also in 1954, Pulitzer Board member and celebrated journalist for The New York Times, Arthur Krock, pushed a new maximum service tenure of three terms of four years each on the Pulitzer Board. It was adopted on April 23, 1954 and soon an entirely new Board came into being, one that gradually became disentangled from Columbia University”s dominance as well as from the Pulitzer family.
Lastly, 1954 was technically the transitionary year in which Carl W. Ackerman, Dean of Columbia’s School of Journalism, passed the torch of Pulitzer Prize administrator to John Hohenberg who was to memorably serve in the role for a couple of decades.