Pulitzer Prizes 1933: Complete list of winners

The 1933 Pulitzer Prizes arrived at a moment when America desperately needed its artists and thinkers. With the country gripped by the Great Depression, that year’s winners offered a fascinating mix of historical reflection and contemporary urgency—works that seemed to ask both “where did we come from?” and “where are we going?” The Pulitzer Prizes, now in their second decade as America’s most prestigious literary honors, showcased five remarkable achievements across the major categories: Allan Nevins’s authoritative biography of Grover Cleveland, Maxwell Anderson’s sharp political drama Both Your Houses, Frederick J. Turner’s influential History prize for The Significance of Sections in American History, T. S. Stribling’s novel The Store, and Archibald MacLeish’s epic poem Conquistador.

What’s striking about this particular year is how the winners seemed to grapple with American identity itself—whether through Cleveland’s political legacy, Turner’s examination of regional divides, or MacLeish’s retelling of conquest and ambition. The 1933 Pulitzer Prize winners remind us that even in crisis, literature found ways to interrogate the nation’s past while commenting on its present. Anderson’s drama, in particular, stands out as remarkably pointed social commentary for a Broadway production, suggesting that commercial theater wasn’t afraid to tackle institutional corruption during the Depression.

Below, you’ll find the complete list of 1933 Pulitzer Prize winners across all categories.

Biography

• Grover Cleveland by Allan Nevins

Drama

• Both Your Houses by Maxwell Anderson

History

• The Significance of Sections in American History by Frederick J. Turner

Novel

• The Store by T. S. Stribling

Poetry

• Conquistador by Archibald Macleish