Pulitzer Prizes 1939: Complete list of winners

The 1939 Pulitzer Prizes arrived at a pivotal moment in American letters, even as the nation grappled with economic uncertainty and watched the world teetering toward war. That year’s selections reveal a literary establishment deeply invested in understanding America’s own past and character—a tendency that would only intensify in the years ahead. The winners showcase a particular gravitas, from Carl Van Doren’s monumental Benjamin Franklin biography to Robert E. Sherwood’s stirring drama Abe Lincoln in Illinois, both of which reflect a cultural moment when Americans looked to their founding figures for moral and historical instruction.

What’s striking about the 1939 Pulitzer Prize announcements is how they span the full range of literary achievement, honoring not just the prestige categories but also remarkable regional and nature writing. Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings’s The Yearling, which claimed the fiction prize, brought the Florida scrublands vividly to life, while Frank Luther Mott’s ambitious A History of American Magazines demonstrated that historical scholarship itself could be a prize-worthy literary accomplishment. John Gould Fletcher’s Selected Poems completed the roster, reminding readers that poetry remained central to the Pulitzer’s mission despite the era’s growing appetite for novels and dramas.

Below, you’ll find detailed information about each of the 1939 Pulitzer Prize winners and their lasting contributions to American literary culture.

Biography

• Benjamin Franklin by Carl Van Doren

Drama

• Abe Lincoln in Illinois by Robert E. Sherwood

History

• A History of American Magazines by Frank Luther Mott

Novel

• The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

Poetry

• Selected Poems by John Gould Fletcher