Pulitzer Prizes 1952: Complete list of winners

The 1952 Pulitzer Prizes announced a remarkable year for American letters, with winners who would help define the literary landscape of the mid-century period. Herman Wouk’s The Caine Mutiny claimed the fiction prize, bringing courtroom drama and naval intrigue to readers still processing the complexities of World War II and its aftermath. Meanwhile, Joseph Kramm’s The Shrike secured the drama award with its searing psychological portrait of mental illness and institutional life—a play that would prove far ahead of its time in tackling such difficult subject matter for the stage.

Beyond fiction and drama, the 1952 Pulitzer Prizes revealed the breadth of American intellectual achievement. Marianne Moore, one of modernism’s most distinctive poetic voices, received recognition for her Collected Poems, while Oscar Handlin’s groundbreaking The Uprooted offered a sweeping new perspective on American immigration history. Completing the winners was Merlo J. Pusey’s biography of Charles Evans Hughes, a meticulous examination of the former Chief Justice that demonstrated the enduring appeal of American political biography.

What emerges from this slate of winners is a snapshot of a nation processing war, examining its institutions, and celebrating its literary innovators. Here are the full details of the 1952 Pulitzer Prize winners:

Biography

• Charles Evans Hughes by Merlo J. Pusey

Drama

• The Shrike by Joseph Kramm

Fiction

• The Caine Mutiny by Herman Wouk

History

• The Uprooted by Oscar Handlin

Poetry

• Collected Poems by Marianne Moore