Pulitzer Prizes 1957: Complete list of winners

The 1957 Pulitzer Prize ceremony celebrated a banner year for American letters, delivering winners that would become cornerstones of their respective genres. John F. Kennedy’s Profiles in Courage claimed the Biography prize, offering readers intimate portraits of political figures who made morally consequential choices—a fitting work from a senator who himself would soon face the nation’s highest office. Eugene O’Neill’s posthumous triumph with Long Day’s Journey Into Night marked a poignant recognition for the American theater’s greatest dramatist, while his searing family tragedy became a defining masterpiece of twentieth-century drama.

The 1957 Pulitzer Prizes also recognized scholarly excellence and poetic virtuosity. Historian George F. Kennan’s Russia Leaves the War: Soviet-American Relations, 1917-1920 brought meticulous research to a pivotal moment in Cold War history, reflecting the era’s keen interest in Soviet-American relations. Meanwhile, poet Richard Wilbur claimed his place among America’s finest verse craftsmen with Things of This World, a collection that demonstrated his mastery of form and his ability to find profundity in everyday observation. Together, these winners embodied the range and depth that made the Pulitzer Prizes such an influential force in American culture.

Below, you’ll find the complete list of 1957 Pulitzer Prize winners across all categories.

Biography

• Profiles in Courage by John F. Kennedy

Drama

• Long Day’s Journey Into Night by Eugene O’Neill

History

• Russia Leaves the War: Soviet-American Relations, 1917-1920 by George F. Kennan

Poetry

• Things of This World by Richard Wilbur