Pulitzer Prizes 1963: Complete list of winners

The 1963 Pulitzer Prizes demonstrated the award’s enduring capacity to honor both towering literary achievements and vital historical scholarship. William Faulkner claimed the fiction prize for The Reivers, his final novel and a surprisingly comedic turn from the Mississippi master who had already won the Pulitzer two decades earlier. Meanwhile, Leon Edel’s monumental biography of Henry James secured recognition in the biography category—a multi-volume undertaking that would ultimately define how we read and understand one of America’s greatest novelists. The year also marked a significant moment for William Carlos Williams, who at eighty years old received the poetry prize for Pictures from Brueghel, a collection drawing inspiration from the Dutch Renaissance painter’s works.

Beyond fiction and poetry, the 1963 Pulitzer Prizes showcased the award’s commitment to narrative nonfiction and historical rigor. Barbara W. Tuchman’s The Guns of August captivated readers with its gripping account of the opening months of World War I, establishing her as one of the era’s most readable historians. Constance McLaughlin Green’s Washington, Village and Capital, 1800-1878 provided meticulous scholarship on the nation’s capital during a transformative period. These winners collectively reflected a year when the Pulitzer Prize—already one of America’s most prestigious literary honors—recognized works that balanced scholarly depth with genuine appeal to general readers.

Here’s the complete list of 1963 Pulitzer Prize winners:

Biography

• Henry James by Leon Edel

Fiction

• The Reivers by William Faulkner

General Nonfiction

• The Guns of August by Barbara W. Tuchman

History

• Washington, Village and Capital, 1800-1878 by Constance McLaughlin Green

Poetry

• Pictures from Brueghel by William Carlos Williams