Pulitzer Prizes 1979: Complete list of winners

The 1979 Pulitzer Prizes came at a fascinating moment in American letters, celebrating works that ranged from intimate personal narratives to sprawling historical reckonings. This year’s honorees represented a striking diversity of voices and forms: Leonard Baker’s Days of Sorrow and Pain: Leo Baeck and the Berlin Jews brought a crucial Holocaust-era biography into the spotlight, while Edward O. Wilson’s On Human Nature demonstrated how scientific inquiry could claim space in the cultural conversation. Sam Shepard’s visceral family drama Buried Child signaled the theater world’s appetite for unsettling, boundary-pushing work, and John Cheever’s collected Stories recognized a master of the American short form at the height of his recognition.

The year also marked a significant moment for historical scholarship, with Don E. Fehrenbacher’s meticulous The Dred Scott Case receiving the history prize for its examination of one of America’s defining legal catastrophes. Meanwhile, Robert Penn Warren, already a towering figure in American literature, won the poetry prize for Now and Then, proving that established voices could continue to evolve and deepen their craft. Together, these 1979 Pulitzer Prize winners reflected a literary establishment increasingly willing to honor serious historical inquiry, experimental theater, and the accumulated wisdom of seasoned writers.

Below, you’ll find complete details on each of the six major prize categories from this landmark year in the Pulitzer Prizes’ history.

Biography

• Days of Sorrow and Pain: Leo Baeck and the Berlin Jews by Leonard Baker

Drama

• Buried Child by Sam Shepard

Fiction

• The Stories of John Cheever by John Cheever

General Nonfiction

• On Human Nature by Edward O. Wilson

History

• The Dred Scott Case by Don E. Fehrenbacher

Poetry

• Now and Then by Robert Penn Warren