Annal:2003 Pulitzer Prize for Biography
From AwardAnnals
Results of the Pulitzer Prize in the year 2003. For a ranked list of books, try an honor roll:
Master of the Senate: Volume 3 of The Years of Lyndon Johnson
- 2003 Pulitzer–Biography winner
- 2002 LATimes–Biography winner
- 2002 NBA–Nonfiction winner
- 2002 NBCC–Biography finalist
- Score: 36.53
Book Three of Robert A. Caro’s monumental work, The Years of Lyndon Johnson—the most admired and riveting political biography of our era—which began with the best-selling and prizewinning The Path to Power and Means of Ascent.
Master of the Senate carries Lyndon Johnson’s story through one of its most remarkable periods: his twelve years, from 1949 to 1960, in the United States Senate. At the heart of the book is its unprecedented revelation of how legislative power works in America, how the Senate works, and how Johnson, in his ascent to…
The Fly Swatter: Portrait of an Exceptional Character
- 2003 Pulitzer–Biography finalist
- Score: 6.53
In The Fly Swatter, Nicholas Dawidoff—bestselling author of The Catcher Was a Spy—vividly reconstructs the life of his grandfather, Alexander Gerschenkron-the Harvard professor who knew the most.
A fascinating character, Gerschenkron feuded with Vladimir Nabokov and John Kenneth Galbraith, flirted with Marlene Dietrich, and played chess with Marcel Duchamp and one-upped both Isiah Berlin and (allegedly) Ted Williams. At Harvard, this celebrated polyglot was known as “The Great Gerschenkron.” He was an influential economic theorist who knew twenty…
Beethoven: The Music and the Life
- 2003 Pulitzer–Biography finalist
- Score: 6.53
A fresh look at Beethoven’s life, career, and milieu highlighting his development as a composer.
In this brilliant portrayal of the world’s most famous composer, eminent Beethoven scholar Lewis Lockwood interweaves his subject’s musical and biographical dimensions and places them in their historical and artistic contexts. Written for the lay reader, the book describes the special problems Beethoven faced as a highly gifted artist who fulfilled his destiny as Mozart’s main successor while remaining a true, rebellious original. It sketches the turbulent…
