May 5, 1964

Pulitzer Prizes Omitted in Drama, Fiction, Music

By PETER KIHSS

one of the nation's fiction, drama or music was judged worthy of the 1964 Pulitzer Prizes, which were awarded yesterday. It was the first time since the prizes were first given in 1917 that three fields of art failed to win awards.

Members of the 14-member advisory board reported that professionals serving as jurors in the three fields had not sent in a single nomination. The jurors, appointed by Columbia University, may offer two to five recommendations; the board then makes a recommendation to the university's board of trustees, which selects the winners.

Twelve prizes and one citation were announced in journalism and letters.

Merriman Smith of United Press International won the prize for national reporting for his coverage of President Kennedy's assassination.

Ruby Photo Wins

Robert H. Jackson of The Dallas Times Herald won the photography prize for his picture of the fatal shooting of Lee H. Oswald, accused assassin of the President, by Jack Ruby, Dallas nightclub operator.

Malcolm W. Browne of The Associated Press and David Halberstam of The New York Times shared the prize for reporting of international affairs for their coverage of the Vietnam war and the overthrow of President Ngo Dinh Diem.

The gold medal for public service was awarded to The St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times. This was for a year-long investigation and coverage of what was called "reckless, unchecked spending" by the Florida State Turnpike Authority. The investigation led to a reorganization of the state road construction program that is expected to save millions in bond issues.

Norman C. Miller Jr. of The Wall Street Journal won the prize for local general or spot news reporting for his report of "a multimillion-dollar vegetable oil swindle" in New Jersey in the bankruptcy of the Allied Crude Vegetable Oil and Refining Corporation.

The prize for local investigative or other specialized reporting went to Albert V. Gaudiosi and James V. Magee, reporters, and Frederick A. Meyer, photographer, of The Philadelphia Bulletin. This was for an exposÈ of a numbers racket and police collusion that resulted in 18 dismissals and suspensions from the police department.

Mrs. Hazel Brannon Smith of The Lexington (Miss.) Advertiser was awarded a prize for editorial writing based on "steadfast adherence to her editorial duty in the face of great pressure and opposition." She has long campaigned against crime and corruption and has insisted on printing stories against the wishes of the White Citizens Council.

Paul F. Conrad won a prize for editorial cartoons published over the year in The Denver Post. Mr. Conrad recently shifted to The Los Angeles Times.

Gannett Chain Cited

For the first time, a chain of newspapers received a special Pulitzer Prize citation. This went to the Gannett Newspapers, with 15 member dailies, for their special coverage of success stories on "The Road to Integration."

Each journalism prize, except the public service medal and the Gannett Newspapers' citation, carries a $1,000 award.

In letters, the prize for history went to Sumner Chilton Powell's "Puritan Village: The Formation of a New England Town."

The prize for biography went to Walter Jackson Bate for "John Keats"; the prize for verse went to Louis Simpson for "At the End of the Open Road" and the prize for a book not eligible in any other category went to Richard Hofstadter for his "Anti-Intellectualism in American Life."

Professor Hofstadter won the 1956 Pulitzer prize in history for his book "The Age of Reform."

The prizes in music and letters carry $500 awards.

Drama Rejected Last Year

The rejection of a prize in drama was the second in two years. Plays by American authors, preferably original in source and dealing with American life, are eligible. Last year's jury had nominated "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" but this was vetoed by the advisory board.

In the 48 announcements of annual prizes since 1917, drama has failed to win eight times and fiction seven times--both failing the very first year. The fiction standard calls for a book by an American author, preferably dealing with American life.

The music prizes began in 1943. There was no winner in 1953 as well as this year. The prize goes for a larger form of chamber, orchestral or choral music or an operatic work, including ballet, performed or published by a composer living in the United States.

Asked about the lack of awards in three arts, Norman Chandler, chairman of the board of The Los Angeles Times and a member of the advisory board, said: "The jurors made no recommendations in those categories apparently because they didn't feel anything qualified."

Advisers Comment

Comments by other advisory board members were as follows:

Newbold Noyes Jr., editor of The Washington Star: "We felt there was nothing worth a prize in those categories."

W. D. Maxwell, editor of The Chicago Tribune: "In each case we followed the recommendations of the panels, as we were supposed to."

Kenneth MacDonald, editor of The Des Moines Register and Tribune: "The only assumption that can be made is that the professionals in the three fields didn't think the material submitted merited a prize."

Ralph McGill, publisher of The Atlanta Constitution: "There is a feeling that you ought not to be giving awards just for the sake of doing so--as was sometimes done in the past."

Turner Catledge, managing editor of The New York Times: "There was nothing we considered worthy of the three prizes that showed up. So far as fiction and drama were concerned, I saw nothing with which the judgment of the juries could be refuted."

One advisory board member, Sevellon Brown, associate editor of The Providence Journal, was unable to attend the voting. He said yesterday that he felt "there wasn't a play that was worth the Pulitzer prize."

However, Mr. Brown said he had written the board suggesting it would be a pity to pass up both the stage and fiction entries, and he offered the nomination of a novel, "And Then We Heard the Thunder," by John O. Killens.

Mr. Killens's work, about a Negro soldier's battle against discrimination in World War II, was understood to have been under strong consideration by the fiction jury, but to have encountered criticism on technical grounds.

Had Mr. Killens won, he would have become the first Negro Pulitzer Prize novelist.

"What the hell has happened to the cultural explosion?" Mr. Brown asked.

Advisory board members reported they had adopted a suggestion from the drama jury that the eligibility period for drama works be extended through March, instead of cutting off in February, well before the end of the Broadway season.

One musical work was understood to have been discussed but was described as having been played publicly only twice to not very good notices.

Jurors' identities are kept confidential to avoid pressure on them. But one critic, Maxwell Geismar, who has served on juries in the past, said yesterday he deplored "the fact that no American novel this year was worthy of the Pulitzer Prize, but since this was the case I think the decision of no award was quite correct."

The National Book Committee gave its National Book Award in March to John Updike's "The Centaur" after its judges had earlier listed four other novels as contenders--"The Group," by Mary McCarthy; "Idiots First," by Bernard Malamud; "V," by Thomas Pynchon; and "The Will," by Harvey Swados.

Only three American plays through the February deadline figured in voting by 18 members of the New York Drama Critics Circle last Thursday for "best new work in any category" of the 1963-64 season.

These were "After the Fall," by Arthur Miller, which had three of the 18 votes; "Dylan," by Sidney Michaels, and "Barefoot in the Park," by Neil Simon. However, "Hello, Dolly!" a musical by Michael Stewart and Jerry Herman, won the critics' prize for best musical by 13 of 18 votes, and musicals have won Pulitzer Prizes in the past.

Mr. Browne and Mr. Halberstam, in addition to sharing a Pulitzer Prize, were honored yesterday with Neil Sheehan of United Press International by the Nieman fellows of Harvard University.

They were given the first Louis M. Lyons award for conscience and integrity in journalism for reporting "the truth as they saw it [in the Vietnam conflict]. . .without yielding to unrelenting pressures."

The award is named for the retiring curator of Nieman fellowships for journalism, and the selection was made by the 10 American and 5 foreign journalists in the 1963-64 class.

Mrs. Smith, the editorial prize winner, was the second small-town Mississippi editor honored in this category in two years. Last year's prize went to Ira B. Harkey Jr. of The Pascagoula (Miss.) Chronicle, for writings during the integration crisis at the University of Mississippi.

Columbia University's president, Dr. Grayson Kirk, a member of the advisory board, announced yesterday's prizes after a meeting of the university trustees.

Three members of the advisory board were re-elected to their third four-year terms. They were Barry Bingham, editor and publisher of The Louisville Courier-Journal; Paul Miller, president of the Gannett Newspapers, and Louis B. Seltzer, editor of The Cleveland Press.

Professor John Hohenberg of the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism was re- elected to a one-year term as secretary of the board.