Which author was the first to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction twice?

Booth Tarkington was the first author to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction twice. He received the award for The Magnificent Ambersons in 1919 and again for Alice Adams in 1922.

Tarkington’s two winning novels examine social change and class in the American Midwest. The Magnificent Ambersons portrays an established Indianapolis family losing status as modern industry and new wealth reshape society. Alice Adams follows a young woman whose family tries to appear wealthier and more socially prominent than it really is.

The wording can cause confusion because later writers also won twice, including William Faulkner, John Updike, and Colson Whitehead. Tarkington’s distinction is chronological: he achieved the milestone before any of them. The Pulitzer’s fiction category was then called the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel; the name changed to Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1948.

Born Newton Booth Tarkington in Indianapolis in 1869, Tarkington was also a dramatist and politician. His reputation declined after his death, but his two Pulitzer victories remain a landmark in the prize’s history.