Which novel by Booth Tarkington won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1919?

The novel by Booth Tarkington that won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1919 was The Magnificent Ambersons.

Published in 1918, the novel follows the decline of the wealthy Amberson family as industrial growth and modernization transform their Indianapolis-like Midwestern community. Its central conflict contrasts inherited privilege with the energy of a changing American city.

The title can cause confusion because Tarkington won the prize twice. The Magnificent Ambersons received the 1919 award, while Alice Adams won in 1922. The Turmoil, another Tarkington novel, appeared earlier and forms the first book of his so-called Growth trilogy; The Magnificent Ambersons is the second.

The novel later became widely known through Orson Welles's 1942 film adaptation. The film's extensive studio re-editing created a separate cultural legacy, but the Pulitzer recognition belongs to Tarkington's original novel and reflects its literary portrayal of social change, class, family, and American modernization.