Pulitzer Prize

The 2003 Pulitzer Prizes in letters were awarded Monday to a study of international genocide, a history of the U.S. Army in North Africa, a biography of Lyndon B. Johnson, a fictional Greek American saga and the poetry of a lyrical, Irish-born writer who now teaches in America. Robert A. Caro won his second Pulitzer Prize in biography, this one for "Master of the Senate," his third in a planned four-volume work on the life of Johnson.

The newspapers and websites were full Monday morning with stories about Sunday's eclipse: finely done accounts with facts, figures, quotations and on-the-scene reporting. Will any win the Pulitzer Prize? Only time will tell. But if so, there is precedent: The 1924 Pulitzer Prize for reporting went to Magner White, a reporter for the San Diego Sun, for his account of a noontime solar eclipse that occurred Sept. 10, 1923. White's account, in the lean, vivid prose of the day, had weird gusts of wind hitting the city, circus animals pacing and roaring, prostitutes falling to their knees and vowing to change their wicked ways, and San Diego residents exchanging "ghastly smiles, pale lilies they are. " The Sun's story was on the stands within minutes of the eclipse becoming total.

The only woman in a sea of men in suits, Dorothy Townsend can't help but stand out in the official photograph of the Los Angeles Times team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 1966 for coverage of the Watts riots. The picture also inadvertently documents Townsend's other historic role at the newspaper. After insisting on being reassigned from "the women's pages" in early 1964, she became the first female staff writer to cover local news in a city room long populated only by men. Townsend, who wrote for The Times from 1954 to 1986, died March 5 of cancer at her Sherman Oaks home, said her cousin, Louise Hagan.

The 2012 Pulitzer Prize for fiction went to no one, it was announced Monday. The Pulitzer judges did reveal that three books had been named finalists, but declined to award one the prize. The three finalists  were "Train Dreams" by Denis Johnson, "Swamplandia!" by Karen Russell and "The Pale King" by David Foster Wallace. In deciding the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, a committee of readers, which changes annually, recommends a small slate of titles to a panel of judges, who choose the winner.

The 1932 Pulitzer Prize awarded to a New York Times reporter accused of deliberately ignoring the forced famine in Ukraine to maintain his access to Josef Stalin will not be revoked, the awards board said. "The board determined that there was not clear and convincing evidence of deliberate deception, the relevant standard in this case," said a statement from the Pulitzer Prize Board. A Pulitzer subcommittee began a review of the late Walter Duranty's work in April.

JOURNALISM Public Service: The New York Times for "A Nation Challenged," a daily stand-alone section on terrorism and the war in Afghanistan. Breaking News Reporting: The Wall Street Journal staff for coverage of the Sept. 11 attacks under extremely difficult circumstances; its newsroom near the trade center was evacuated.

In reference to Mike Downey's column (Jan. 4), specifically to his derogation of the Cleveland Browns, I would like to suggest 10 ways that Mr. Downey could possibly obtain a Pulitzer Prize: 1. By gunpoint. 2. In his wildest dreams. 3. By changing his name to Mother Teresa. 4. If the prize is ever awarded by National Lampoon. 5. By theft. 6. If the prize is ever awarded by lottery. 7. If they added a category for mediocrity. 8. If his family is appointed to the awards committee.

John Hohenberg, 94, scholar, former journalist and administrator of the Pulitzer Prizes. Hohenberg, a New York native, began his career as a reporter for newspapers in Seattle and New York. He covered some of the biggest stories of the 1930s, '40s and '50s, including the 1935 trial of Bruno Richard Hauptmann--the man convicted of kidnapping Charles Lindbergh's son--and the creation of the United Nations and Israel. He later taught journalism at Columbia, the University of Tennessee and Harvard.

Lawrence A. Cremin, 64, a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian who spent 23 years writing a definitive trilogy on American public education. He won a Pulitzer Prize for history in 1981 for "American Education: The National Experience, 1783-1876," the second volume of his three-volume history of U.S. schools. His final volume, "American Education: The Metropolitan Experience, 1876-1980," was published in 1988.

David Laventhol, president of Times Mirror Co., has been elected chairman of the 17-member Pulitzer Prize Board, Michael I. Sovern, president of Columbia University, announced. Laventhol succeeds Roger Wilkins, who will remain a board member, for the one-year term. Additionally, Sissela Bok, an associate professor of philosophy at Brandeis University, has been elected to the board, succeeding University of Chicago President Hanna Gray, who served for eight years.

The 2012 Pulitzer Prizes were announced on Monday, with the Philadelphia Inquirer awarded the Gold Medal for public service for its reporting on pervasive violence in that city's schools. The reporting stirred reforms to improve safety for students and teachers. The local reporting prize went to Sara Ganim and other staff of the Patriot News of Harrisburg, Penn., for that newspaper's reporting on the explosive Penn State sexual abuse scandal. David Wood of the Huffington Post won the national reporting prize for his coverage of the challenges facing wounded American soldiers.

NEW YORK - A deep report on the fear and violence plaguing urban schools brought the Philadelphia Inquirer the prestigious Pulitzer Prize for public service Monday, while the New York Times won two awards as Columbia University announced the winners of journalism's top prizes. The two victories by the New York Times -- for reporting on east Africa and for exposing tax avoidance by General Electric Co.-- made it the only double winner. It was a year in which the judges bypassed coverage of some of the most catastrophic news events dominating the headlines in 2011, such as the violent conflict in the Mideast and an earthquake , tsunami  and nuclear meltdown in Japan . The Inquirer's win for “Assault on Learning” was a boon for one of America's oldest newspapers, which recently emerged from bankruptcy and a pair of ownership changes.

The only woman in a sea of men in suits, Dorothy Townsend can't help but stand out in the official photograph of the Los Angeles Times team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 1966 for coverage of the Watts riots. The picture also inadvertently documents Townsend's other historic role at the newspaper. After insisting on being reassigned from "the women's pages" in early 1964, she became the first female staff writer to cover local news in a city room long populated only by men. Townsend, who wrote for The Times from 1954 to 1986, died March 5 of cancer at her Sherman Oaks home, said her cousin, Louise Hagan.

Reporting from New York -- Anthony Shadid, a journalist who gave voice to those muffled by the turmoil around them — from Iraqi families enveloped in civil war to young Libyans spurred to take up arms against a dictator — died while doing just that: reporting from Syria in defiance of official attempts to limit media coverage of the bloodshed there. Shadid, who died Thursday at 43, was stricken by an apparent asthma attack while preparing to leave Syria with his New York Times colleague, photographer Tyler Hicks.

Art Rogers, an award-winning former longtime Los Angeles Times photographer best known for his sports coverage, has died. He was 93. Rogers, who suffered a heart attack Dec. 16, died Tuesday in a skilled nursing facility near his home in Morro Bay, Calif., said his grandson, Jerry Rogers. In a more than 40-year career with The Times that began in 1940 and included general assignment and feature photography, Rogers won the National Headliner Award, two Eclipse awards and a Look magazine award, among many others.

Russ Stanton will step down as the editor and executive vice president of the Los Angeles Times on Dec. 23, and Managing Editor Davan Maharaj will assume the top newsroom job. Stanton, 52, joined The Times in 1997 as a business reporter in Orange County. He led the news organization for four years, a period in which it expanded its digital reach to more than 17 million readers and won three Pulitzer Prizes, including the Public Service Award for exposing corruption in the city of Bell.

Josephine Johnson, 79, who won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1934 for her first novel, "Now in November," written when she was 24. She wrote 11 books, including novels, short stories and poetry. One of her most popular books was the 1969 "Inland Island," written in diary format about a year spent on her 37-acre property. Critics acclaimed it as a modern version of Henry David Thoreau's "Walden." She had been a regular contributor to the monthly Ohio Magazine. In Batavia, Ohio, on Feb.

Howard H 'Tim' Hays Former Press-Enterprise editor, publisher Howard H "Tim" Hays, 94, a former editor and publisher of the Press-Enterprise who led the Riverside newspaper when it won a Pulitzer Prize for an expose in the 1960s and won two landmark U.S. Supreme Court cases in 1st Amendment fights for court access in the '80s, died Friday at a hospital in St. Louis after a period of declining health because of Alzheimer's disease....

The Astonishing Secret of Awesome Man A Picture Book Michael Chabon, with illustrations by Jake Parker HarperCollins: 32 pp., $17.99 ages 4-8 Faster than a 1,000-gigabyte word processor. More literary than the Oxford English Dictionary. Able to accrue writerly accolades in a single bound. Look! Over there, on the children's bookshelf! It's an author. It's a Pulitzer Prize-winning author. Yes, it's Michael Chabon - and his first picture book for the mac-and-cheese crowd, "The Astonishing Secret of Awesome Man. " In his newest ode to classic comic books, Chabon tweaks the tried-and-true genre with the cheekily entertaining tale of a vain superhero.