Seth Godin wrote last October that, "If there's justice, [Kevin Kelly's
What Technology Wants] will win the Pulitzer Prize. And, while I think there remains some justice in the world regardless of the fact that it did not, we would agree that it deserved at least a nomination in the general nonfiction category (something another of our favorite books, Nicholas Carr's
The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brain, did happily receive). But, I'm sure that the book that won the category—Siddhartha Mukherjee's
The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer—is not at all undeserving. I haven't read it myself, but I've heard good things. I also know that Jack was pleased to see one of his favorite biographies of the year, Ron Chernow's
Washington: A Life, take home the prize in its category.
Also of note, for the first time ever a Pulitzer Prize was awarded to a series that did not appear in print—ProPublica's online series
The Wall Street Money Machine by Jesse Eisinger and Jake Bernstein. It was given to them "for their exposure of questionable practices on Wall Street that contributed to the nation's economic meltdown, using digital tools to help explain the complex subject to lay readers." As
The New York Times reported, "Corporate malfeasance was a theme in the awards this year."
And, finally, we'd like to note and congratulate our hometown newspaper,
The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinal, which took home
the award for explanatory reporting "for their lucid examination of an epic effort to use genetic technology to save a 4-year-old boy imperiled by a mysterious disease." In fact, congratulations to all the winners! If you'd like to read more or see a list of all the winners, head to
The New York Times roundup or visit
the Pulitzer Prize website.
