Pulitzer Book Club Inclusion Guide
INCLUSION MILESTONES
1954
• Brown v Board of Education upends racial school segregation
• Access to free public education for children with disabilities
• McCarthy censured by Senate for Communist witch hunt
AUTHOR INSPIRATIONS
Can you identify the 1954 Pulitzer Fiction finalists?
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Featured Reader
– Share your key take-away about inclusion in this book in a sentence or two.
– Write a paragraph or two (up to 250 words) to describe your thoughts on exclusion/inclusion in the book, why you related or did not connect with the book, and why you think reading, inclusion and dialog about inclusion matter.
– Identify the name and website address of a cause you support with an inclusive mission.
No Fiction Award. Lindbergh’s “The Spirit of St. Louis” wins Biography category.
1932 Lindbergh kidnapping.
Pulitzer Fiction category established in 1948; 1954 was the first year there was no Pulitzer Fiction winner.
Lindbergh’s “The Spirit of St. Louis” is 576 pages.
“On Sept. 11, 1941, Charles Lindbergh gave his notorious ‘Who are the war agitators?’ speech in Des Moines, Iowa. Designed to persuade Americans to stay neutral in World War II, the speech ultimately backfired and Lindbergh was painted as a Nazi-sympathizer and anti-Semite.”- “This Week in History,” Deseret News, Cody Carlson, September 12, 2013
1927: Lindbergh’s Spirit of St. Lewis transatlantic flight.
1938: Hermann Goering presents Service Cross of the German Eagle to Lindbergh on behalf of Adolf Hitler.
TV dinners were introduced by Swanson in 1954. Make turkey, gravy, cornbread stuffing, sweet potatoes, and buttered peas and serve it on compartmentalized plates.
“Anything can happen to anyone, but it usually doesn't. Except when it does.” ― Philip Roth, “The Plot Against America”
Go to a drive-in movie dressed like it’s 1954.
Have a conversation about Charles A. Lindbergh. Start with his German Commander Cross and plea to Congress to negotiate with Hitler. Talk about how and why hero images unravel.
Find somebody with access to Columbia’s library who can research award finalists and wait outside.
Best picture Academy Award for 1954 was “From Here to Eternity.”
In Philip Roth’s “The Plot Against America” Lindbergh defeats FDR for the 1940 Presidency.