Drama Pulitzer for 'Proof'
April 16 -- The 2001 Pulitzer Prize for drama went toDavid Auburn for his play Proof, a family saga about a youngwoman haunted by the mental collapse of her father.
Proof, which debuted off-Broadway last May, was consideredone of the favorites for the honor, along with three-time Pulitzerwinner Edward Albee's The Play About the Baby.
Biographer Surprised By Repeat Win
The award for biography went to David Levering Lewis for thesecond volume of his biography of civil rights leader W.E.B. DuBois, W.E.B. Du Bois: The Fight for Equality and The AmericanCentury, 1919-1963.
"Thank goodness I'm sitting down," Lewis said from Manhattan."This is a total surprise. I had been working on a speech I wasgoing to give at Harvard, but I think I'm going to set that asideand stand on my balcony for a while."
Lewis' prize marked the first time that the second volume of aprevious Pulitzer winner also won the award. Lewis' first volume onDu Bois, covering his life from 1868-1919, won in 1994.
'My Goodness, This is Exciting'
The Pulitzer for history went to Joseph J. Ellis for his book,Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation. Ellis, aprofessor of history at Mount Holyoke College, has written fiveother books on the American Revolution.
The Pulitzer for fiction was awarded to Michael Chabon for TheAmazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, a fanciful tale aboutcomic books. His wife began screaming "Michael! Michael!" afterreceiving word of his prize at their Berkeley, Calif., home.
"Did I really win?" asked Chabon, a runner-up in the 2000National Book Critics Circle and PEN/Faulkner Awards. "I had kindof figured it was not my year. My goodness, this is exciting."
Stephen Dunn won the poetry prize for his volume of originalverses, Different Hours, his 11th collection.
The Pulitzer for general non-fiction was awarded to Herbert P.Bix for Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan. Bix, widelypublished in the world of Asian study, provoked a rethinking of theJapanese emperor's role in the 20th century, particularly duringWorld War II, with his work.
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