WASHINGTON, D.C. — The large atrium of the Newseum on Pennsylvania Avenue was crowded with hundreds of journalists, photographers, historians, novelists, poets, playwrights and cartoonists who at one time or another had won a Pulitzer Prize.
The Pulitzer Board had invited all prize winners to celebrate the centennial of the prize, which was instituted by Joseph Pulitzer to raise up and ennoble the profession of journalism. The cocktails and hors d’oeuvres were plentiful, and the mood was celebratory. Allowing themselves to be celebrated in this fashion was not a painful ordeal for the gathered writers and artists.
I know because I was there, too.