1978 Pulitzer Prize

The following are the Pulitzer Prizes for 1978.

Journalism awards[]

Public Service:
- The Philadelphia Inquirer, for a series of articles showing abuses of power by the police in its home city.
Local General or Spot News Reporting:
- of the Louisville Courier-Journal, for his coverage of a fire that took 164 lives at the Beverly Hills Supper Club at Southgate, Kentucky, and subsequent investigation of the lack of enforcement of state fire codes.
Local Investigative Specialized Reporting:
- Anthony R. Dolan of the Stamford Advocate (Connecticut), for a series on municipal corruption.
National Reporting:
- Gaylord D. Shaw of the Los Angeles Times, for a series on unsafe structural conditions at the nation's major dams.
International Reporting:
- Henry Kamm of The New York Times, for his stories on the refugees, boat people, from Indochina.
Commentary:
- William Safire of The New York Times, for commentary on the Bert Lance affair.
Criticism:
- Walter Kerr of The New York Times, for articles on the theater in 1977 and throughout his long career.
Editorial Writing:
- Meg Greenfield, deputy editorial page editor of The Washington Post, for selected samples of her work.
Editorial Cartooning:
- Jeffrey K. MacNelly of the Richmond News Leader.
Spot News Photography:
- , special assignment photographer for United Press International, for a photograph of an Indianapolis broker being held hostage at gunpoint by Anthony Kiritsis.

The prize-winning spot news photograph

The prize-winning set of feature photographs

Fiction:
- Elbow Room by James Alan McPherson (Atlantic Monthly Press)
Drama:
- The Gin Game by Donald L. Coburn (Drama Book Specialists)
History:
- The Visible Hand: The Managerial Revolution in American Business by Alfred D. Chandler, Jr. (Belknap/Harvard University Press)
Biography or Autobiography:
- Samuel Johnson by Walter Jackson Bate (Harcourt)
Poetry:
- Collected Poems by Howard Nemerov (Univ. of Chicago)
General Non-Fiction:
- The Dragons of Eden by Carl Sagan (Random House)
Music:
- Deja Vu for Percussion Quartet and Orchestra by Michael Colgrass (Carl Fischer Music)
  Commissioned by the New York Philharmonic and premiered by that orchestra October 20, 1977.

Journalism:
- Richard Strout, for distinguished commentary from Washington over many years as staff correspondent for The Christian Science Monitor and contributor to The New Republic.
Letters:
- E. B. White, a special citation to E. B. White for his letters, essays and the full body his work.