Minna Lewinson

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Minna Lewinson (June 28, 1897 – November 19, 1938) was an American journalist and joint winner of the 1918 Pulitzer Prize for Newspaper History, along with Henry Beetle Hough. She is notable as the first woman to win a journalism Pulitzer Prize and work for the New York Times.[1][2][3]

Education[edit]

Lewinson was born in New York City and attended Barnard College at Columbia University to study journalism, earning a B.Litt.[4][5] She was one of 11 female graduates of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1918, compared to eight men. This was unprecedented at the time, and women were only gaining major access to the school due to a wartime shortage of male journalists.[3][6]

Lewinson and Hough were jointly awarded the 1918 Pulitzer Prize for their paper 'A History of the Services Rendered to the Public by the American Press During the Year 1917', described as "the best history of the services rendered to the public by the American press during the preceding year".[7][8][9] The prize was worth $1,000, and the particular prize category ('Newspaper History') was only awarded the one time.[8][9] Jury notes indicate that the prize was considered for awarding every year from the first ceremony in 1917 through to 1924, however the prize was removed from the rosters in 1925 still with only two recipients; Lewinson and Hough.[8]

Career[edit]

Lewinson worked as a copy writer, as a reporter and columnist for Daily Investment News, and as a reporter for Women's Wear Daily. Lewinson was the first woman hired by the Wall Street Journal, in 1918, working as a copy editor.[3][4] She left the newspaper in 1923, and no other women were hired by the journal for several more decades.[3][6][10]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Rush, Ramona R.; Oukrop, Carol E.; Creedon, Pamela J. (April 3, 2013). Seeking Equity for Women in Journalism and Mass Communication Education: A 30-year Update. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 9781135624002.
  2. ^ "About the Pulitzers". Retrieved July 22, 2018.
  3. ^ a b c d Beasley, Maurine H. (1985). Women in Journalism Education: The Formative Period, 1908–1930 (PDF). Washington, D.C.: Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (68th, Memphis, TN, August 3–6, 1985).
  4. ^ a b Brennan, Elizabeth A.; Clarage, Elizabeth C. (1999). Who's who of Pulitzer Prize Winners. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 9781573561112.
  5. ^ "Mortarboard 1917 | Barnard Digital Collections". digitalcollections.barnard.edu. Retrieved July 4, 2020.
  6. ^ a b Beasley, Maurine Hoffman; Gibbons, Sheila Jean (2003). Taking Their Place: A Documentary History of Women and Journalism. Strata Pub. p. 13. ISBN 9781891136078.
  7. ^ "Minna Lewinson and Henry Beetle Hough, students at the School of Journalism, Columbia University". The Pulitzer Prizes. Retrieved October 21, 2018.
  8. ^ a b c Fischer, Heinz-D.; Fischer, Erika J. (January 1, 2003). Complete Historical Handbook of the Pulitzer Prize System 1917–2000: Decision-Making Processes in all Award Categories based on unpublished Sources. Walter de Gruyter. p. 36. ISBN 9783110939125.
  9. ^ a b Lewinson, Minna; Hough, Henry (1918). A history of the services rendered to the public by the American press during the year 1917. New York: Columbia University Press. p. 8.
  10. ^ Kaszuba, David (December 2003). They are Women, Hear Them Roar: Female Sportswriters of the Roaring Twenties (PhD thesis). The Pennsylvania State University The Graduate School College of Communications.

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