Minna Lewinson

Minna Lewinson (June 28, 1897 – November 19, 1938) was an American journalist and joint winner of the 1918 Pulitzer Prize for Newspaper History with Henry Beetle Hough. She is notable as the first woman to win a journalism Pulitzer Prize or work for The Wall Street Journal.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5S40eFx2brAC&q=%22Minna+Lewinson%22+-hough&pg=PA34|title=Seeking Equity for Women in Journalism and Mass Communication Education: A 30-year Update|last1=Rush|first1=Ramona R.|last2=Oukrop|first2=Carol E.|last3=Creedon|first3=Pamela J.|date=April 3, 2013|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=9781135624002|language=en}}{{Cite news |title=About the Pulitzers |url=http://bgsujournalism.com/pulitzer/jfoust/wordpress/about-the-pulitzers/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210928174350/http://bgsujournalism.com/pulitzer/jfoust/wordpress/about-the-pulitzers/ |archive-date=2021-09-28 |access-date=2018-07-22}}{{Cite book|url=https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED258210.pdf|title=Women in Journalism Education: The Formative Period, 1908–1930|last=Beasley|first=Maurine H.|publisher=Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (68th, Memphis, TN, August 3–6, 1985).|year=1985|location=Washington, D.C.}}

Biography

Lewinson was born in New York City in 1897 and attended Barnard College at Columbia University to study journalism, earning a B.Litt.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=63nvmt4HqTEC&q=Minna+Lewinson&pg=PA479|title=Who's who of Pulitzer Prize Winners|last1=Brennan|first1=Elizabeth A.|last2=Clarage|first2=Elizabeth C.|date=1999|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|isbn=9781573561112|language=en}}{{Cite web|title=Mortarboard 1917 {{!}} Barnard Digital Collections|url=https://digitalcollections.barnard.edu/object/yearbook-1917/mortarboard-1917#page/128/mode/2up/search/%22Minna+Lewinson%22|access-date=2020-07-04|website=digitalcollections.barnard.edu}} 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.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=78MkAQAAMAAJ|title=Taking Their Place: A Documentary History of Women and Journalism|last1=Beasley|first1=Maurine Hoffman|last2=Gibbons|first2=Sheila Jean|date=2003|publisher=Strata Pub.|isbn=9781891136078|page=13|language=en}}

Lewinson and Henry Beetle Hough were jointly awarded the 1918 Pulitzer Prize for Newspaper History for a research paper, "A History of the Services Rendered to the Public by the American Press During the Year 1917", described by the judges as "the best history of the services rendered to the public by the American press during the preceding year".{{Cite web|url=https://www.pulitzer.org/winners/minna-lewinson-and-henry-beetle-hough|title=Minna Lewinson and Henry Beetle Hough, students at the School of Journalism, Columbia University|website=The Pulitzer Prizes|access-date=21 October 2018}}{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w3CdrctE80IC&q=%22Minna+Lewinson%22+-wikipedia&pg=PA36|title=Complete Historical Handbook of the Pulitzer Prize System 1917–2000: Decision-Making Processes in all Award Categories based on unpublished Sources|last1=Fischer|first1=Heinz-D.|last2=Fischer|first2=Erika J.|date=January 1, 2003|publisher=Walter de Gruyter|isbn=9783110939125|pages=36|language=en}}{{Cite book|title=A history of the services rendered to the public by the American press during the year 1917|last1=Lewinson|first1=Minna|last2=Hough|first2=Henry|publisher=Columbia University Press|year=1918|location=New York|pages=8}} Lewinson was the first woman to win a journalism Pulitzer Prize.

The prize was worth $1,000, and the particular prize category was only awarded the one time. 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.

Lewinson was the first woman hired by the Wall Street Journal, in 1918, working as a copy editor. She left the newspaper in 1923, and no other women were hired by the journal for several more decades.{{cite thesis |last=Kaszuba |first=David |title=They are Women, Hear Them Roar: Female Sportswriters of the Roaring Twenties |date=December 2003 |degree=PhD |publisher=The Pennsylvania State University The Graduate School College of Communications |url=https://etda.libraries.psu.edu/files/final_submissions/1342}} Lewinson also worked as a copy writer, reporter and columnist for Daily Investment News, and as a reporter for Women's Wear Daily.

She died in 1938 at the age of 41 from Hodgkin lymphoma.