GEORGE LARDNER JR. MICHAEL DIRDA . DAVID MARANISS ... for a story of personal tragedy . for book reviews and essays ... for chronicle of candidate Clinton Post Wins Three Pulitzer Prizes Natio 1 Reporting, Feature Wiling, Book Criticism Honored 41 stalked and murdered in Boston last Newsday, who disclosed atrocities By Howard Kurtz . Washington Post Staff Writer year by a former boyfriend. in Serbian camps, and the other to The Los Angeles Times and Mi- John F. Burns of the New York The Washington Post won three ami Herald each won Pulitzers for Times, who wrote about the de- Pulitzer Prizes yesterday, one for their coverage of disasters, one nat- struction of Sarajevo. chronicling the rise of candidate Bill ural and one man-made. The Times Jeff Brazil and Steve Berry of the. Clinton, one for literary criticism won the spot news prize for its re- and. a third for a reporter's tale of porting on the second day of the Los Orlando Sentinel won the investi- personal tragedy. Angeles riots. The Herald was gative reporting prize for detailing Post reporter David Maraniss won awarded the public service medal, for how a sheriff's drug squad unfairly the national reporting prize for arti- its coverage of Hurricane Andrew, a seized millions of dollars from mo- cles examining the forces that shaped storm that left some of the paper's torists, most of them minorities. Clinton's life and character. Michael own staff members homeless. Paul Ingrassia and Joseph B.' Dirda, a writer and editor for Book The prizes, administered by Co- White of the Wall Street Journal World, won the criticism prize for his lumbia University, also' included won the Pulitzer for beat reporting reviews and essays on subjects rang- seven arts awards. Garry Wills won for their coverage of management ing from Elmore Leonard to Fyodor the nonfiction prize for his book turmoil at General Motors Corp. Dostoevsky to the Bible. "Lincoln at Gettysburg," and David . Reporter George .Lardner jr. McCullough the biography prize for The explanatory journalism prize won the feature writing prize for his "Truman." [Details on Page BI.J went to Mike Toner of the Atlanta account of how the criminal justice Two newspapers shared the prize Journal-Constitution for "When system failed to protect his 21- for foreign reporting from war-torn Bugs Fight Back," a series of arti- year-old daughter, Kristin, who was Bosnia. One went to Roy Gutman of - See PULITZERS, Al2, CoL 1 einson's tamer: -u lives are molded PULITZERS, From Al by 'purpose and chance, the first des on the diminishing effective• defining moment for Bill Clinton ness of antibiotics and pesticides. wat what might be called the ulti- The Herald won a second prize mate accident. It occurred before when Liz Balmaseda was honored he was born—in darkness and rain for commentary for her reports on on a desolate stretch of Highway 61' Cuban Americans in Miami and tur- four miles west of Sikeston in moil in Haiti. southern Missouri." It was the first time in the 77- I thoUght ,the most valuable ser- year history of the Pulitzers that vice a newspaper could do was to The Post has won three prizes in hale someone on the paper who was one year. Executive Editor Leonard constently thinking about the per- Downie Jr. told the staff at a news- so career, life, motivations, how room celebration that "this is a real- heamakes decisions, how he's ly, pally special day in the history dried, so the reader would have a of this newspaper." dewier understanding of a person ardner, 58, is a dogged inves- wl=could be president," Maraniss tigdor who has worked for The saCalling himself "an iconoclastic Po/ since 1963. The paper's local a orthoda guy," he added: "I'm colWnnist in the mid-1960s, he coy- tr to understand the person. ereg the assassination of Robert F. T tdoesn't mean you're taking that Kennedy, the Chappaquiddick inci- petal's side or are against them." dent, the Watergate coverup trial, 1a, ,44, who earned a doctorate thelan-contra scandal and the con- inUinparative literature from Cor- trotersy surrounding the assassi- nell University, joined Book World in , nahlm of John F. Kennedy. 1978. Hip reviews have ranged from In "The Stalking of Kristin," pub- history and biography to science fic- lished in the Outlook section, Lard- tion'and children's literature. ner-wrote of his daughter's murder: In. an essay About books on, the "This was a crime that could and Bible, Dirda wrote; "Like a ground- shoal have been prevented. I write ing in the classics or a thorough about it as a sort of cautionary tale, knowledge of baseball, familiarity in anger at a system of justice that with , the Bible invests life, whether failed to protect my daughter, a one is a believer or not with a kind of ballast, steadying one through system that is addicted to looking the other way, especially at the evil moments of crisis . " done to women." Dirda said that when he was 12 years old, 'his father, an Ohio steel- Lardner said yesterday that "I'm worker, would kick books out of his stunned and elated and sad all at hand and tell him to build something once—sad because I'm 'getting a prize for- writing about what hap- or play outside. "I'm an enthusiast pened to Kristin. I'd Ihie 'anything for books," Dirda said. "I try to not to have to have written it. But it make people excited about books, was the most important story I've to recreate on the page the plea- ever done, and I think Kristin would sure I feel about books." be proud of it." Shelby Coffey III, editor of the Lardner said he felt compelled to Los. Angeles Times, said more than write about the murder after "a 150 staffeM contributed to the pa- Brookline, Mass., police lieutenant • per's wide-ranging coverage of last named George. Finnegan said to me, April's riot. "It was an extraordi- 'You're a reporter, aren't you? I nary mobilization . We had pho- was sort of shame-faced. I only had tographers and reporters who came the vaguest idea what had happened under fire," he said. to my own daughter." John Pancake, who supervised Maraniss, 43, recently completed the Herald's hurricane coverage, a tour as The Post's Southwest bu- said the story was especially diffi- reau chief and is on leave to write a cult because "a lot of people who biography of Clinton. In 1975, Mar- worked on it had their houses aniss talked his way into a job with wrecked. A tremendous number of the..Trenton (NJ.) Times, then us suffered what everyone else in &nth Dade suffered." With televi- owned by The Washington Post Co., sihn knocked out by the storm, "the and joined The Post two years later, , newspaper was the primary source eventually becoming assistant Man- aging editor for metropolitan news. ojnformation," he said. "White, the Journal reporter, said Maraniss began one article by liVand Ingrassia's work' on the GM 4leskihing_the cap wreck that 10110 450 "reflected five years worm of vatrit on both,our parts in covering *Industry .. I'M still having a lttle trouble believing it happened." 44ax Frankel, executive editor of tre"-"New York Times,. said Burns's reporting from Bosniaas partic- ularly courageous because he had just recovered from a long bout with cancer. "He plunged into the assignment and found new life," Frankel said. "It's been breathtak- ing, emotional coverage all year." Newsday's Gutman said that his story on abuses in Serbian prisoner camps "made quite a splash at the BY HARRY NALTCHAYAN—THS WASHINGTON POST time, but it didn't close all the Dirda, Maraniss and Lardner cut cake during celebration in Post newsroom. camps. I don't find anything to cel- ebrate. This thing goes on, and you can't make as much of a splash with follow-up stories. I feel pretty de- pressed about the whole thing." Other Winners Beach Post In West ran lawn, ma. Editorial Cartooning: Stephen R. Benson of Ideals In contemporary America; staff of the Post-Standard of Syracuse, N.Y., for a series on Spot news photography—The Palm Beach Post the Arizona Republic. and the Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald phi> Spot news photography: Ken Geiger and William inadequate medical care in prisons. Beat reporting—Jesse Katz of the Los Angeles tographic staffs for Hurricane Andrew coverage. Snyder of the Dallas Morning News for cover- Feature photography—The Associated Press age of the Summer Olympics. Times for a series On city gang life; Fawn Vrazo of the Philadelphia Inquirer for coverage of wo- staff arid Yunghi Kim of the Boston Globe for Feature photography: The Associated Press for Somalia coverage. coverage of the 1992 campaign. men's health issues. Editorial writing: No award. National reporting—Douglas Frantz and Murray ARTS Fiction: Robert Olen Butler for "A Good Scent for Waas of the Los Angeles limes for reporting on Fletion—oAt Weddings and Wakes" by Alice McDer- a Strange Mountain." clandestine U.S. efforts to supply money and mott; "Black Water by Joyce Carol Oates. Drama: Tony Kushner for "Angels in America: weapons to Iraq; Donald C. Drake and Marian Drama—"The Destiny of Me" by Larry Kramer; Millennium Approaches.' Uhlman of the Philadelphia Inquirer for inves- "Fires in the Mirror" by Anna Deaver* Smith. History: Gordon S. Wood for "The Radicalism of tigation of thepharmaceutical industry's role in History—"The Promise of the New South: Life After Reconstruction" by Edward L.