Since Joseph Pulitzer first established a prize for the best editorial in1917, the award's prestige has grown steadily. Today the Pulitzer is acknowledged as the most distinguished prize in journalism. All 87 years of these prize-winning pieces are collected in the updated third edition of Pulitzer Prize Editorials: America's Best Writing, 1917-2003.

This book is an impressive anthology that illustrates the evolution of editorial writing over the decades. Each entry contains the entire, unabridged text of the prize-winning editorial from that year, and is preceded by a succinct...