The 11 Most Fashionable Pulitzer Prize Winners

With the stylish Michelle Obama in the White House, America is witnessing a clear intersection of fashion and the intellectual. But this certainly isn't the first time such an intersection has occurred. While we may sometimes think of writers as hunchbacked schlubs who don't know the difference between a pashmina and a cardigan, many wordsmiths over the years have demonstrated a keen sartorial eye in addition to their ear for prose. In honor of style and fashion colliding in the White House, below we've spotlighted 11 Pulitzer Prize winners who found a personal fashion to complimented their literary talents.

1. Anne Sexton - One of the most prolific poets of her time. She won the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry in 1967 for Live or Die. Her prose was deeply personal, often dealing with her long struggle with depression. But before she embarked on her writing career, Sexton was a model in Boston—a fact that won’t surprise anyone who has seen images of this stylish gal.

2. John F. Kennedy - During his tenure as US Senator, John F. Kennedy wrote Profiles in Courage and received the Pulitzer Prize in Biography in 1957. He is the first and only Pulitzer Prize-winning president. While in the Oval Office, JFK and his beautiful wife Jacqueline personified youth, glamour, fashion, and culture. They greatly influenced fashion trends of the day, and their style and charm led to the Kennedy administration earning the nickname “Camelot.”

3. Margaret Mitchell - Mitchell’s epic Gone with the Wind is one of the best-selling novels of all time. She won the Pulitzer Prize in 1937 and the film adaptation became the highest-grossing film in Hollywood history. Raised in Georgia amongst the relics of fashionable, genteel women, it shouldn’t be too surprising that the woman who created Scarlett O’Hara had serious style—even in black and white.

4. Katharine Graham - Graham was the publisher of The Washington Post for over two decades. She took the position after her husband’s suicide and is often remembered for running the paper during the Watergate scandal. She won a Pulitzer Prize for her memoir, Personal History, in 1988. Graham was a staple amongst New York and Washington’s elite, counting the Rockefellers, Kennedys, Reagans as personal friends. In 1966, Truman Capote played host at his Black and White Ball with Katharine Graham as the guest of honor. Everyone from Andy Warhol, Tallulah Bankhead, McGeorge Bundy, Frank Sinatra, and the Maharajah and Maharani of Jaipur were in attendance.

5. Edna St. Vincent Millay - A poet and playwright, Millay was the first woman to ever receive a Pulitzer Prize (for her poetic work, The Harp-Weaver, and Other Poems), in 1923. But she was equally cutting-edge with her unorthodox lifestyle, which included an open marriage and lesbian lovers. She played an integral part in the cultural scene in Greenwich Village in New York after World War I and came to represent the freedom of women in the Jazz Age.