Romenesko

San Francisco Chronicle
Just weeks after winning his Pulitzer, Chronicle columnist Herb Caen announced that he had lung cancer. "Some people assumed at the time that Caen's 1996 prize -- because of its timing and its designation as a 'special' Pulitzer -- must have been awarded as much because he was dying as for his actual work," writes James Risser. "That assumption was wrong. I was serving on the Pulitzer Prize Board at the time, and none of us knew." He explains how Caen won his "special" Pulitzer.