On to side TWO.
This is one of those records that has sides 1 and 4 on one record and side 2 and 3 on the other. That's kinda annoying in a way. Mostly for my vinyl snobbery.
So, I found the Pulitzer Prize website. There is no record of the other fiction books up for the 1953 Pulitzer. They did not start recording finalists until 1980. Sad.

They do however have a complete list of winners from 1953
HEREInteresting note: No award was given in 1953 for music.
Some events from 1953 (via wikipedia):
JanuaryTruman announces US Hydrogen Bomb development
CIA discusses UFO Phenomenon
63% of US TV sets tune in to
I Love Lucy to watch her give birth
Presidency changes from Truman to Eisenhower
FebruaryDisney's
Peter Pan premieres
Transsexual Christine Jorgenson returns to New York after successful sexual reassignment surgery in Denmark. (First widely known sexual reassignment patient).
The first 3D film,
Bwana Devil opens
Georgia approves the first literature censorship board in the United States
MarchStalin and Prokofiev die on the same day
25th Academy Awards ceremony, the first one broadcast on television
Nuclear test in Nevada
Queen Mary Dies
Polio Vaccine announced
AprilIan Fleming publishes his first James Bond novel, Casino Royale in the United Kingdom
MayHussein is crowned King of Jordan
Aldous Huxley first tries the psychedelic hallucinogen mescaline, inspiring his book The Doors of Perception
Jackie Cochran becomes the first woman to break the sound barrier (she flew in a F-86 Sabrejet at an average speed of 652.337 miles-per-hour).
Nuclear testing: At the Nevada Test Site, the United States conducts its first and only nuclear artillery test
Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay perform the first successful ascent to the summit of Mount Everest
JuneCoronation of Elizabeth II
CIA Technical Services Staff head Sidney Gottlieb approves of the use of LSD in a MKULTRA subproject
The first Chevrolet Corvette is built
JulyFidel Castro and his brother lead a disastrous assault on the Moncada Barracks - preliminary to the Cuban Revolution.
Korean War ends
AugustOhio admitted as a US state, retroactive to 1803
Soviet Union has a hydrogen bomb
Addiction: First meeting of Narcotics Anonymous in Southern California
Kinsey report is issued
SeptemberDiscovery of REM sleep
United Nations does not accept Soviet Union's suggestion to accept China as a member
Rationing of cane sugar ends in the UK
OctoberThe UNIVAC 1103 is the first commercial computer to use random access memory
United States tests H-Bomb
Cold War: US President Dwight D. Eisenhower formally approves the top secret document of the United States National Security Council NSC 162/2, which states that the United States' arsenal of nuclear weapons must be maintained and expanded to counter the communist threat
NovemberCambodia becomes independent from France
Puerto Williams is founded in Chile as the southernmost settlement of the world
Authorities at the British Natural History Museum announce that the skull of the "Piltdown Man", one of the most famous fossil skulls in the world, is a hoax.
DecemberHugh Hefner publishes the first issue of Playboy Magazine, selling 54,175 copies at $.50 each
Conductor Arturo Toscanini performs what he claims is his favorite Beethoven symphony, the Eroica, for the last time. The live performance is broadcast nationwide on radio, and later released on records and CD
Albert Schweitzer was given the 1952 Nobel Peace Prize for his philosophy of
Reverence for LifeThe FCC approves color television
The first color television sets go on sale for about $1,175
There are a few pops in side two. Of note, the old man talks to his hand and promises to eat more for it (??)
He also promises to say Hail Marys if he catches the fish.
There was also talk of eating the tuna before the sun comes up.
Also, it is revealed that the old man is a fan of the New York Yankees.
It's been only one hour. Unbelievable.