How does the Pulitzer Prize relate to the novel Of Mice and Men?

John Steinbeck, author of the novella Of Mice and Men,(1937) also wrote The Grapes of Wrath, (1939) which won the Pulitzer Prize for best Novel in 1940 (the category was changed to "Fiction" in 1948). Of Mice and Men won the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award in 1938. Both books were banned in some school districts, but are also among the most-read novels in American literature.

In 1962, Steinbeck received the Nobel Prize in Literature for his body of work, which includes Of Mice and Men.