pulitzer: a life - buch.de · pdf fileix acknowledgments the following invaluable sources left...
TRANSCRIPT
PULITZER
ffirsqxd 73001 909 AM Page i
Also by Denis Brian
Murderers and Other Friendly People The Publicand Private Worlds of Interviewers
The Enchanted Voyage The Life of J B Rhine
The True Gen An Intimate Portrait of Ernest Hemingwayby Those Who Knew Him
Fair Game What Biographers Donrsquot Tell You
Genius Talk Conversations with Nobel Scientistsand Other Luminaries
Einstein A Life
ffirsqxd 73001 909AM Pageii
PULITZER
A Life
Denis Brian
John Wiley amp Sons IncNew York bull Chichester bull Weinheim bull Brisbane bull Singapore bull Toronto
ffirsqxd 73001 909AM Pageiii
Copyright copy 2001 by Denis Brian All rights reserved
Published by John Wiley amp Sons Inc
No part of this publication may be reproduced stored in a retrieval system or transmit-ted in any form or by any means electronic mechanical photocopying recordingscanning or otherwise except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976United States Copyright Act without either the prior written permission of the Pub-lisher or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copy-right Clearance Center 222 Rosewood Drive Danvers MA 01923 (978) 750-8400 fax(978) 750-4744 Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to thePermissions Department John Wiley amp Sons Inc 605 Third Avenue New York NY10158-0012 (212) 850-6011 fax (212) 850-6008 email PERMREQWILEYCOM
This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information inregard to the subject matter covered It is sold with the understanding that the publisheris not engaged in rendering professional services If professional advice or other expertassistance is required the services of a competent professional person should be sought
This title is also available in print as ISBN 0-471-33200-3Some content that appears in the print version of this book may not be available in thiselectronic version
For more information about Wiley products visit our web site at wwwWileycom
To Martine Danielle Alex and Emma with love
And to The Project on Government Oversight (POGO) of WashingtonDC a nonpartisan nonprofit organization of which my daughterDanielle is the executive director Since 1981 it has worked toinvestigate expose and remedy abuses of power mismanagementand subservience to powerful special interests by the federalgovernment POGOrsquos goal is to improve the way the governmentworks by revealing examples of systemic problems offering solutionsand initiating change Pulitzer would have loved POGO
ffirsqxd 73001 909 AM Page v
ffirsqxd 73001 909 AM Page vi
vii
Contents
Acknowledgments ixIntroduction Joseph Pulitzer and His ldquoIndegoddampendentrdquo World 1
1 The Fighting Immigrant 5
2 Upright Spirited and Dangerous 15
3 Survives Fire and Marries 21
4 Buys St Louis Post-Dispatch 31
5 President Garfield Assassinated 40
6 Jesse James ldquoShot Like a Dogrdquo 51
7 Pulitzer Takes Over the World 63
8 Puts a Democrat in the White House 79
9 Saves Statue of Liberty 97
10 Haymarket Square Massacre 110
11 Nellie Bly Goes Crazy 120
12 Tries to Save His Sight 133
13 ldquoAn Instrument of Justice a Terror to Crimerdquo 139
14 Nellie Bly Races around the World 144
15 Running the World by Remote Control 158
16 Pulitzerrsquos ldquoSatanic Journalismrdquo 169
17 Prevents War between the United States and Britain 184
18 Fighting Crime and William Randolph Hearst 196
19 War Fever 213
20 Americans at War in Cuba 226
21 For the Boers against the British 244
22 ldquoAccuracy Accuracy Accuracyrdquo 252
ftocqxd 73001 911 AM Page vii
23 President McKinley Assassinated 266
24 ldquoFind a Man Who Gets Drunk and Hire Himrdquo 275
25 Euphemisms for Abortion 282
26 Breaking In Frank Cobb 288
27 Unmasking Corrupt Insurance Companies 299
28 ldquoI Liked the Way He Sworerdquo 310
29 Protesting Jingo Agitation 322
30 Secret Double Life of Rockefellerrsquos Father 331
31 Roosevelt Tries to Send Pulitzer to Prison 343
32 ldquoThe Big Man of All American Newspapersrdquo 350
33 Roosevelt Seeks Revenge 359
34 Victory 370
35 The Last Days 383
36 The Aftermath 391
Notes 397 Bibliography 419Index 423
viii Contents
ftocqxd 73001 911 AM Page viii
ix
Acknowledgments
The following invaluable sources left their firsthand impressions of JosephPulitzer John Heaton Don Carlos Seitz Dr George Hosmer James BarnesAlleyne Ireland George Cary Eggleston Norman Thwaites Walt McDougallNellie Bly James Creelman George St Johns Harold Pollard and Charles EChapin Chapin a former Evening World city editor who idolized Pulitzercomposed his memoir in a Sing Sing prison cell where he was serving a lifesentence for killing his wife in a failed double suicide attempt
Also of great help were William Robinson Reynoldsrsquos PhD thesis onPulitzer Allen Churchillrsquos Park Row W A Swanbergrsquos Pulitzer and his CitizenHearst James Wyman Barrettrsquos Joseph Pulitzer and His World George Juer-gensrsquos Joseph Pulitzer and the New York World Daniel W Pfaffrsquos Joseph PulitzerII and the Post-Dispatch A Newspapermanrsquos Life Brooke Kroegerrsquos Nellie BlyDaredevil Reporter Feminist Joyce Miltonrsquos The Yellow Kids John WinklerrsquosWilliam Randolph Hearst David Nasawrsquos The Chief The Life of William Ran-dolph Hearst the St Louis Post-Dispatch the New York World the New YorkJournal the New York Sun the New York Times James V Maloney corporatesecretary for Pulitzer Inc and the extensive Pulitzer archives at ColumbiaUniversity and the Library of Congress
Many thanks to John Gable Executive Director Theodore Roosevelt Asso-ciation Sylvia Jukes Morris Ann Morris Director Western Historical Manu-script Collection University of Missouri Dorothy Dyer Curator Bar HarborHistorical Society Ross MacTaggart Motor Yacht Historian Jill Radel Museumof Yachting Newport RI
My wife Martine worked with me enthusiastically on every aspect of thebook and her advice critical acumen and penchant for le mot juste enhancedthe finished product enormously
My editor Hane Lane gave wise and welcome suggestions persuaded methat less is more and was patient and encouraging
flastqxd 73001 913 AM Page ix
flastqxd 73001 913 AM Page x
1
i n t r o d u c t i o n
Joseph Pulitzer and HisldquoIndegoddampendentrdquo World
Every issue of the paper presents an opportunity and a duty to say somethingcourageous and true to rise above the mediocre and conventional to saysomething that will command the respect of the intelligent the educated theindependent part of the community to rise above fear of partisanship and fearof popular prejudice
mdashJoseph Pulitzer
Always fight for progress and reform never tolerate injustice or corruption always fight demagogues of all parties never belong to any party always opposeprivileged classes and public plunder never lack sympathy for the poor alwaysremain devoted to the public welfare never be satisfied with merely printing thenews always be drastically independent never be afraid to attack wrong whetherby predatory plutocracy or predatory poverty
mdashJoseph Pulitzer
A t eighteen Joseph Pulitzer a penniless gangling Hungarian emigrant re-cruited in Europe to fight in the Civil War threw himself from the ship
bringing him to the United States and swam ashore to collect the bounty hethought should come to him and not to his recruiter He fought in the UnionArmy and after the war while working at various menial jobs taught himselfenough English to become a lawyer a US congressman a superb journalistand eventually the multimillionaire owner of two great American newspapersthe St Louis Post-Dispatch and the New York World At its peak in the late1890s the World had a million daily readers
Always a hands-on owner Pulitzer focused on his high-minded informedand intelligent editorials
One of his early editors John Cockerill who often handled the newspages defined news as ldquoany hitherto unprinted occurrence which involves the
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 1
violation of any one of the Ten Commandments and if it involves a fracture ofthe Vth VIth VIIth VIIIth or IX Commandments and by those people whosenames people have heard and in whose doings they are specifically interestedby knowledge of their official and social position then it is great newsrdquo
Perhaps this explains why the World had a mass audiencePulitzer however insisted that ldquoSensationalism as generally understood is
to be avoided Cheap crimes are not to be seized upon to play up A sensationalstory that is worth featuring is to be pushed to the limit But no fakingrdquo
He told World reporter James Creelman ldquoI want to attack anything that iswrong in public service the police department or elsewhere I believe in thepaper being a moral teacher of what is right and what is wrong It must takepart I should turn in my grave if the paper sat on a fence The paper shouldnot run the government or make tariffs but it should lead public opinionrdquo
And lead it did Pulitzerrsquos influence became so great that he elected a pres-identmdashClevelandmdashprevented a war between the United States and Britain ex-posed and cleaned up corrupt insurance companies surpassed Theodore Roo-sevelt in trust-busting and outsmarted banker J P Morgan for the financialgood of the country Without Pulitzer there would be no Statue of Liberty Hesuccessfully fought slumlords crooked police and shady politicians Even hismost ferocious rival William Randolph Hearst acknowledged that Pulitzer wasldquoa mighty democratic force in the life of the nationrdquo and ldquoa towering figure innational and international journalismrdquo
One of Pulitzerrsquos less known achievements was to create a new way ofswearing that caught on such as his assertion that his World was ldquoindegod-dampendentrdquo That he invented it was confirmed by American language expertH L Mencken and is ldquoabsobloodylutelyrdquo part of todayrsquos talk and known asan ldquoinfixrdquo
A contemporary called him the most interesting man on the planet andthe Texas Newspaper Union ldquothe greatest journalist on earthrdquo To his friendHenry Watterson editor of the Louisville Courier-Journal Pulitzerrsquos life readldquolike a story out of the books of giants goblins and fairiesrdquo Theodore Rooseveltonce praised the World as ldquomagnificent and strongrdquo and called its editorial pageldquothe finest in the countryrdquomdashuntil Pulitzer called Roosevelt a liar in his effort tocover up the bribery and corruption involved in buying the land for thePanama Canal Then Roosevelt sued him for criminal libel and tried to sendhim to prisonmdashan episode the ex-president failed to mention in his memoirs
But there was a time when Pulitzer betrayed his high principles For sev-eral months before and during the Spanish American War he engaged in afrantic attempt to outsell William Randolph Hearstrsquos New York Journal whichearned both men disrepute as purveyors of the sensational ldquoyellow pressrdquo As avisiting English newspaperman saw it theirs seemed like ldquoa contest of madmenfor the primacy of the sewerrdquo
2 Pulitzer
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 2
After the war Pulitzer bitterly regretted the exaggerations rumors and out-right lies his paper had printed and redirected the World to regain its formerglowing reputation as a great newspapermdashwhich it did
He was a blind invalid for the last twenty-two years of his lifemdashand so sen-sitive to noise that he traveled in a soundproofed yachtmdashbut he remained inactive control of the World relying on a group of secretaries to keep him in-formed and to write out his ideas complaints orders reminiscencesmdasheven hispersonal letters to his wife and children Most if not all of these records are inthe archives of Columbia University and the Library of Congress and providerich sources for a Pulitzer biographer
He died in 1911 at age sixty-four His World survived him by nineteenyears His Post-Dispatch still exists and flourishes Among his other legacies arethe annual Pulitzer Prizes the Columbia University School of Journalismmdashand the fountain in front of Manhattanrsquos Plaza Hotel
Pulitzerrsquos son Joseph Jr said that ldquoa flame of integrity was extinguished atthe death of my father but its light will always radiate to newspapermen of con-science everywhererdquo
More recently Arthur Krock of the New York Times wrote ldquoJoseph Pulitzerhad a shining personal character humility in possession of power and compas-sion for the unfortunate He hated cant sham injustice and corruption andwas incapable of any of these He was one of the few gifted with both humorand a sense of consecrationrdquo
His plea at a political convention in 1875 is still strikingly apposite over125 years later ldquoThe growth of money power in this country has been fabulousand its connections with and interest in the Government [are] alarming Letus never have a Government in Washington owing its retention to the power ofthe millionaires rather than to the will of the millionsrdquo
The evidence suggests that the restless pain-racked nerve-racked disease-riddenmdashand perhaps manic-depressivemdashgenius was the Einstein ShakespeareChurchill of journalists and is still the greatest newspaper editor of all time atleast in the English-speaking world
Joseph Pulitzer and His ldquoIndegoddampendentrdquo World 3
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 3
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 4
PULITZER
ffirsqxd 73001 909 AM Page i
Also by Denis Brian
Murderers and Other Friendly People The Publicand Private Worlds of Interviewers
The Enchanted Voyage The Life of J B Rhine
The True Gen An Intimate Portrait of Ernest Hemingwayby Those Who Knew Him
Fair Game What Biographers Donrsquot Tell You
Genius Talk Conversations with Nobel Scientistsand Other Luminaries
Einstein A Life
ffirsqxd 73001 909AM Pageii
PULITZER
A Life
Denis Brian
John Wiley amp Sons IncNew York bull Chichester bull Weinheim bull Brisbane bull Singapore bull Toronto
ffirsqxd 73001 909AM Pageiii
Copyright copy 2001 by Denis Brian All rights reserved
Published by John Wiley amp Sons Inc
No part of this publication may be reproduced stored in a retrieval system or transmit-ted in any form or by any means electronic mechanical photocopying recordingscanning or otherwise except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976United States Copyright Act without either the prior written permission of the Pub-lisher or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copy-right Clearance Center 222 Rosewood Drive Danvers MA 01923 (978) 750-8400 fax(978) 750-4744 Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to thePermissions Department John Wiley amp Sons Inc 605 Third Avenue New York NY10158-0012 (212) 850-6011 fax (212) 850-6008 email PERMREQWILEYCOM
This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information inregard to the subject matter covered It is sold with the understanding that the publisheris not engaged in rendering professional services If professional advice or other expertassistance is required the services of a competent professional person should be sought
This title is also available in print as ISBN 0-471-33200-3Some content that appears in the print version of this book may not be available in thiselectronic version
For more information about Wiley products visit our web site at wwwWileycom
To Martine Danielle Alex and Emma with love
And to The Project on Government Oversight (POGO) of WashingtonDC a nonpartisan nonprofit organization of which my daughterDanielle is the executive director Since 1981 it has worked toinvestigate expose and remedy abuses of power mismanagementand subservience to powerful special interests by the federalgovernment POGOrsquos goal is to improve the way the governmentworks by revealing examples of systemic problems offering solutionsand initiating change Pulitzer would have loved POGO
ffirsqxd 73001 909 AM Page v
ffirsqxd 73001 909 AM Page vi
vii
Contents
Acknowledgments ixIntroduction Joseph Pulitzer and His ldquoIndegoddampendentrdquo World 1
1 The Fighting Immigrant 5
2 Upright Spirited and Dangerous 15
3 Survives Fire and Marries 21
4 Buys St Louis Post-Dispatch 31
5 President Garfield Assassinated 40
6 Jesse James ldquoShot Like a Dogrdquo 51
7 Pulitzer Takes Over the World 63
8 Puts a Democrat in the White House 79
9 Saves Statue of Liberty 97
10 Haymarket Square Massacre 110
11 Nellie Bly Goes Crazy 120
12 Tries to Save His Sight 133
13 ldquoAn Instrument of Justice a Terror to Crimerdquo 139
14 Nellie Bly Races around the World 144
15 Running the World by Remote Control 158
16 Pulitzerrsquos ldquoSatanic Journalismrdquo 169
17 Prevents War between the United States and Britain 184
18 Fighting Crime and William Randolph Hearst 196
19 War Fever 213
20 Americans at War in Cuba 226
21 For the Boers against the British 244
22 ldquoAccuracy Accuracy Accuracyrdquo 252
ftocqxd 73001 911 AM Page vii
23 President McKinley Assassinated 266
24 ldquoFind a Man Who Gets Drunk and Hire Himrdquo 275
25 Euphemisms for Abortion 282
26 Breaking In Frank Cobb 288
27 Unmasking Corrupt Insurance Companies 299
28 ldquoI Liked the Way He Sworerdquo 310
29 Protesting Jingo Agitation 322
30 Secret Double Life of Rockefellerrsquos Father 331
31 Roosevelt Tries to Send Pulitzer to Prison 343
32 ldquoThe Big Man of All American Newspapersrdquo 350
33 Roosevelt Seeks Revenge 359
34 Victory 370
35 The Last Days 383
36 The Aftermath 391
Notes 397 Bibliography 419Index 423
viii Contents
ftocqxd 73001 911 AM Page viii
ix
Acknowledgments
The following invaluable sources left their firsthand impressions of JosephPulitzer John Heaton Don Carlos Seitz Dr George Hosmer James BarnesAlleyne Ireland George Cary Eggleston Norman Thwaites Walt McDougallNellie Bly James Creelman George St Johns Harold Pollard and Charles EChapin Chapin a former Evening World city editor who idolized Pulitzercomposed his memoir in a Sing Sing prison cell where he was serving a lifesentence for killing his wife in a failed double suicide attempt
Also of great help were William Robinson Reynoldsrsquos PhD thesis onPulitzer Allen Churchillrsquos Park Row W A Swanbergrsquos Pulitzer and his CitizenHearst James Wyman Barrettrsquos Joseph Pulitzer and His World George Juer-gensrsquos Joseph Pulitzer and the New York World Daniel W Pfaffrsquos Joseph PulitzerII and the Post-Dispatch A Newspapermanrsquos Life Brooke Kroegerrsquos Nellie BlyDaredevil Reporter Feminist Joyce Miltonrsquos The Yellow Kids John WinklerrsquosWilliam Randolph Hearst David Nasawrsquos The Chief The Life of William Ran-dolph Hearst the St Louis Post-Dispatch the New York World the New YorkJournal the New York Sun the New York Times James V Maloney corporatesecretary for Pulitzer Inc and the extensive Pulitzer archives at ColumbiaUniversity and the Library of Congress
Many thanks to John Gable Executive Director Theodore Roosevelt Asso-ciation Sylvia Jukes Morris Ann Morris Director Western Historical Manu-script Collection University of Missouri Dorothy Dyer Curator Bar HarborHistorical Society Ross MacTaggart Motor Yacht Historian Jill Radel Museumof Yachting Newport RI
My wife Martine worked with me enthusiastically on every aspect of thebook and her advice critical acumen and penchant for le mot juste enhancedthe finished product enormously
My editor Hane Lane gave wise and welcome suggestions persuaded methat less is more and was patient and encouraging
flastqxd 73001 913 AM Page ix
flastqxd 73001 913 AM Page x
1
i n t r o d u c t i o n
Joseph Pulitzer and HisldquoIndegoddampendentrdquo World
Every issue of the paper presents an opportunity and a duty to say somethingcourageous and true to rise above the mediocre and conventional to saysomething that will command the respect of the intelligent the educated theindependent part of the community to rise above fear of partisanship and fearof popular prejudice
mdashJoseph Pulitzer
Always fight for progress and reform never tolerate injustice or corruption always fight demagogues of all parties never belong to any party always opposeprivileged classes and public plunder never lack sympathy for the poor alwaysremain devoted to the public welfare never be satisfied with merely printing thenews always be drastically independent never be afraid to attack wrong whetherby predatory plutocracy or predatory poverty
mdashJoseph Pulitzer
A t eighteen Joseph Pulitzer a penniless gangling Hungarian emigrant re-cruited in Europe to fight in the Civil War threw himself from the ship
bringing him to the United States and swam ashore to collect the bounty hethought should come to him and not to his recruiter He fought in the UnionArmy and after the war while working at various menial jobs taught himselfenough English to become a lawyer a US congressman a superb journalistand eventually the multimillionaire owner of two great American newspapersthe St Louis Post-Dispatch and the New York World At its peak in the late1890s the World had a million daily readers
Always a hands-on owner Pulitzer focused on his high-minded informedand intelligent editorials
One of his early editors John Cockerill who often handled the newspages defined news as ldquoany hitherto unprinted occurrence which involves the
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 1
violation of any one of the Ten Commandments and if it involves a fracture ofthe Vth VIth VIIth VIIIth or IX Commandments and by those people whosenames people have heard and in whose doings they are specifically interestedby knowledge of their official and social position then it is great newsrdquo
Perhaps this explains why the World had a mass audiencePulitzer however insisted that ldquoSensationalism as generally understood is
to be avoided Cheap crimes are not to be seized upon to play up A sensationalstory that is worth featuring is to be pushed to the limit But no fakingrdquo
He told World reporter James Creelman ldquoI want to attack anything that iswrong in public service the police department or elsewhere I believe in thepaper being a moral teacher of what is right and what is wrong It must takepart I should turn in my grave if the paper sat on a fence The paper shouldnot run the government or make tariffs but it should lead public opinionrdquo
And lead it did Pulitzerrsquos influence became so great that he elected a pres-identmdashClevelandmdashprevented a war between the United States and Britain ex-posed and cleaned up corrupt insurance companies surpassed Theodore Roo-sevelt in trust-busting and outsmarted banker J P Morgan for the financialgood of the country Without Pulitzer there would be no Statue of Liberty Hesuccessfully fought slumlords crooked police and shady politicians Even hismost ferocious rival William Randolph Hearst acknowledged that Pulitzer wasldquoa mighty democratic force in the life of the nationrdquo and ldquoa towering figure innational and international journalismrdquo
One of Pulitzerrsquos less known achievements was to create a new way ofswearing that caught on such as his assertion that his World was ldquoindegod-dampendentrdquo That he invented it was confirmed by American language expertH L Mencken and is ldquoabsobloodylutelyrdquo part of todayrsquos talk and known asan ldquoinfixrdquo
A contemporary called him the most interesting man on the planet andthe Texas Newspaper Union ldquothe greatest journalist on earthrdquo To his friendHenry Watterson editor of the Louisville Courier-Journal Pulitzerrsquos life readldquolike a story out of the books of giants goblins and fairiesrdquo Theodore Rooseveltonce praised the World as ldquomagnificent and strongrdquo and called its editorial pageldquothe finest in the countryrdquomdashuntil Pulitzer called Roosevelt a liar in his effort tocover up the bribery and corruption involved in buying the land for thePanama Canal Then Roosevelt sued him for criminal libel and tried to sendhim to prisonmdashan episode the ex-president failed to mention in his memoirs
But there was a time when Pulitzer betrayed his high principles For sev-eral months before and during the Spanish American War he engaged in afrantic attempt to outsell William Randolph Hearstrsquos New York Journal whichearned both men disrepute as purveyors of the sensational ldquoyellow pressrdquo As avisiting English newspaperman saw it theirs seemed like ldquoa contest of madmenfor the primacy of the sewerrdquo
2 Pulitzer
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 2
After the war Pulitzer bitterly regretted the exaggerations rumors and out-right lies his paper had printed and redirected the World to regain its formerglowing reputation as a great newspapermdashwhich it did
He was a blind invalid for the last twenty-two years of his lifemdashand so sen-sitive to noise that he traveled in a soundproofed yachtmdashbut he remained inactive control of the World relying on a group of secretaries to keep him in-formed and to write out his ideas complaints orders reminiscencesmdasheven hispersonal letters to his wife and children Most if not all of these records are inthe archives of Columbia University and the Library of Congress and providerich sources for a Pulitzer biographer
He died in 1911 at age sixty-four His World survived him by nineteenyears His Post-Dispatch still exists and flourishes Among his other legacies arethe annual Pulitzer Prizes the Columbia University School of Journalismmdashand the fountain in front of Manhattanrsquos Plaza Hotel
Pulitzerrsquos son Joseph Jr said that ldquoa flame of integrity was extinguished atthe death of my father but its light will always radiate to newspapermen of con-science everywhererdquo
More recently Arthur Krock of the New York Times wrote ldquoJoseph Pulitzerhad a shining personal character humility in possession of power and compas-sion for the unfortunate He hated cant sham injustice and corruption andwas incapable of any of these He was one of the few gifted with both humorand a sense of consecrationrdquo
His plea at a political convention in 1875 is still strikingly apposite over125 years later ldquoThe growth of money power in this country has been fabulousand its connections with and interest in the Government [are] alarming Letus never have a Government in Washington owing its retention to the power ofthe millionaires rather than to the will of the millionsrdquo
The evidence suggests that the restless pain-racked nerve-racked disease-riddenmdashand perhaps manic-depressivemdashgenius was the Einstein ShakespeareChurchill of journalists and is still the greatest newspaper editor of all time atleast in the English-speaking world
Joseph Pulitzer and His ldquoIndegoddampendentrdquo World 3
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 3
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 4
Also by Denis Brian
Murderers and Other Friendly People The Publicand Private Worlds of Interviewers
The Enchanted Voyage The Life of J B Rhine
The True Gen An Intimate Portrait of Ernest Hemingwayby Those Who Knew Him
Fair Game What Biographers Donrsquot Tell You
Genius Talk Conversations with Nobel Scientistsand Other Luminaries
Einstein A Life
ffirsqxd 73001 909AM Pageii
PULITZER
A Life
Denis Brian
John Wiley amp Sons IncNew York bull Chichester bull Weinheim bull Brisbane bull Singapore bull Toronto
ffirsqxd 73001 909AM Pageiii
Copyright copy 2001 by Denis Brian All rights reserved
Published by John Wiley amp Sons Inc
No part of this publication may be reproduced stored in a retrieval system or transmit-ted in any form or by any means electronic mechanical photocopying recordingscanning or otherwise except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976United States Copyright Act without either the prior written permission of the Pub-lisher or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copy-right Clearance Center 222 Rosewood Drive Danvers MA 01923 (978) 750-8400 fax(978) 750-4744 Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to thePermissions Department John Wiley amp Sons Inc 605 Third Avenue New York NY10158-0012 (212) 850-6011 fax (212) 850-6008 email PERMREQWILEYCOM
This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information inregard to the subject matter covered It is sold with the understanding that the publisheris not engaged in rendering professional services If professional advice or other expertassistance is required the services of a competent professional person should be sought
This title is also available in print as ISBN 0-471-33200-3Some content that appears in the print version of this book may not be available in thiselectronic version
For more information about Wiley products visit our web site at wwwWileycom
To Martine Danielle Alex and Emma with love
And to The Project on Government Oversight (POGO) of WashingtonDC a nonpartisan nonprofit organization of which my daughterDanielle is the executive director Since 1981 it has worked toinvestigate expose and remedy abuses of power mismanagementand subservience to powerful special interests by the federalgovernment POGOrsquos goal is to improve the way the governmentworks by revealing examples of systemic problems offering solutionsand initiating change Pulitzer would have loved POGO
ffirsqxd 73001 909 AM Page v
ffirsqxd 73001 909 AM Page vi
vii
Contents
Acknowledgments ixIntroduction Joseph Pulitzer and His ldquoIndegoddampendentrdquo World 1
1 The Fighting Immigrant 5
2 Upright Spirited and Dangerous 15
3 Survives Fire and Marries 21
4 Buys St Louis Post-Dispatch 31
5 President Garfield Assassinated 40
6 Jesse James ldquoShot Like a Dogrdquo 51
7 Pulitzer Takes Over the World 63
8 Puts a Democrat in the White House 79
9 Saves Statue of Liberty 97
10 Haymarket Square Massacre 110
11 Nellie Bly Goes Crazy 120
12 Tries to Save His Sight 133
13 ldquoAn Instrument of Justice a Terror to Crimerdquo 139
14 Nellie Bly Races around the World 144
15 Running the World by Remote Control 158
16 Pulitzerrsquos ldquoSatanic Journalismrdquo 169
17 Prevents War between the United States and Britain 184
18 Fighting Crime and William Randolph Hearst 196
19 War Fever 213
20 Americans at War in Cuba 226
21 For the Boers against the British 244
22 ldquoAccuracy Accuracy Accuracyrdquo 252
ftocqxd 73001 911 AM Page vii
23 President McKinley Assassinated 266
24 ldquoFind a Man Who Gets Drunk and Hire Himrdquo 275
25 Euphemisms for Abortion 282
26 Breaking In Frank Cobb 288
27 Unmasking Corrupt Insurance Companies 299
28 ldquoI Liked the Way He Sworerdquo 310
29 Protesting Jingo Agitation 322
30 Secret Double Life of Rockefellerrsquos Father 331
31 Roosevelt Tries to Send Pulitzer to Prison 343
32 ldquoThe Big Man of All American Newspapersrdquo 350
33 Roosevelt Seeks Revenge 359
34 Victory 370
35 The Last Days 383
36 The Aftermath 391
Notes 397 Bibliography 419Index 423
viii Contents
ftocqxd 73001 911 AM Page viii
ix
Acknowledgments
The following invaluable sources left their firsthand impressions of JosephPulitzer John Heaton Don Carlos Seitz Dr George Hosmer James BarnesAlleyne Ireland George Cary Eggleston Norman Thwaites Walt McDougallNellie Bly James Creelman George St Johns Harold Pollard and Charles EChapin Chapin a former Evening World city editor who idolized Pulitzercomposed his memoir in a Sing Sing prison cell where he was serving a lifesentence for killing his wife in a failed double suicide attempt
Also of great help were William Robinson Reynoldsrsquos PhD thesis onPulitzer Allen Churchillrsquos Park Row W A Swanbergrsquos Pulitzer and his CitizenHearst James Wyman Barrettrsquos Joseph Pulitzer and His World George Juer-gensrsquos Joseph Pulitzer and the New York World Daniel W Pfaffrsquos Joseph PulitzerII and the Post-Dispatch A Newspapermanrsquos Life Brooke Kroegerrsquos Nellie BlyDaredevil Reporter Feminist Joyce Miltonrsquos The Yellow Kids John WinklerrsquosWilliam Randolph Hearst David Nasawrsquos The Chief The Life of William Ran-dolph Hearst the St Louis Post-Dispatch the New York World the New YorkJournal the New York Sun the New York Times James V Maloney corporatesecretary for Pulitzer Inc and the extensive Pulitzer archives at ColumbiaUniversity and the Library of Congress
Many thanks to John Gable Executive Director Theodore Roosevelt Asso-ciation Sylvia Jukes Morris Ann Morris Director Western Historical Manu-script Collection University of Missouri Dorothy Dyer Curator Bar HarborHistorical Society Ross MacTaggart Motor Yacht Historian Jill Radel Museumof Yachting Newport RI
My wife Martine worked with me enthusiastically on every aspect of thebook and her advice critical acumen and penchant for le mot juste enhancedthe finished product enormously
My editor Hane Lane gave wise and welcome suggestions persuaded methat less is more and was patient and encouraging
flastqxd 73001 913 AM Page ix
flastqxd 73001 913 AM Page x
1
i n t r o d u c t i o n
Joseph Pulitzer and HisldquoIndegoddampendentrdquo World
Every issue of the paper presents an opportunity and a duty to say somethingcourageous and true to rise above the mediocre and conventional to saysomething that will command the respect of the intelligent the educated theindependent part of the community to rise above fear of partisanship and fearof popular prejudice
mdashJoseph Pulitzer
Always fight for progress and reform never tolerate injustice or corruption always fight demagogues of all parties never belong to any party always opposeprivileged classes and public plunder never lack sympathy for the poor alwaysremain devoted to the public welfare never be satisfied with merely printing thenews always be drastically independent never be afraid to attack wrong whetherby predatory plutocracy or predatory poverty
mdashJoseph Pulitzer
A t eighteen Joseph Pulitzer a penniless gangling Hungarian emigrant re-cruited in Europe to fight in the Civil War threw himself from the ship
bringing him to the United States and swam ashore to collect the bounty hethought should come to him and not to his recruiter He fought in the UnionArmy and after the war while working at various menial jobs taught himselfenough English to become a lawyer a US congressman a superb journalistand eventually the multimillionaire owner of two great American newspapersthe St Louis Post-Dispatch and the New York World At its peak in the late1890s the World had a million daily readers
Always a hands-on owner Pulitzer focused on his high-minded informedand intelligent editorials
One of his early editors John Cockerill who often handled the newspages defined news as ldquoany hitherto unprinted occurrence which involves the
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 1
violation of any one of the Ten Commandments and if it involves a fracture ofthe Vth VIth VIIth VIIIth or IX Commandments and by those people whosenames people have heard and in whose doings they are specifically interestedby knowledge of their official and social position then it is great newsrdquo
Perhaps this explains why the World had a mass audiencePulitzer however insisted that ldquoSensationalism as generally understood is
to be avoided Cheap crimes are not to be seized upon to play up A sensationalstory that is worth featuring is to be pushed to the limit But no fakingrdquo
He told World reporter James Creelman ldquoI want to attack anything that iswrong in public service the police department or elsewhere I believe in thepaper being a moral teacher of what is right and what is wrong It must takepart I should turn in my grave if the paper sat on a fence The paper shouldnot run the government or make tariffs but it should lead public opinionrdquo
And lead it did Pulitzerrsquos influence became so great that he elected a pres-identmdashClevelandmdashprevented a war between the United States and Britain ex-posed and cleaned up corrupt insurance companies surpassed Theodore Roo-sevelt in trust-busting and outsmarted banker J P Morgan for the financialgood of the country Without Pulitzer there would be no Statue of Liberty Hesuccessfully fought slumlords crooked police and shady politicians Even hismost ferocious rival William Randolph Hearst acknowledged that Pulitzer wasldquoa mighty democratic force in the life of the nationrdquo and ldquoa towering figure innational and international journalismrdquo
One of Pulitzerrsquos less known achievements was to create a new way ofswearing that caught on such as his assertion that his World was ldquoindegod-dampendentrdquo That he invented it was confirmed by American language expertH L Mencken and is ldquoabsobloodylutelyrdquo part of todayrsquos talk and known asan ldquoinfixrdquo
A contemporary called him the most interesting man on the planet andthe Texas Newspaper Union ldquothe greatest journalist on earthrdquo To his friendHenry Watterson editor of the Louisville Courier-Journal Pulitzerrsquos life readldquolike a story out of the books of giants goblins and fairiesrdquo Theodore Rooseveltonce praised the World as ldquomagnificent and strongrdquo and called its editorial pageldquothe finest in the countryrdquomdashuntil Pulitzer called Roosevelt a liar in his effort tocover up the bribery and corruption involved in buying the land for thePanama Canal Then Roosevelt sued him for criminal libel and tried to sendhim to prisonmdashan episode the ex-president failed to mention in his memoirs
But there was a time when Pulitzer betrayed his high principles For sev-eral months before and during the Spanish American War he engaged in afrantic attempt to outsell William Randolph Hearstrsquos New York Journal whichearned both men disrepute as purveyors of the sensational ldquoyellow pressrdquo As avisiting English newspaperman saw it theirs seemed like ldquoa contest of madmenfor the primacy of the sewerrdquo
2 Pulitzer
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 2
After the war Pulitzer bitterly regretted the exaggerations rumors and out-right lies his paper had printed and redirected the World to regain its formerglowing reputation as a great newspapermdashwhich it did
He was a blind invalid for the last twenty-two years of his lifemdashand so sen-sitive to noise that he traveled in a soundproofed yachtmdashbut he remained inactive control of the World relying on a group of secretaries to keep him in-formed and to write out his ideas complaints orders reminiscencesmdasheven hispersonal letters to his wife and children Most if not all of these records are inthe archives of Columbia University and the Library of Congress and providerich sources for a Pulitzer biographer
He died in 1911 at age sixty-four His World survived him by nineteenyears His Post-Dispatch still exists and flourishes Among his other legacies arethe annual Pulitzer Prizes the Columbia University School of Journalismmdashand the fountain in front of Manhattanrsquos Plaza Hotel
Pulitzerrsquos son Joseph Jr said that ldquoa flame of integrity was extinguished atthe death of my father but its light will always radiate to newspapermen of con-science everywhererdquo
More recently Arthur Krock of the New York Times wrote ldquoJoseph Pulitzerhad a shining personal character humility in possession of power and compas-sion for the unfortunate He hated cant sham injustice and corruption andwas incapable of any of these He was one of the few gifted with both humorand a sense of consecrationrdquo
His plea at a political convention in 1875 is still strikingly apposite over125 years later ldquoThe growth of money power in this country has been fabulousand its connections with and interest in the Government [are] alarming Letus never have a Government in Washington owing its retention to the power ofthe millionaires rather than to the will of the millionsrdquo
The evidence suggests that the restless pain-racked nerve-racked disease-riddenmdashand perhaps manic-depressivemdashgenius was the Einstein ShakespeareChurchill of journalists and is still the greatest newspaper editor of all time atleast in the English-speaking world
Joseph Pulitzer and His ldquoIndegoddampendentrdquo World 3
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 3
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 4
PULITZER
A Life
Denis Brian
John Wiley amp Sons IncNew York bull Chichester bull Weinheim bull Brisbane bull Singapore bull Toronto
ffirsqxd 73001 909AM Pageiii
Copyright copy 2001 by Denis Brian All rights reserved
Published by John Wiley amp Sons Inc
No part of this publication may be reproduced stored in a retrieval system or transmit-ted in any form or by any means electronic mechanical photocopying recordingscanning or otherwise except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976United States Copyright Act without either the prior written permission of the Pub-lisher or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copy-right Clearance Center 222 Rosewood Drive Danvers MA 01923 (978) 750-8400 fax(978) 750-4744 Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to thePermissions Department John Wiley amp Sons Inc 605 Third Avenue New York NY10158-0012 (212) 850-6011 fax (212) 850-6008 email PERMREQWILEYCOM
This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information inregard to the subject matter covered It is sold with the understanding that the publisheris not engaged in rendering professional services If professional advice or other expertassistance is required the services of a competent professional person should be sought
This title is also available in print as ISBN 0-471-33200-3Some content that appears in the print version of this book may not be available in thiselectronic version
For more information about Wiley products visit our web site at wwwWileycom
To Martine Danielle Alex and Emma with love
And to The Project on Government Oversight (POGO) of WashingtonDC a nonpartisan nonprofit organization of which my daughterDanielle is the executive director Since 1981 it has worked toinvestigate expose and remedy abuses of power mismanagementand subservience to powerful special interests by the federalgovernment POGOrsquos goal is to improve the way the governmentworks by revealing examples of systemic problems offering solutionsand initiating change Pulitzer would have loved POGO
ffirsqxd 73001 909 AM Page v
ffirsqxd 73001 909 AM Page vi
vii
Contents
Acknowledgments ixIntroduction Joseph Pulitzer and His ldquoIndegoddampendentrdquo World 1
1 The Fighting Immigrant 5
2 Upright Spirited and Dangerous 15
3 Survives Fire and Marries 21
4 Buys St Louis Post-Dispatch 31
5 President Garfield Assassinated 40
6 Jesse James ldquoShot Like a Dogrdquo 51
7 Pulitzer Takes Over the World 63
8 Puts a Democrat in the White House 79
9 Saves Statue of Liberty 97
10 Haymarket Square Massacre 110
11 Nellie Bly Goes Crazy 120
12 Tries to Save His Sight 133
13 ldquoAn Instrument of Justice a Terror to Crimerdquo 139
14 Nellie Bly Races around the World 144
15 Running the World by Remote Control 158
16 Pulitzerrsquos ldquoSatanic Journalismrdquo 169
17 Prevents War between the United States and Britain 184
18 Fighting Crime and William Randolph Hearst 196
19 War Fever 213
20 Americans at War in Cuba 226
21 For the Boers against the British 244
22 ldquoAccuracy Accuracy Accuracyrdquo 252
ftocqxd 73001 911 AM Page vii
23 President McKinley Assassinated 266
24 ldquoFind a Man Who Gets Drunk and Hire Himrdquo 275
25 Euphemisms for Abortion 282
26 Breaking In Frank Cobb 288
27 Unmasking Corrupt Insurance Companies 299
28 ldquoI Liked the Way He Sworerdquo 310
29 Protesting Jingo Agitation 322
30 Secret Double Life of Rockefellerrsquos Father 331
31 Roosevelt Tries to Send Pulitzer to Prison 343
32 ldquoThe Big Man of All American Newspapersrdquo 350
33 Roosevelt Seeks Revenge 359
34 Victory 370
35 The Last Days 383
36 The Aftermath 391
Notes 397 Bibliography 419Index 423
viii Contents
ftocqxd 73001 911 AM Page viii
ix
Acknowledgments
The following invaluable sources left their firsthand impressions of JosephPulitzer John Heaton Don Carlos Seitz Dr George Hosmer James BarnesAlleyne Ireland George Cary Eggleston Norman Thwaites Walt McDougallNellie Bly James Creelman George St Johns Harold Pollard and Charles EChapin Chapin a former Evening World city editor who idolized Pulitzercomposed his memoir in a Sing Sing prison cell where he was serving a lifesentence for killing his wife in a failed double suicide attempt
Also of great help were William Robinson Reynoldsrsquos PhD thesis onPulitzer Allen Churchillrsquos Park Row W A Swanbergrsquos Pulitzer and his CitizenHearst James Wyman Barrettrsquos Joseph Pulitzer and His World George Juer-gensrsquos Joseph Pulitzer and the New York World Daniel W Pfaffrsquos Joseph PulitzerII and the Post-Dispatch A Newspapermanrsquos Life Brooke Kroegerrsquos Nellie BlyDaredevil Reporter Feminist Joyce Miltonrsquos The Yellow Kids John WinklerrsquosWilliam Randolph Hearst David Nasawrsquos The Chief The Life of William Ran-dolph Hearst the St Louis Post-Dispatch the New York World the New YorkJournal the New York Sun the New York Times James V Maloney corporatesecretary for Pulitzer Inc and the extensive Pulitzer archives at ColumbiaUniversity and the Library of Congress
Many thanks to John Gable Executive Director Theodore Roosevelt Asso-ciation Sylvia Jukes Morris Ann Morris Director Western Historical Manu-script Collection University of Missouri Dorothy Dyer Curator Bar HarborHistorical Society Ross MacTaggart Motor Yacht Historian Jill Radel Museumof Yachting Newport RI
My wife Martine worked with me enthusiastically on every aspect of thebook and her advice critical acumen and penchant for le mot juste enhancedthe finished product enormously
My editor Hane Lane gave wise and welcome suggestions persuaded methat less is more and was patient and encouraging
flastqxd 73001 913 AM Page ix
flastqxd 73001 913 AM Page x
1
i n t r o d u c t i o n
Joseph Pulitzer and HisldquoIndegoddampendentrdquo World
Every issue of the paper presents an opportunity and a duty to say somethingcourageous and true to rise above the mediocre and conventional to saysomething that will command the respect of the intelligent the educated theindependent part of the community to rise above fear of partisanship and fearof popular prejudice
mdashJoseph Pulitzer
Always fight for progress and reform never tolerate injustice or corruption always fight demagogues of all parties never belong to any party always opposeprivileged classes and public plunder never lack sympathy for the poor alwaysremain devoted to the public welfare never be satisfied with merely printing thenews always be drastically independent never be afraid to attack wrong whetherby predatory plutocracy or predatory poverty
mdashJoseph Pulitzer
A t eighteen Joseph Pulitzer a penniless gangling Hungarian emigrant re-cruited in Europe to fight in the Civil War threw himself from the ship
bringing him to the United States and swam ashore to collect the bounty hethought should come to him and not to his recruiter He fought in the UnionArmy and after the war while working at various menial jobs taught himselfenough English to become a lawyer a US congressman a superb journalistand eventually the multimillionaire owner of two great American newspapersthe St Louis Post-Dispatch and the New York World At its peak in the late1890s the World had a million daily readers
Always a hands-on owner Pulitzer focused on his high-minded informedand intelligent editorials
One of his early editors John Cockerill who often handled the newspages defined news as ldquoany hitherto unprinted occurrence which involves the
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 1
violation of any one of the Ten Commandments and if it involves a fracture ofthe Vth VIth VIIth VIIIth or IX Commandments and by those people whosenames people have heard and in whose doings they are specifically interestedby knowledge of their official and social position then it is great newsrdquo
Perhaps this explains why the World had a mass audiencePulitzer however insisted that ldquoSensationalism as generally understood is
to be avoided Cheap crimes are not to be seized upon to play up A sensationalstory that is worth featuring is to be pushed to the limit But no fakingrdquo
He told World reporter James Creelman ldquoI want to attack anything that iswrong in public service the police department or elsewhere I believe in thepaper being a moral teacher of what is right and what is wrong It must takepart I should turn in my grave if the paper sat on a fence The paper shouldnot run the government or make tariffs but it should lead public opinionrdquo
And lead it did Pulitzerrsquos influence became so great that he elected a pres-identmdashClevelandmdashprevented a war between the United States and Britain ex-posed and cleaned up corrupt insurance companies surpassed Theodore Roo-sevelt in trust-busting and outsmarted banker J P Morgan for the financialgood of the country Without Pulitzer there would be no Statue of Liberty Hesuccessfully fought slumlords crooked police and shady politicians Even hismost ferocious rival William Randolph Hearst acknowledged that Pulitzer wasldquoa mighty democratic force in the life of the nationrdquo and ldquoa towering figure innational and international journalismrdquo
One of Pulitzerrsquos less known achievements was to create a new way ofswearing that caught on such as his assertion that his World was ldquoindegod-dampendentrdquo That he invented it was confirmed by American language expertH L Mencken and is ldquoabsobloodylutelyrdquo part of todayrsquos talk and known asan ldquoinfixrdquo
A contemporary called him the most interesting man on the planet andthe Texas Newspaper Union ldquothe greatest journalist on earthrdquo To his friendHenry Watterson editor of the Louisville Courier-Journal Pulitzerrsquos life readldquolike a story out of the books of giants goblins and fairiesrdquo Theodore Rooseveltonce praised the World as ldquomagnificent and strongrdquo and called its editorial pageldquothe finest in the countryrdquomdashuntil Pulitzer called Roosevelt a liar in his effort tocover up the bribery and corruption involved in buying the land for thePanama Canal Then Roosevelt sued him for criminal libel and tried to sendhim to prisonmdashan episode the ex-president failed to mention in his memoirs
But there was a time when Pulitzer betrayed his high principles For sev-eral months before and during the Spanish American War he engaged in afrantic attempt to outsell William Randolph Hearstrsquos New York Journal whichearned both men disrepute as purveyors of the sensational ldquoyellow pressrdquo As avisiting English newspaperman saw it theirs seemed like ldquoa contest of madmenfor the primacy of the sewerrdquo
2 Pulitzer
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 2
After the war Pulitzer bitterly regretted the exaggerations rumors and out-right lies his paper had printed and redirected the World to regain its formerglowing reputation as a great newspapermdashwhich it did
He was a blind invalid for the last twenty-two years of his lifemdashand so sen-sitive to noise that he traveled in a soundproofed yachtmdashbut he remained inactive control of the World relying on a group of secretaries to keep him in-formed and to write out his ideas complaints orders reminiscencesmdasheven hispersonal letters to his wife and children Most if not all of these records are inthe archives of Columbia University and the Library of Congress and providerich sources for a Pulitzer biographer
He died in 1911 at age sixty-four His World survived him by nineteenyears His Post-Dispatch still exists and flourishes Among his other legacies arethe annual Pulitzer Prizes the Columbia University School of Journalismmdashand the fountain in front of Manhattanrsquos Plaza Hotel
Pulitzerrsquos son Joseph Jr said that ldquoa flame of integrity was extinguished atthe death of my father but its light will always radiate to newspapermen of con-science everywhererdquo
More recently Arthur Krock of the New York Times wrote ldquoJoseph Pulitzerhad a shining personal character humility in possession of power and compas-sion for the unfortunate He hated cant sham injustice and corruption andwas incapable of any of these He was one of the few gifted with both humorand a sense of consecrationrdquo
His plea at a political convention in 1875 is still strikingly apposite over125 years later ldquoThe growth of money power in this country has been fabulousand its connections with and interest in the Government [are] alarming Letus never have a Government in Washington owing its retention to the power ofthe millionaires rather than to the will of the millionsrdquo
The evidence suggests that the restless pain-racked nerve-racked disease-riddenmdashand perhaps manic-depressivemdashgenius was the Einstein ShakespeareChurchill of journalists and is still the greatest newspaper editor of all time atleast in the English-speaking world
Joseph Pulitzer and His ldquoIndegoddampendentrdquo World 3
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 3
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 4
Copyright copy 2001 by Denis Brian All rights reserved
Published by John Wiley amp Sons Inc
No part of this publication may be reproduced stored in a retrieval system or transmit-ted in any form or by any means electronic mechanical photocopying recordingscanning or otherwise except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976United States Copyright Act without either the prior written permission of the Pub-lisher or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copy-right Clearance Center 222 Rosewood Drive Danvers MA 01923 (978) 750-8400 fax(978) 750-4744 Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to thePermissions Department John Wiley amp Sons Inc 605 Third Avenue New York NY10158-0012 (212) 850-6011 fax (212) 850-6008 email PERMREQWILEYCOM
This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information inregard to the subject matter covered It is sold with the understanding that the publisheris not engaged in rendering professional services If professional advice or other expertassistance is required the services of a competent professional person should be sought
This title is also available in print as ISBN 0-471-33200-3Some content that appears in the print version of this book may not be available in thiselectronic version
For more information about Wiley products visit our web site at wwwWileycom
To Martine Danielle Alex and Emma with love
And to The Project on Government Oversight (POGO) of WashingtonDC a nonpartisan nonprofit organization of which my daughterDanielle is the executive director Since 1981 it has worked toinvestigate expose and remedy abuses of power mismanagementand subservience to powerful special interests by the federalgovernment POGOrsquos goal is to improve the way the governmentworks by revealing examples of systemic problems offering solutionsand initiating change Pulitzer would have loved POGO
ffirsqxd 73001 909 AM Page v
ffirsqxd 73001 909 AM Page vi
vii
Contents
Acknowledgments ixIntroduction Joseph Pulitzer and His ldquoIndegoddampendentrdquo World 1
1 The Fighting Immigrant 5
2 Upright Spirited and Dangerous 15
3 Survives Fire and Marries 21
4 Buys St Louis Post-Dispatch 31
5 President Garfield Assassinated 40
6 Jesse James ldquoShot Like a Dogrdquo 51
7 Pulitzer Takes Over the World 63
8 Puts a Democrat in the White House 79
9 Saves Statue of Liberty 97
10 Haymarket Square Massacre 110
11 Nellie Bly Goes Crazy 120
12 Tries to Save His Sight 133
13 ldquoAn Instrument of Justice a Terror to Crimerdquo 139
14 Nellie Bly Races around the World 144
15 Running the World by Remote Control 158
16 Pulitzerrsquos ldquoSatanic Journalismrdquo 169
17 Prevents War between the United States and Britain 184
18 Fighting Crime and William Randolph Hearst 196
19 War Fever 213
20 Americans at War in Cuba 226
21 For the Boers against the British 244
22 ldquoAccuracy Accuracy Accuracyrdquo 252
ftocqxd 73001 911 AM Page vii
23 President McKinley Assassinated 266
24 ldquoFind a Man Who Gets Drunk and Hire Himrdquo 275
25 Euphemisms for Abortion 282
26 Breaking In Frank Cobb 288
27 Unmasking Corrupt Insurance Companies 299
28 ldquoI Liked the Way He Sworerdquo 310
29 Protesting Jingo Agitation 322
30 Secret Double Life of Rockefellerrsquos Father 331
31 Roosevelt Tries to Send Pulitzer to Prison 343
32 ldquoThe Big Man of All American Newspapersrdquo 350
33 Roosevelt Seeks Revenge 359
34 Victory 370
35 The Last Days 383
36 The Aftermath 391
Notes 397 Bibliography 419Index 423
viii Contents
ftocqxd 73001 911 AM Page viii
ix
Acknowledgments
The following invaluable sources left their firsthand impressions of JosephPulitzer John Heaton Don Carlos Seitz Dr George Hosmer James BarnesAlleyne Ireland George Cary Eggleston Norman Thwaites Walt McDougallNellie Bly James Creelman George St Johns Harold Pollard and Charles EChapin Chapin a former Evening World city editor who idolized Pulitzercomposed his memoir in a Sing Sing prison cell where he was serving a lifesentence for killing his wife in a failed double suicide attempt
Also of great help were William Robinson Reynoldsrsquos PhD thesis onPulitzer Allen Churchillrsquos Park Row W A Swanbergrsquos Pulitzer and his CitizenHearst James Wyman Barrettrsquos Joseph Pulitzer and His World George Juer-gensrsquos Joseph Pulitzer and the New York World Daniel W Pfaffrsquos Joseph PulitzerII and the Post-Dispatch A Newspapermanrsquos Life Brooke Kroegerrsquos Nellie BlyDaredevil Reporter Feminist Joyce Miltonrsquos The Yellow Kids John WinklerrsquosWilliam Randolph Hearst David Nasawrsquos The Chief The Life of William Ran-dolph Hearst the St Louis Post-Dispatch the New York World the New YorkJournal the New York Sun the New York Times James V Maloney corporatesecretary for Pulitzer Inc and the extensive Pulitzer archives at ColumbiaUniversity and the Library of Congress
Many thanks to John Gable Executive Director Theodore Roosevelt Asso-ciation Sylvia Jukes Morris Ann Morris Director Western Historical Manu-script Collection University of Missouri Dorothy Dyer Curator Bar HarborHistorical Society Ross MacTaggart Motor Yacht Historian Jill Radel Museumof Yachting Newport RI
My wife Martine worked with me enthusiastically on every aspect of thebook and her advice critical acumen and penchant for le mot juste enhancedthe finished product enormously
My editor Hane Lane gave wise and welcome suggestions persuaded methat less is more and was patient and encouraging
flastqxd 73001 913 AM Page ix
flastqxd 73001 913 AM Page x
1
i n t r o d u c t i o n
Joseph Pulitzer and HisldquoIndegoddampendentrdquo World
Every issue of the paper presents an opportunity and a duty to say somethingcourageous and true to rise above the mediocre and conventional to saysomething that will command the respect of the intelligent the educated theindependent part of the community to rise above fear of partisanship and fearof popular prejudice
mdashJoseph Pulitzer
Always fight for progress and reform never tolerate injustice or corruption always fight demagogues of all parties never belong to any party always opposeprivileged classes and public plunder never lack sympathy for the poor alwaysremain devoted to the public welfare never be satisfied with merely printing thenews always be drastically independent never be afraid to attack wrong whetherby predatory plutocracy or predatory poverty
mdashJoseph Pulitzer
A t eighteen Joseph Pulitzer a penniless gangling Hungarian emigrant re-cruited in Europe to fight in the Civil War threw himself from the ship
bringing him to the United States and swam ashore to collect the bounty hethought should come to him and not to his recruiter He fought in the UnionArmy and after the war while working at various menial jobs taught himselfenough English to become a lawyer a US congressman a superb journalistand eventually the multimillionaire owner of two great American newspapersthe St Louis Post-Dispatch and the New York World At its peak in the late1890s the World had a million daily readers
Always a hands-on owner Pulitzer focused on his high-minded informedand intelligent editorials
One of his early editors John Cockerill who often handled the newspages defined news as ldquoany hitherto unprinted occurrence which involves the
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 1
violation of any one of the Ten Commandments and if it involves a fracture ofthe Vth VIth VIIth VIIIth or IX Commandments and by those people whosenames people have heard and in whose doings they are specifically interestedby knowledge of their official and social position then it is great newsrdquo
Perhaps this explains why the World had a mass audiencePulitzer however insisted that ldquoSensationalism as generally understood is
to be avoided Cheap crimes are not to be seized upon to play up A sensationalstory that is worth featuring is to be pushed to the limit But no fakingrdquo
He told World reporter James Creelman ldquoI want to attack anything that iswrong in public service the police department or elsewhere I believe in thepaper being a moral teacher of what is right and what is wrong It must takepart I should turn in my grave if the paper sat on a fence The paper shouldnot run the government or make tariffs but it should lead public opinionrdquo
And lead it did Pulitzerrsquos influence became so great that he elected a pres-identmdashClevelandmdashprevented a war between the United States and Britain ex-posed and cleaned up corrupt insurance companies surpassed Theodore Roo-sevelt in trust-busting and outsmarted banker J P Morgan for the financialgood of the country Without Pulitzer there would be no Statue of Liberty Hesuccessfully fought slumlords crooked police and shady politicians Even hismost ferocious rival William Randolph Hearst acknowledged that Pulitzer wasldquoa mighty democratic force in the life of the nationrdquo and ldquoa towering figure innational and international journalismrdquo
One of Pulitzerrsquos less known achievements was to create a new way ofswearing that caught on such as his assertion that his World was ldquoindegod-dampendentrdquo That he invented it was confirmed by American language expertH L Mencken and is ldquoabsobloodylutelyrdquo part of todayrsquos talk and known asan ldquoinfixrdquo
A contemporary called him the most interesting man on the planet andthe Texas Newspaper Union ldquothe greatest journalist on earthrdquo To his friendHenry Watterson editor of the Louisville Courier-Journal Pulitzerrsquos life readldquolike a story out of the books of giants goblins and fairiesrdquo Theodore Rooseveltonce praised the World as ldquomagnificent and strongrdquo and called its editorial pageldquothe finest in the countryrdquomdashuntil Pulitzer called Roosevelt a liar in his effort tocover up the bribery and corruption involved in buying the land for thePanama Canal Then Roosevelt sued him for criminal libel and tried to sendhim to prisonmdashan episode the ex-president failed to mention in his memoirs
But there was a time when Pulitzer betrayed his high principles For sev-eral months before and during the Spanish American War he engaged in afrantic attempt to outsell William Randolph Hearstrsquos New York Journal whichearned both men disrepute as purveyors of the sensational ldquoyellow pressrdquo As avisiting English newspaperman saw it theirs seemed like ldquoa contest of madmenfor the primacy of the sewerrdquo
2 Pulitzer
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 2
After the war Pulitzer bitterly regretted the exaggerations rumors and out-right lies his paper had printed and redirected the World to regain its formerglowing reputation as a great newspapermdashwhich it did
He was a blind invalid for the last twenty-two years of his lifemdashand so sen-sitive to noise that he traveled in a soundproofed yachtmdashbut he remained inactive control of the World relying on a group of secretaries to keep him in-formed and to write out his ideas complaints orders reminiscencesmdasheven hispersonal letters to his wife and children Most if not all of these records are inthe archives of Columbia University and the Library of Congress and providerich sources for a Pulitzer biographer
He died in 1911 at age sixty-four His World survived him by nineteenyears His Post-Dispatch still exists and flourishes Among his other legacies arethe annual Pulitzer Prizes the Columbia University School of Journalismmdashand the fountain in front of Manhattanrsquos Plaza Hotel
Pulitzerrsquos son Joseph Jr said that ldquoa flame of integrity was extinguished atthe death of my father but its light will always radiate to newspapermen of con-science everywhererdquo
More recently Arthur Krock of the New York Times wrote ldquoJoseph Pulitzerhad a shining personal character humility in possession of power and compas-sion for the unfortunate He hated cant sham injustice and corruption andwas incapable of any of these He was one of the few gifted with both humorand a sense of consecrationrdquo
His plea at a political convention in 1875 is still strikingly apposite over125 years later ldquoThe growth of money power in this country has been fabulousand its connections with and interest in the Government [are] alarming Letus never have a Government in Washington owing its retention to the power ofthe millionaires rather than to the will of the millionsrdquo
The evidence suggests that the restless pain-racked nerve-racked disease-riddenmdashand perhaps manic-depressivemdashgenius was the Einstein ShakespeareChurchill of journalists and is still the greatest newspaper editor of all time atleast in the English-speaking world
Joseph Pulitzer and His ldquoIndegoddampendentrdquo World 3
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 3
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 4
To Martine Danielle Alex and Emma with love
And to The Project on Government Oversight (POGO) of WashingtonDC a nonpartisan nonprofit organization of which my daughterDanielle is the executive director Since 1981 it has worked toinvestigate expose and remedy abuses of power mismanagementand subservience to powerful special interests by the federalgovernment POGOrsquos goal is to improve the way the governmentworks by revealing examples of systemic problems offering solutionsand initiating change Pulitzer would have loved POGO
ffirsqxd 73001 909 AM Page v
ffirsqxd 73001 909 AM Page vi
vii
Contents
Acknowledgments ixIntroduction Joseph Pulitzer and His ldquoIndegoddampendentrdquo World 1
1 The Fighting Immigrant 5
2 Upright Spirited and Dangerous 15
3 Survives Fire and Marries 21
4 Buys St Louis Post-Dispatch 31
5 President Garfield Assassinated 40
6 Jesse James ldquoShot Like a Dogrdquo 51
7 Pulitzer Takes Over the World 63
8 Puts a Democrat in the White House 79
9 Saves Statue of Liberty 97
10 Haymarket Square Massacre 110
11 Nellie Bly Goes Crazy 120
12 Tries to Save His Sight 133
13 ldquoAn Instrument of Justice a Terror to Crimerdquo 139
14 Nellie Bly Races around the World 144
15 Running the World by Remote Control 158
16 Pulitzerrsquos ldquoSatanic Journalismrdquo 169
17 Prevents War between the United States and Britain 184
18 Fighting Crime and William Randolph Hearst 196
19 War Fever 213
20 Americans at War in Cuba 226
21 For the Boers against the British 244
22 ldquoAccuracy Accuracy Accuracyrdquo 252
ftocqxd 73001 911 AM Page vii
23 President McKinley Assassinated 266
24 ldquoFind a Man Who Gets Drunk and Hire Himrdquo 275
25 Euphemisms for Abortion 282
26 Breaking In Frank Cobb 288
27 Unmasking Corrupt Insurance Companies 299
28 ldquoI Liked the Way He Sworerdquo 310
29 Protesting Jingo Agitation 322
30 Secret Double Life of Rockefellerrsquos Father 331
31 Roosevelt Tries to Send Pulitzer to Prison 343
32 ldquoThe Big Man of All American Newspapersrdquo 350
33 Roosevelt Seeks Revenge 359
34 Victory 370
35 The Last Days 383
36 The Aftermath 391
Notes 397 Bibliography 419Index 423
viii Contents
ftocqxd 73001 911 AM Page viii
ix
Acknowledgments
The following invaluable sources left their firsthand impressions of JosephPulitzer John Heaton Don Carlos Seitz Dr George Hosmer James BarnesAlleyne Ireland George Cary Eggleston Norman Thwaites Walt McDougallNellie Bly James Creelman George St Johns Harold Pollard and Charles EChapin Chapin a former Evening World city editor who idolized Pulitzercomposed his memoir in a Sing Sing prison cell where he was serving a lifesentence for killing his wife in a failed double suicide attempt
Also of great help were William Robinson Reynoldsrsquos PhD thesis onPulitzer Allen Churchillrsquos Park Row W A Swanbergrsquos Pulitzer and his CitizenHearst James Wyman Barrettrsquos Joseph Pulitzer and His World George Juer-gensrsquos Joseph Pulitzer and the New York World Daniel W Pfaffrsquos Joseph PulitzerII and the Post-Dispatch A Newspapermanrsquos Life Brooke Kroegerrsquos Nellie BlyDaredevil Reporter Feminist Joyce Miltonrsquos The Yellow Kids John WinklerrsquosWilliam Randolph Hearst David Nasawrsquos The Chief The Life of William Ran-dolph Hearst the St Louis Post-Dispatch the New York World the New YorkJournal the New York Sun the New York Times James V Maloney corporatesecretary for Pulitzer Inc and the extensive Pulitzer archives at ColumbiaUniversity and the Library of Congress
Many thanks to John Gable Executive Director Theodore Roosevelt Asso-ciation Sylvia Jukes Morris Ann Morris Director Western Historical Manu-script Collection University of Missouri Dorothy Dyer Curator Bar HarborHistorical Society Ross MacTaggart Motor Yacht Historian Jill Radel Museumof Yachting Newport RI
My wife Martine worked with me enthusiastically on every aspect of thebook and her advice critical acumen and penchant for le mot juste enhancedthe finished product enormously
My editor Hane Lane gave wise and welcome suggestions persuaded methat less is more and was patient and encouraging
flastqxd 73001 913 AM Page ix
flastqxd 73001 913 AM Page x
1
i n t r o d u c t i o n
Joseph Pulitzer and HisldquoIndegoddampendentrdquo World
Every issue of the paper presents an opportunity and a duty to say somethingcourageous and true to rise above the mediocre and conventional to saysomething that will command the respect of the intelligent the educated theindependent part of the community to rise above fear of partisanship and fearof popular prejudice
mdashJoseph Pulitzer
Always fight for progress and reform never tolerate injustice or corruption always fight demagogues of all parties never belong to any party always opposeprivileged classes and public plunder never lack sympathy for the poor alwaysremain devoted to the public welfare never be satisfied with merely printing thenews always be drastically independent never be afraid to attack wrong whetherby predatory plutocracy or predatory poverty
mdashJoseph Pulitzer
A t eighteen Joseph Pulitzer a penniless gangling Hungarian emigrant re-cruited in Europe to fight in the Civil War threw himself from the ship
bringing him to the United States and swam ashore to collect the bounty hethought should come to him and not to his recruiter He fought in the UnionArmy and after the war while working at various menial jobs taught himselfenough English to become a lawyer a US congressman a superb journalistand eventually the multimillionaire owner of two great American newspapersthe St Louis Post-Dispatch and the New York World At its peak in the late1890s the World had a million daily readers
Always a hands-on owner Pulitzer focused on his high-minded informedand intelligent editorials
One of his early editors John Cockerill who often handled the newspages defined news as ldquoany hitherto unprinted occurrence which involves the
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 1
violation of any one of the Ten Commandments and if it involves a fracture ofthe Vth VIth VIIth VIIIth or IX Commandments and by those people whosenames people have heard and in whose doings they are specifically interestedby knowledge of their official and social position then it is great newsrdquo
Perhaps this explains why the World had a mass audiencePulitzer however insisted that ldquoSensationalism as generally understood is
to be avoided Cheap crimes are not to be seized upon to play up A sensationalstory that is worth featuring is to be pushed to the limit But no fakingrdquo
He told World reporter James Creelman ldquoI want to attack anything that iswrong in public service the police department or elsewhere I believe in thepaper being a moral teacher of what is right and what is wrong It must takepart I should turn in my grave if the paper sat on a fence The paper shouldnot run the government or make tariffs but it should lead public opinionrdquo
And lead it did Pulitzerrsquos influence became so great that he elected a pres-identmdashClevelandmdashprevented a war between the United States and Britain ex-posed and cleaned up corrupt insurance companies surpassed Theodore Roo-sevelt in trust-busting and outsmarted banker J P Morgan for the financialgood of the country Without Pulitzer there would be no Statue of Liberty Hesuccessfully fought slumlords crooked police and shady politicians Even hismost ferocious rival William Randolph Hearst acknowledged that Pulitzer wasldquoa mighty democratic force in the life of the nationrdquo and ldquoa towering figure innational and international journalismrdquo
One of Pulitzerrsquos less known achievements was to create a new way ofswearing that caught on such as his assertion that his World was ldquoindegod-dampendentrdquo That he invented it was confirmed by American language expertH L Mencken and is ldquoabsobloodylutelyrdquo part of todayrsquos talk and known asan ldquoinfixrdquo
A contemporary called him the most interesting man on the planet andthe Texas Newspaper Union ldquothe greatest journalist on earthrdquo To his friendHenry Watterson editor of the Louisville Courier-Journal Pulitzerrsquos life readldquolike a story out of the books of giants goblins and fairiesrdquo Theodore Rooseveltonce praised the World as ldquomagnificent and strongrdquo and called its editorial pageldquothe finest in the countryrdquomdashuntil Pulitzer called Roosevelt a liar in his effort tocover up the bribery and corruption involved in buying the land for thePanama Canal Then Roosevelt sued him for criminal libel and tried to sendhim to prisonmdashan episode the ex-president failed to mention in his memoirs
But there was a time when Pulitzer betrayed his high principles For sev-eral months before and during the Spanish American War he engaged in afrantic attempt to outsell William Randolph Hearstrsquos New York Journal whichearned both men disrepute as purveyors of the sensational ldquoyellow pressrdquo As avisiting English newspaperman saw it theirs seemed like ldquoa contest of madmenfor the primacy of the sewerrdquo
2 Pulitzer
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 2
After the war Pulitzer bitterly regretted the exaggerations rumors and out-right lies his paper had printed and redirected the World to regain its formerglowing reputation as a great newspapermdashwhich it did
He was a blind invalid for the last twenty-two years of his lifemdashand so sen-sitive to noise that he traveled in a soundproofed yachtmdashbut he remained inactive control of the World relying on a group of secretaries to keep him in-formed and to write out his ideas complaints orders reminiscencesmdasheven hispersonal letters to his wife and children Most if not all of these records are inthe archives of Columbia University and the Library of Congress and providerich sources for a Pulitzer biographer
He died in 1911 at age sixty-four His World survived him by nineteenyears His Post-Dispatch still exists and flourishes Among his other legacies arethe annual Pulitzer Prizes the Columbia University School of Journalismmdashand the fountain in front of Manhattanrsquos Plaza Hotel
Pulitzerrsquos son Joseph Jr said that ldquoa flame of integrity was extinguished atthe death of my father but its light will always radiate to newspapermen of con-science everywhererdquo
More recently Arthur Krock of the New York Times wrote ldquoJoseph Pulitzerhad a shining personal character humility in possession of power and compas-sion for the unfortunate He hated cant sham injustice and corruption andwas incapable of any of these He was one of the few gifted with both humorand a sense of consecrationrdquo
His plea at a political convention in 1875 is still strikingly apposite over125 years later ldquoThe growth of money power in this country has been fabulousand its connections with and interest in the Government [are] alarming Letus never have a Government in Washington owing its retention to the power ofthe millionaires rather than to the will of the millionsrdquo
The evidence suggests that the restless pain-racked nerve-racked disease-riddenmdashand perhaps manic-depressivemdashgenius was the Einstein ShakespeareChurchill of journalists and is still the greatest newspaper editor of all time atleast in the English-speaking world
Joseph Pulitzer and His ldquoIndegoddampendentrdquo World 3
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 3
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 4
ffirsqxd 73001 909 AM Page vi
vii
Contents
Acknowledgments ixIntroduction Joseph Pulitzer and His ldquoIndegoddampendentrdquo World 1
1 The Fighting Immigrant 5
2 Upright Spirited and Dangerous 15
3 Survives Fire and Marries 21
4 Buys St Louis Post-Dispatch 31
5 President Garfield Assassinated 40
6 Jesse James ldquoShot Like a Dogrdquo 51
7 Pulitzer Takes Over the World 63
8 Puts a Democrat in the White House 79
9 Saves Statue of Liberty 97
10 Haymarket Square Massacre 110
11 Nellie Bly Goes Crazy 120
12 Tries to Save His Sight 133
13 ldquoAn Instrument of Justice a Terror to Crimerdquo 139
14 Nellie Bly Races around the World 144
15 Running the World by Remote Control 158
16 Pulitzerrsquos ldquoSatanic Journalismrdquo 169
17 Prevents War between the United States and Britain 184
18 Fighting Crime and William Randolph Hearst 196
19 War Fever 213
20 Americans at War in Cuba 226
21 For the Boers against the British 244
22 ldquoAccuracy Accuracy Accuracyrdquo 252
ftocqxd 73001 911 AM Page vii
23 President McKinley Assassinated 266
24 ldquoFind a Man Who Gets Drunk and Hire Himrdquo 275
25 Euphemisms for Abortion 282
26 Breaking In Frank Cobb 288
27 Unmasking Corrupt Insurance Companies 299
28 ldquoI Liked the Way He Sworerdquo 310
29 Protesting Jingo Agitation 322
30 Secret Double Life of Rockefellerrsquos Father 331
31 Roosevelt Tries to Send Pulitzer to Prison 343
32 ldquoThe Big Man of All American Newspapersrdquo 350
33 Roosevelt Seeks Revenge 359
34 Victory 370
35 The Last Days 383
36 The Aftermath 391
Notes 397 Bibliography 419Index 423
viii Contents
ftocqxd 73001 911 AM Page viii
ix
Acknowledgments
The following invaluable sources left their firsthand impressions of JosephPulitzer John Heaton Don Carlos Seitz Dr George Hosmer James BarnesAlleyne Ireland George Cary Eggleston Norman Thwaites Walt McDougallNellie Bly James Creelman George St Johns Harold Pollard and Charles EChapin Chapin a former Evening World city editor who idolized Pulitzercomposed his memoir in a Sing Sing prison cell where he was serving a lifesentence for killing his wife in a failed double suicide attempt
Also of great help were William Robinson Reynoldsrsquos PhD thesis onPulitzer Allen Churchillrsquos Park Row W A Swanbergrsquos Pulitzer and his CitizenHearst James Wyman Barrettrsquos Joseph Pulitzer and His World George Juer-gensrsquos Joseph Pulitzer and the New York World Daniel W Pfaffrsquos Joseph PulitzerII and the Post-Dispatch A Newspapermanrsquos Life Brooke Kroegerrsquos Nellie BlyDaredevil Reporter Feminist Joyce Miltonrsquos The Yellow Kids John WinklerrsquosWilliam Randolph Hearst David Nasawrsquos The Chief The Life of William Ran-dolph Hearst the St Louis Post-Dispatch the New York World the New YorkJournal the New York Sun the New York Times James V Maloney corporatesecretary for Pulitzer Inc and the extensive Pulitzer archives at ColumbiaUniversity and the Library of Congress
Many thanks to John Gable Executive Director Theodore Roosevelt Asso-ciation Sylvia Jukes Morris Ann Morris Director Western Historical Manu-script Collection University of Missouri Dorothy Dyer Curator Bar HarborHistorical Society Ross MacTaggart Motor Yacht Historian Jill Radel Museumof Yachting Newport RI
My wife Martine worked with me enthusiastically on every aspect of thebook and her advice critical acumen and penchant for le mot juste enhancedthe finished product enormously
My editor Hane Lane gave wise and welcome suggestions persuaded methat less is more and was patient and encouraging
flastqxd 73001 913 AM Page ix
flastqxd 73001 913 AM Page x
1
i n t r o d u c t i o n
Joseph Pulitzer and HisldquoIndegoddampendentrdquo World
Every issue of the paper presents an opportunity and a duty to say somethingcourageous and true to rise above the mediocre and conventional to saysomething that will command the respect of the intelligent the educated theindependent part of the community to rise above fear of partisanship and fearof popular prejudice
mdashJoseph Pulitzer
Always fight for progress and reform never tolerate injustice or corruption always fight demagogues of all parties never belong to any party always opposeprivileged classes and public plunder never lack sympathy for the poor alwaysremain devoted to the public welfare never be satisfied with merely printing thenews always be drastically independent never be afraid to attack wrong whetherby predatory plutocracy or predatory poverty
mdashJoseph Pulitzer
A t eighteen Joseph Pulitzer a penniless gangling Hungarian emigrant re-cruited in Europe to fight in the Civil War threw himself from the ship
bringing him to the United States and swam ashore to collect the bounty hethought should come to him and not to his recruiter He fought in the UnionArmy and after the war while working at various menial jobs taught himselfenough English to become a lawyer a US congressman a superb journalistand eventually the multimillionaire owner of two great American newspapersthe St Louis Post-Dispatch and the New York World At its peak in the late1890s the World had a million daily readers
Always a hands-on owner Pulitzer focused on his high-minded informedand intelligent editorials
One of his early editors John Cockerill who often handled the newspages defined news as ldquoany hitherto unprinted occurrence which involves the
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 1
violation of any one of the Ten Commandments and if it involves a fracture ofthe Vth VIth VIIth VIIIth or IX Commandments and by those people whosenames people have heard and in whose doings they are specifically interestedby knowledge of their official and social position then it is great newsrdquo
Perhaps this explains why the World had a mass audiencePulitzer however insisted that ldquoSensationalism as generally understood is
to be avoided Cheap crimes are not to be seized upon to play up A sensationalstory that is worth featuring is to be pushed to the limit But no fakingrdquo
He told World reporter James Creelman ldquoI want to attack anything that iswrong in public service the police department or elsewhere I believe in thepaper being a moral teacher of what is right and what is wrong It must takepart I should turn in my grave if the paper sat on a fence The paper shouldnot run the government or make tariffs but it should lead public opinionrdquo
And lead it did Pulitzerrsquos influence became so great that he elected a pres-identmdashClevelandmdashprevented a war between the United States and Britain ex-posed and cleaned up corrupt insurance companies surpassed Theodore Roo-sevelt in trust-busting and outsmarted banker J P Morgan for the financialgood of the country Without Pulitzer there would be no Statue of Liberty Hesuccessfully fought slumlords crooked police and shady politicians Even hismost ferocious rival William Randolph Hearst acknowledged that Pulitzer wasldquoa mighty democratic force in the life of the nationrdquo and ldquoa towering figure innational and international journalismrdquo
One of Pulitzerrsquos less known achievements was to create a new way ofswearing that caught on such as his assertion that his World was ldquoindegod-dampendentrdquo That he invented it was confirmed by American language expertH L Mencken and is ldquoabsobloodylutelyrdquo part of todayrsquos talk and known asan ldquoinfixrdquo
A contemporary called him the most interesting man on the planet andthe Texas Newspaper Union ldquothe greatest journalist on earthrdquo To his friendHenry Watterson editor of the Louisville Courier-Journal Pulitzerrsquos life readldquolike a story out of the books of giants goblins and fairiesrdquo Theodore Rooseveltonce praised the World as ldquomagnificent and strongrdquo and called its editorial pageldquothe finest in the countryrdquomdashuntil Pulitzer called Roosevelt a liar in his effort tocover up the bribery and corruption involved in buying the land for thePanama Canal Then Roosevelt sued him for criminal libel and tried to sendhim to prisonmdashan episode the ex-president failed to mention in his memoirs
But there was a time when Pulitzer betrayed his high principles For sev-eral months before and during the Spanish American War he engaged in afrantic attempt to outsell William Randolph Hearstrsquos New York Journal whichearned both men disrepute as purveyors of the sensational ldquoyellow pressrdquo As avisiting English newspaperman saw it theirs seemed like ldquoa contest of madmenfor the primacy of the sewerrdquo
2 Pulitzer
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 2
After the war Pulitzer bitterly regretted the exaggerations rumors and out-right lies his paper had printed and redirected the World to regain its formerglowing reputation as a great newspapermdashwhich it did
He was a blind invalid for the last twenty-two years of his lifemdashand so sen-sitive to noise that he traveled in a soundproofed yachtmdashbut he remained inactive control of the World relying on a group of secretaries to keep him in-formed and to write out his ideas complaints orders reminiscencesmdasheven hispersonal letters to his wife and children Most if not all of these records are inthe archives of Columbia University and the Library of Congress and providerich sources for a Pulitzer biographer
He died in 1911 at age sixty-four His World survived him by nineteenyears His Post-Dispatch still exists and flourishes Among his other legacies arethe annual Pulitzer Prizes the Columbia University School of Journalismmdashand the fountain in front of Manhattanrsquos Plaza Hotel
Pulitzerrsquos son Joseph Jr said that ldquoa flame of integrity was extinguished atthe death of my father but its light will always radiate to newspapermen of con-science everywhererdquo
More recently Arthur Krock of the New York Times wrote ldquoJoseph Pulitzerhad a shining personal character humility in possession of power and compas-sion for the unfortunate He hated cant sham injustice and corruption andwas incapable of any of these He was one of the few gifted with both humorand a sense of consecrationrdquo
His plea at a political convention in 1875 is still strikingly apposite over125 years later ldquoThe growth of money power in this country has been fabulousand its connections with and interest in the Government [are] alarming Letus never have a Government in Washington owing its retention to the power ofthe millionaires rather than to the will of the millionsrdquo
The evidence suggests that the restless pain-racked nerve-racked disease-riddenmdashand perhaps manic-depressivemdashgenius was the Einstein ShakespeareChurchill of journalists and is still the greatest newspaper editor of all time atleast in the English-speaking world
Joseph Pulitzer and His ldquoIndegoddampendentrdquo World 3
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 3
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 4
vii
Contents
Acknowledgments ixIntroduction Joseph Pulitzer and His ldquoIndegoddampendentrdquo World 1
1 The Fighting Immigrant 5
2 Upright Spirited and Dangerous 15
3 Survives Fire and Marries 21
4 Buys St Louis Post-Dispatch 31
5 President Garfield Assassinated 40
6 Jesse James ldquoShot Like a Dogrdquo 51
7 Pulitzer Takes Over the World 63
8 Puts a Democrat in the White House 79
9 Saves Statue of Liberty 97
10 Haymarket Square Massacre 110
11 Nellie Bly Goes Crazy 120
12 Tries to Save His Sight 133
13 ldquoAn Instrument of Justice a Terror to Crimerdquo 139
14 Nellie Bly Races around the World 144
15 Running the World by Remote Control 158
16 Pulitzerrsquos ldquoSatanic Journalismrdquo 169
17 Prevents War between the United States and Britain 184
18 Fighting Crime and William Randolph Hearst 196
19 War Fever 213
20 Americans at War in Cuba 226
21 For the Boers against the British 244
22 ldquoAccuracy Accuracy Accuracyrdquo 252
ftocqxd 73001 911 AM Page vii
23 President McKinley Assassinated 266
24 ldquoFind a Man Who Gets Drunk and Hire Himrdquo 275
25 Euphemisms for Abortion 282
26 Breaking In Frank Cobb 288
27 Unmasking Corrupt Insurance Companies 299
28 ldquoI Liked the Way He Sworerdquo 310
29 Protesting Jingo Agitation 322
30 Secret Double Life of Rockefellerrsquos Father 331
31 Roosevelt Tries to Send Pulitzer to Prison 343
32 ldquoThe Big Man of All American Newspapersrdquo 350
33 Roosevelt Seeks Revenge 359
34 Victory 370
35 The Last Days 383
36 The Aftermath 391
Notes 397 Bibliography 419Index 423
viii Contents
ftocqxd 73001 911 AM Page viii
ix
Acknowledgments
The following invaluable sources left their firsthand impressions of JosephPulitzer John Heaton Don Carlos Seitz Dr George Hosmer James BarnesAlleyne Ireland George Cary Eggleston Norman Thwaites Walt McDougallNellie Bly James Creelman George St Johns Harold Pollard and Charles EChapin Chapin a former Evening World city editor who idolized Pulitzercomposed his memoir in a Sing Sing prison cell where he was serving a lifesentence for killing his wife in a failed double suicide attempt
Also of great help were William Robinson Reynoldsrsquos PhD thesis onPulitzer Allen Churchillrsquos Park Row W A Swanbergrsquos Pulitzer and his CitizenHearst James Wyman Barrettrsquos Joseph Pulitzer and His World George Juer-gensrsquos Joseph Pulitzer and the New York World Daniel W Pfaffrsquos Joseph PulitzerII and the Post-Dispatch A Newspapermanrsquos Life Brooke Kroegerrsquos Nellie BlyDaredevil Reporter Feminist Joyce Miltonrsquos The Yellow Kids John WinklerrsquosWilliam Randolph Hearst David Nasawrsquos The Chief The Life of William Ran-dolph Hearst the St Louis Post-Dispatch the New York World the New YorkJournal the New York Sun the New York Times James V Maloney corporatesecretary for Pulitzer Inc and the extensive Pulitzer archives at ColumbiaUniversity and the Library of Congress
Many thanks to John Gable Executive Director Theodore Roosevelt Asso-ciation Sylvia Jukes Morris Ann Morris Director Western Historical Manu-script Collection University of Missouri Dorothy Dyer Curator Bar HarborHistorical Society Ross MacTaggart Motor Yacht Historian Jill Radel Museumof Yachting Newport RI
My wife Martine worked with me enthusiastically on every aspect of thebook and her advice critical acumen and penchant for le mot juste enhancedthe finished product enormously
My editor Hane Lane gave wise and welcome suggestions persuaded methat less is more and was patient and encouraging
flastqxd 73001 913 AM Page ix
flastqxd 73001 913 AM Page x
1
i n t r o d u c t i o n
Joseph Pulitzer and HisldquoIndegoddampendentrdquo World
Every issue of the paper presents an opportunity and a duty to say somethingcourageous and true to rise above the mediocre and conventional to saysomething that will command the respect of the intelligent the educated theindependent part of the community to rise above fear of partisanship and fearof popular prejudice
mdashJoseph Pulitzer
Always fight for progress and reform never tolerate injustice or corruption always fight demagogues of all parties never belong to any party always opposeprivileged classes and public plunder never lack sympathy for the poor alwaysremain devoted to the public welfare never be satisfied with merely printing thenews always be drastically independent never be afraid to attack wrong whetherby predatory plutocracy or predatory poverty
mdashJoseph Pulitzer
A t eighteen Joseph Pulitzer a penniless gangling Hungarian emigrant re-cruited in Europe to fight in the Civil War threw himself from the ship
bringing him to the United States and swam ashore to collect the bounty hethought should come to him and not to his recruiter He fought in the UnionArmy and after the war while working at various menial jobs taught himselfenough English to become a lawyer a US congressman a superb journalistand eventually the multimillionaire owner of two great American newspapersthe St Louis Post-Dispatch and the New York World At its peak in the late1890s the World had a million daily readers
Always a hands-on owner Pulitzer focused on his high-minded informedand intelligent editorials
One of his early editors John Cockerill who often handled the newspages defined news as ldquoany hitherto unprinted occurrence which involves the
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 1
violation of any one of the Ten Commandments and if it involves a fracture ofthe Vth VIth VIIth VIIIth or IX Commandments and by those people whosenames people have heard and in whose doings they are specifically interestedby knowledge of their official and social position then it is great newsrdquo
Perhaps this explains why the World had a mass audiencePulitzer however insisted that ldquoSensationalism as generally understood is
to be avoided Cheap crimes are not to be seized upon to play up A sensationalstory that is worth featuring is to be pushed to the limit But no fakingrdquo
He told World reporter James Creelman ldquoI want to attack anything that iswrong in public service the police department or elsewhere I believe in thepaper being a moral teacher of what is right and what is wrong It must takepart I should turn in my grave if the paper sat on a fence The paper shouldnot run the government or make tariffs but it should lead public opinionrdquo
And lead it did Pulitzerrsquos influence became so great that he elected a pres-identmdashClevelandmdashprevented a war between the United States and Britain ex-posed and cleaned up corrupt insurance companies surpassed Theodore Roo-sevelt in trust-busting and outsmarted banker J P Morgan for the financialgood of the country Without Pulitzer there would be no Statue of Liberty Hesuccessfully fought slumlords crooked police and shady politicians Even hismost ferocious rival William Randolph Hearst acknowledged that Pulitzer wasldquoa mighty democratic force in the life of the nationrdquo and ldquoa towering figure innational and international journalismrdquo
One of Pulitzerrsquos less known achievements was to create a new way ofswearing that caught on such as his assertion that his World was ldquoindegod-dampendentrdquo That he invented it was confirmed by American language expertH L Mencken and is ldquoabsobloodylutelyrdquo part of todayrsquos talk and known asan ldquoinfixrdquo
A contemporary called him the most interesting man on the planet andthe Texas Newspaper Union ldquothe greatest journalist on earthrdquo To his friendHenry Watterson editor of the Louisville Courier-Journal Pulitzerrsquos life readldquolike a story out of the books of giants goblins and fairiesrdquo Theodore Rooseveltonce praised the World as ldquomagnificent and strongrdquo and called its editorial pageldquothe finest in the countryrdquomdashuntil Pulitzer called Roosevelt a liar in his effort tocover up the bribery and corruption involved in buying the land for thePanama Canal Then Roosevelt sued him for criminal libel and tried to sendhim to prisonmdashan episode the ex-president failed to mention in his memoirs
But there was a time when Pulitzer betrayed his high principles For sev-eral months before and during the Spanish American War he engaged in afrantic attempt to outsell William Randolph Hearstrsquos New York Journal whichearned both men disrepute as purveyors of the sensational ldquoyellow pressrdquo As avisiting English newspaperman saw it theirs seemed like ldquoa contest of madmenfor the primacy of the sewerrdquo
2 Pulitzer
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 2
After the war Pulitzer bitterly regretted the exaggerations rumors and out-right lies his paper had printed and redirected the World to regain its formerglowing reputation as a great newspapermdashwhich it did
He was a blind invalid for the last twenty-two years of his lifemdashand so sen-sitive to noise that he traveled in a soundproofed yachtmdashbut he remained inactive control of the World relying on a group of secretaries to keep him in-formed and to write out his ideas complaints orders reminiscencesmdasheven hispersonal letters to his wife and children Most if not all of these records are inthe archives of Columbia University and the Library of Congress and providerich sources for a Pulitzer biographer
He died in 1911 at age sixty-four His World survived him by nineteenyears His Post-Dispatch still exists and flourishes Among his other legacies arethe annual Pulitzer Prizes the Columbia University School of Journalismmdashand the fountain in front of Manhattanrsquos Plaza Hotel
Pulitzerrsquos son Joseph Jr said that ldquoa flame of integrity was extinguished atthe death of my father but its light will always radiate to newspapermen of con-science everywhererdquo
More recently Arthur Krock of the New York Times wrote ldquoJoseph Pulitzerhad a shining personal character humility in possession of power and compas-sion for the unfortunate He hated cant sham injustice and corruption andwas incapable of any of these He was one of the few gifted with both humorand a sense of consecrationrdquo
His plea at a political convention in 1875 is still strikingly apposite over125 years later ldquoThe growth of money power in this country has been fabulousand its connections with and interest in the Government [are] alarming Letus never have a Government in Washington owing its retention to the power ofthe millionaires rather than to the will of the millionsrdquo
The evidence suggests that the restless pain-racked nerve-racked disease-riddenmdashand perhaps manic-depressivemdashgenius was the Einstein ShakespeareChurchill of journalists and is still the greatest newspaper editor of all time atleast in the English-speaking world
Joseph Pulitzer and His ldquoIndegoddampendentrdquo World 3
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 3
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 4
23 President McKinley Assassinated 266
24 ldquoFind a Man Who Gets Drunk and Hire Himrdquo 275
25 Euphemisms for Abortion 282
26 Breaking In Frank Cobb 288
27 Unmasking Corrupt Insurance Companies 299
28 ldquoI Liked the Way He Sworerdquo 310
29 Protesting Jingo Agitation 322
30 Secret Double Life of Rockefellerrsquos Father 331
31 Roosevelt Tries to Send Pulitzer to Prison 343
32 ldquoThe Big Man of All American Newspapersrdquo 350
33 Roosevelt Seeks Revenge 359
34 Victory 370
35 The Last Days 383
36 The Aftermath 391
Notes 397 Bibliography 419Index 423
viii Contents
ftocqxd 73001 911 AM Page viii
ix
Acknowledgments
The following invaluable sources left their firsthand impressions of JosephPulitzer John Heaton Don Carlos Seitz Dr George Hosmer James BarnesAlleyne Ireland George Cary Eggleston Norman Thwaites Walt McDougallNellie Bly James Creelman George St Johns Harold Pollard and Charles EChapin Chapin a former Evening World city editor who idolized Pulitzercomposed his memoir in a Sing Sing prison cell where he was serving a lifesentence for killing his wife in a failed double suicide attempt
Also of great help were William Robinson Reynoldsrsquos PhD thesis onPulitzer Allen Churchillrsquos Park Row W A Swanbergrsquos Pulitzer and his CitizenHearst James Wyman Barrettrsquos Joseph Pulitzer and His World George Juer-gensrsquos Joseph Pulitzer and the New York World Daniel W Pfaffrsquos Joseph PulitzerII and the Post-Dispatch A Newspapermanrsquos Life Brooke Kroegerrsquos Nellie BlyDaredevil Reporter Feminist Joyce Miltonrsquos The Yellow Kids John WinklerrsquosWilliam Randolph Hearst David Nasawrsquos The Chief The Life of William Ran-dolph Hearst the St Louis Post-Dispatch the New York World the New YorkJournal the New York Sun the New York Times James V Maloney corporatesecretary for Pulitzer Inc and the extensive Pulitzer archives at ColumbiaUniversity and the Library of Congress
Many thanks to John Gable Executive Director Theodore Roosevelt Asso-ciation Sylvia Jukes Morris Ann Morris Director Western Historical Manu-script Collection University of Missouri Dorothy Dyer Curator Bar HarborHistorical Society Ross MacTaggart Motor Yacht Historian Jill Radel Museumof Yachting Newport RI
My wife Martine worked with me enthusiastically on every aspect of thebook and her advice critical acumen and penchant for le mot juste enhancedthe finished product enormously
My editor Hane Lane gave wise and welcome suggestions persuaded methat less is more and was patient and encouraging
flastqxd 73001 913 AM Page ix
flastqxd 73001 913 AM Page x
1
i n t r o d u c t i o n
Joseph Pulitzer and HisldquoIndegoddampendentrdquo World
Every issue of the paper presents an opportunity and a duty to say somethingcourageous and true to rise above the mediocre and conventional to saysomething that will command the respect of the intelligent the educated theindependent part of the community to rise above fear of partisanship and fearof popular prejudice
mdashJoseph Pulitzer
Always fight for progress and reform never tolerate injustice or corruption always fight demagogues of all parties never belong to any party always opposeprivileged classes and public plunder never lack sympathy for the poor alwaysremain devoted to the public welfare never be satisfied with merely printing thenews always be drastically independent never be afraid to attack wrong whetherby predatory plutocracy or predatory poverty
mdashJoseph Pulitzer
A t eighteen Joseph Pulitzer a penniless gangling Hungarian emigrant re-cruited in Europe to fight in the Civil War threw himself from the ship
bringing him to the United States and swam ashore to collect the bounty hethought should come to him and not to his recruiter He fought in the UnionArmy and after the war while working at various menial jobs taught himselfenough English to become a lawyer a US congressman a superb journalistand eventually the multimillionaire owner of two great American newspapersthe St Louis Post-Dispatch and the New York World At its peak in the late1890s the World had a million daily readers
Always a hands-on owner Pulitzer focused on his high-minded informedand intelligent editorials
One of his early editors John Cockerill who often handled the newspages defined news as ldquoany hitherto unprinted occurrence which involves the
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 1
violation of any one of the Ten Commandments and if it involves a fracture ofthe Vth VIth VIIth VIIIth or IX Commandments and by those people whosenames people have heard and in whose doings they are specifically interestedby knowledge of their official and social position then it is great newsrdquo
Perhaps this explains why the World had a mass audiencePulitzer however insisted that ldquoSensationalism as generally understood is
to be avoided Cheap crimes are not to be seized upon to play up A sensationalstory that is worth featuring is to be pushed to the limit But no fakingrdquo
He told World reporter James Creelman ldquoI want to attack anything that iswrong in public service the police department or elsewhere I believe in thepaper being a moral teacher of what is right and what is wrong It must takepart I should turn in my grave if the paper sat on a fence The paper shouldnot run the government or make tariffs but it should lead public opinionrdquo
And lead it did Pulitzerrsquos influence became so great that he elected a pres-identmdashClevelandmdashprevented a war between the United States and Britain ex-posed and cleaned up corrupt insurance companies surpassed Theodore Roo-sevelt in trust-busting and outsmarted banker J P Morgan for the financialgood of the country Without Pulitzer there would be no Statue of Liberty Hesuccessfully fought slumlords crooked police and shady politicians Even hismost ferocious rival William Randolph Hearst acknowledged that Pulitzer wasldquoa mighty democratic force in the life of the nationrdquo and ldquoa towering figure innational and international journalismrdquo
One of Pulitzerrsquos less known achievements was to create a new way ofswearing that caught on such as his assertion that his World was ldquoindegod-dampendentrdquo That he invented it was confirmed by American language expertH L Mencken and is ldquoabsobloodylutelyrdquo part of todayrsquos talk and known asan ldquoinfixrdquo
A contemporary called him the most interesting man on the planet andthe Texas Newspaper Union ldquothe greatest journalist on earthrdquo To his friendHenry Watterson editor of the Louisville Courier-Journal Pulitzerrsquos life readldquolike a story out of the books of giants goblins and fairiesrdquo Theodore Rooseveltonce praised the World as ldquomagnificent and strongrdquo and called its editorial pageldquothe finest in the countryrdquomdashuntil Pulitzer called Roosevelt a liar in his effort tocover up the bribery and corruption involved in buying the land for thePanama Canal Then Roosevelt sued him for criminal libel and tried to sendhim to prisonmdashan episode the ex-president failed to mention in his memoirs
But there was a time when Pulitzer betrayed his high principles For sev-eral months before and during the Spanish American War he engaged in afrantic attempt to outsell William Randolph Hearstrsquos New York Journal whichearned both men disrepute as purveyors of the sensational ldquoyellow pressrdquo As avisiting English newspaperman saw it theirs seemed like ldquoa contest of madmenfor the primacy of the sewerrdquo
2 Pulitzer
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 2
After the war Pulitzer bitterly regretted the exaggerations rumors and out-right lies his paper had printed and redirected the World to regain its formerglowing reputation as a great newspapermdashwhich it did
He was a blind invalid for the last twenty-two years of his lifemdashand so sen-sitive to noise that he traveled in a soundproofed yachtmdashbut he remained inactive control of the World relying on a group of secretaries to keep him in-formed and to write out his ideas complaints orders reminiscencesmdasheven hispersonal letters to his wife and children Most if not all of these records are inthe archives of Columbia University and the Library of Congress and providerich sources for a Pulitzer biographer
He died in 1911 at age sixty-four His World survived him by nineteenyears His Post-Dispatch still exists and flourishes Among his other legacies arethe annual Pulitzer Prizes the Columbia University School of Journalismmdashand the fountain in front of Manhattanrsquos Plaza Hotel
Pulitzerrsquos son Joseph Jr said that ldquoa flame of integrity was extinguished atthe death of my father but its light will always radiate to newspapermen of con-science everywhererdquo
More recently Arthur Krock of the New York Times wrote ldquoJoseph Pulitzerhad a shining personal character humility in possession of power and compas-sion for the unfortunate He hated cant sham injustice and corruption andwas incapable of any of these He was one of the few gifted with both humorand a sense of consecrationrdquo
His plea at a political convention in 1875 is still strikingly apposite over125 years later ldquoThe growth of money power in this country has been fabulousand its connections with and interest in the Government [are] alarming Letus never have a Government in Washington owing its retention to the power ofthe millionaires rather than to the will of the millionsrdquo
The evidence suggests that the restless pain-racked nerve-racked disease-riddenmdashand perhaps manic-depressivemdashgenius was the Einstein ShakespeareChurchill of journalists and is still the greatest newspaper editor of all time atleast in the English-speaking world
Joseph Pulitzer and His ldquoIndegoddampendentrdquo World 3
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 3
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 4
ix
Acknowledgments
The following invaluable sources left their firsthand impressions of JosephPulitzer John Heaton Don Carlos Seitz Dr George Hosmer James BarnesAlleyne Ireland George Cary Eggleston Norman Thwaites Walt McDougallNellie Bly James Creelman George St Johns Harold Pollard and Charles EChapin Chapin a former Evening World city editor who idolized Pulitzercomposed his memoir in a Sing Sing prison cell where he was serving a lifesentence for killing his wife in a failed double suicide attempt
Also of great help were William Robinson Reynoldsrsquos PhD thesis onPulitzer Allen Churchillrsquos Park Row W A Swanbergrsquos Pulitzer and his CitizenHearst James Wyman Barrettrsquos Joseph Pulitzer and His World George Juer-gensrsquos Joseph Pulitzer and the New York World Daniel W Pfaffrsquos Joseph PulitzerII and the Post-Dispatch A Newspapermanrsquos Life Brooke Kroegerrsquos Nellie BlyDaredevil Reporter Feminist Joyce Miltonrsquos The Yellow Kids John WinklerrsquosWilliam Randolph Hearst David Nasawrsquos The Chief The Life of William Ran-dolph Hearst the St Louis Post-Dispatch the New York World the New YorkJournal the New York Sun the New York Times James V Maloney corporatesecretary for Pulitzer Inc and the extensive Pulitzer archives at ColumbiaUniversity and the Library of Congress
Many thanks to John Gable Executive Director Theodore Roosevelt Asso-ciation Sylvia Jukes Morris Ann Morris Director Western Historical Manu-script Collection University of Missouri Dorothy Dyer Curator Bar HarborHistorical Society Ross MacTaggart Motor Yacht Historian Jill Radel Museumof Yachting Newport RI
My wife Martine worked with me enthusiastically on every aspect of thebook and her advice critical acumen and penchant for le mot juste enhancedthe finished product enormously
My editor Hane Lane gave wise and welcome suggestions persuaded methat less is more and was patient and encouraging
flastqxd 73001 913 AM Page ix
flastqxd 73001 913 AM Page x
1
i n t r o d u c t i o n
Joseph Pulitzer and HisldquoIndegoddampendentrdquo World
Every issue of the paper presents an opportunity and a duty to say somethingcourageous and true to rise above the mediocre and conventional to saysomething that will command the respect of the intelligent the educated theindependent part of the community to rise above fear of partisanship and fearof popular prejudice
mdashJoseph Pulitzer
Always fight for progress and reform never tolerate injustice or corruption always fight demagogues of all parties never belong to any party always opposeprivileged classes and public plunder never lack sympathy for the poor alwaysremain devoted to the public welfare never be satisfied with merely printing thenews always be drastically independent never be afraid to attack wrong whetherby predatory plutocracy or predatory poverty
mdashJoseph Pulitzer
A t eighteen Joseph Pulitzer a penniless gangling Hungarian emigrant re-cruited in Europe to fight in the Civil War threw himself from the ship
bringing him to the United States and swam ashore to collect the bounty hethought should come to him and not to his recruiter He fought in the UnionArmy and after the war while working at various menial jobs taught himselfenough English to become a lawyer a US congressman a superb journalistand eventually the multimillionaire owner of two great American newspapersthe St Louis Post-Dispatch and the New York World At its peak in the late1890s the World had a million daily readers
Always a hands-on owner Pulitzer focused on his high-minded informedand intelligent editorials
One of his early editors John Cockerill who often handled the newspages defined news as ldquoany hitherto unprinted occurrence which involves the
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 1
violation of any one of the Ten Commandments and if it involves a fracture ofthe Vth VIth VIIth VIIIth or IX Commandments and by those people whosenames people have heard and in whose doings they are specifically interestedby knowledge of their official and social position then it is great newsrdquo
Perhaps this explains why the World had a mass audiencePulitzer however insisted that ldquoSensationalism as generally understood is
to be avoided Cheap crimes are not to be seized upon to play up A sensationalstory that is worth featuring is to be pushed to the limit But no fakingrdquo
He told World reporter James Creelman ldquoI want to attack anything that iswrong in public service the police department or elsewhere I believe in thepaper being a moral teacher of what is right and what is wrong It must takepart I should turn in my grave if the paper sat on a fence The paper shouldnot run the government or make tariffs but it should lead public opinionrdquo
And lead it did Pulitzerrsquos influence became so great that he elected a pres-identmdashClevelandmdashprevented a war between the United States and Britain ex-posed and cleaned up corrupt insurance companies surpassed Theodore Roo-sevelt in trust-busting and outsmarted banker J P Morgan for the financialgood of the country Without Pulitzer there would be no Statue of Liberty Hesuccessfully fought slumlords crooked police and shady politicians Even hismost ferocious rival William Randolph Hearst acknowledged that Pulitzer wasldquoa mighty democratic force in the life of the nationrdquo and ldquoa towering figure innational and international journalismrdquo
One of Pulitzerrsquos less known achievements was to create a new way ofswearing that caught on such as his assertion that his World was ldquoindegod-dampendentrdquo That he invented it was confirmed by American language expertH L Mencken and is ldquoabsobloodylutelyrdquo part of todayrsquos talk and known asan ldquoinfixrdquo
A contemporary called him the most interesting man on the planet andthe Texas Newspaper Union ldquothe greatest journalist on earthrdquo To his friendHenry Watterson editor of the Louisville Courier-Journal Pulitzerrsquos life readldquolike a story out of the books of giants goblins and fairiesrdquo Theodore Rooseveltonce praised the World as ldquomagnificent and strongrdquo and called its editorial pageldquothe finest in the countryrdquomdashuntil Pulitzer called Roosevelt a liar in his effort tocover up the bribery and corruption involved in buying the land for thePanama Canal Then Roosevelt sued him for criminal libel and tried to sendhim to prisonmdashan episode the ex-president failed to mention in his memoirs
But there was a time when Pulitzer betrayed his high principles For sev-eral months before and during the Spanish American War he engaged in afrantic attempt to outsell William Randolph Hearstrsquos New York Journal whichearned both men disrepute as purveyors of the sensational ldquoyellow pressrdquo As avisiting English newspaperman saw it theirs seemed like ldquoa contest of madmenfor the primacy of the sewerrdquo
2 Pulitzer
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 2
After the war Pulitzer bitterly regretted the exaggerations rumors and out-right lies his paper had printed and redirected the World to regain its formerglowing reputation as a great newspapermdashwhich it did
He was a blind invalid for the last twenty-two years of his lifemdashand so sen-sitive to noise that he traveled in a soundproofed yachtmdashbut he remained inactive control of the World relying on a group of secretaries to keep him in-formed and to write out his ideas complaints orders reminiscencesmdasheven hispersonal letters to his wife and children Most if not all of these records are inthe archives of Columbia University and the Library of Congress and providerich sources for a Pulitzer biographer
He died in 1911 at age sixty-four His World survived him by nineteenyears His Post-Dispatch still exists and flourishes Among his other legacies arethe annual Pulitzer Prizes the Columbia University School of Journalismmdashand the fountain in front of Manhattanrsquos Plaza Hotel
Pulitzerrsquos son Joseph Jr said that ldquoa flame of integrity was extinguished atthe death of my father but its light will always radiate to newspapermen of con-science everywhererdquo
More recently Arthur Krock of the New York Times wrote ldquoJoseph Pulitzerhad a shining personal character humility in possession of power and compas-sion for the unfortunate He hated cant sham injustice and corruption andwas incapable of any of these He was one of the few gifted with both humorand a sense of consecrationrdquo
His plea at a political convention in 1875 is still strikingly apposite over125 years later ldquoThe growth of money power in this country has been fabulousand its connections with and interest in the Government [are] alarming Letus never have a Government in Washington owing its retention to the power ofthe millionaires rather than to the will of the millionsrdquo
The evidence suggests that the restless pain-racked nerve-racked disease-riddenmdashand perhaps manic-depressivemdashgenius was the Einstein ShakespeareChurchill of journalists and is still the greatest newspaper editor of all time atleast in the English-speaking world
Joseph Pulitzer and His ldquoIndegoddampendentrdquo World 3
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 3
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 4
flastqxd 73001 913 AM Page x
1
i n t r o d u c t i o n
Joseph Pulitzer and HisldquoIndegoddampendentrdquo World
Every issue of the paper presents an opportunity and a duty to say somethingcourageous and true to rise above the mediocre and conventional to saysomething that will command the respect of the intelligent the educated theindependent part of the community to rise above fear of partisanship and fearof popular prejudice
mdashJoseph Pulitzer
Always fight for progress and reform never tolerate injustice or corruption always fight demagogues of all parties never belong to any party always opposeprivileged classes and public plunder never lack sympathy for the poor alwaysremain devoted to the public welfare never be satisfied with merely printing thenews always be drastically independent never be afraid to attack wrong whetherby predatory plutocracy or predatory poverty
mdashJoseph Pulitzer
A t eighteen Joseph Pulitzer a penniless gangling Hungarian emigrant re-cruited in Europe to fight in the Civil War threw himself from the ship
bringing him to the United States and swam ashore to collect the bounty hethought should come to him and not to his recruiter He fought in the UnionArmy and after the war while working at various menial jobs taught himselfenough English to become a lawyer a US congressman a superb journalistand eventually the multimillionaire owner of two great American newspapersthe St Louis Post-Dispatch and the New York World At its peak in the late1890s the World had a million daily readers
Always a hands-on owner Pulitzer focused on his high-minded informedand intelligent editorials
One of his early editors John Cockerill who often handled the newspages defined news as ldquoany hitherto unprinted occurrence which involves the
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 1
violation of any one of the Ten Commandments and if it involves a fracture ofthe Vth VIth VIIth VIIIth or IX Commandments and by those people whosenames people have heard and in whose doings they are specifically interestedby knowledge of their official and social position then it is great newsrdquo
Perhaps this explains why the World had a mass audiencePulitzer however insisted that ldquoSensationalism as generally understood is
to be avoided Cheap crimes are not to be seized upon to play up A sensationalstory that is worth featuring is to be pushed to the limit But no fakingrdquo
He told World reporter James Creelman ldquoI want to attack anything that iswrong in public service the police department or elsewhere I believe in thepaper being a moral teacher of what is right and what is wrong It must takepart I should turn in my grave if the paper sat on a fence The paper shouldnot run the government or make tariffs but it should lead public opinionrdquo
And lead it did Pulitzerrsquos influence became so great that he elected a pres-identmdashClevelandmdashprevented a war between the United States and Britain ex-posed and cleaned up corrupt insurance companies surpassed Theodore Roo-sevelt in trust-busting and outsmarted banker J P Morgan for the financialgood of the country Without Pulitzer there would be no Statue of Liberty Hesuccessfully fought slumlords crooked police and shady politicians Even hismost ferocious rival William Randolph Hearst acknowledged that Pulitzer wasldquoa mighty democratic force in the life of the nationrdquo and ldquoa towering figure innational and international journalismrdquo
One of Pulitzerrsquos less known achievements was to create a new way ofswearing that caught on such as his assertion that his World was ldquoindegod-dampendentrdquo That he invented it was confirmed by American language expertH L Mencken and is ldquoabsobloodylutelyrdquo part of todayrsquos talk and known asan ldquoinfixrdquo
A contemporary called him the most interesting man on the planet andthe Texas Newspaper Union ldquothe greatest journalist on earthrdquo To his friendHenry Watterson editor of the Louisville Courier-Journal Pulitzerrsquos life readldquolike a story out of the books of giants goblins and fairiesrdquo Theodore Rooseveltonce praised the World as ldquomagnificent and strongrdquo and called its editorial pageldquothe finest in the countryrdquomdashuntil Pulitzer called Roosevelt a liar in his effort tocover up the bribery and corruption involved in buying the land for thePanama Canal Then Roosevelt sued him for criminal libel and tried to sendhim to prisonmdashan episode the ex-president failed to mention in his memoirs
But there was a time when Pulitzer betrayed his high principles For sev-eral months before and during the Spanish American War he engaged in afrantic attempt to outsell William Randolph Hearstrsquos New York Journal whichearned both men disrepute as purveyors of the sensational ldquoyellow pressrdquo As avisiting English newspaperman saw it theirs seemed like ldquoa contest of madmenfor the primacy of the sewerrdquo
2 Pulitzer
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 2
After the war Pulitzer bitterly regretted the exaggerations rumors and out-right lies his paper had printed and redirected the World to regain its formerglowing reputation as a great newspapermdashwhich it did
He was a blind invalid for the last twenty-two years of his lifemdashand so sen-sitive to noise that he traveled in a soundproofed yachtmdashbut he remained inactive control of the World relying on a group of secretaries to keep him in-formed and to write out his ideas complaints orders reminiscencesmdasheven hispersonal letters to his wife and children Most if not all of these records are inthe archives of Columbia University and the Library of Congress and providerich sources for a Pulitzer biographer
He died in 1911 at age sixty-four His World survived him by nineteenyears His Post-Dispatch still exists and flourishes Among his other legacies arethe annual Pulitzer Prizes the Columbia University School of Journalismmdashand the fountain in front of Manhattanrsquos Plaza Hotel
Pulitzerrsquos son Joseph Jr said that ldquoa flame of integrity was extinguished atthe death of my father but its light will always radiate to newspapermen of con-science everywhererdquo
More recently Arthur Krock of the New York Times wrote ldquoJoseph Pulitzerhad a shining personal character humility in possession of power and compas-sion for the unfortunate He hated cant sham injustice and corruption andwas incapable of any of these He was one of the few gifted with both humorand a sense of consecrationrdquo
His plea at a political convention in 1875 is still strikingly apposite over125 years later ldquoThe growth of money power in this country has been fabulousand its connections with and interest in the Government [are] alarming Letus never have a Government in Washington owing its retention to the power ofthe millionaires rather than to the will of the millionsrdquo
The evidence suggests that the restless pain-racked nerve-racked disease-riddenmdashand perhaps manic-depressivemdashgenius was the Einstein ShakespeareChurchill of journalists and is still the greatest newspaper editor of all time atleast in the English-speaking world
Joseph Pulitzer and His ldquoIndegoddampendentrdquo World 3
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 3
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 4
1
i n t r o d u c t i o n
Joseph Pulitzer and HisldquoIndegoddampendentrdquo World
Every issue of the paper presents an opportunity and a duty to say somethingcourageous and true to rise above the mediocre and conventional to saysomething that will command the respect of the intelligent the educated theindependent part of the community to rise above fear of partisanship and fearof popular prejudice
mdashJoseph Pulitzer
Always fight for progress and reform never tolerate injustice or corruption always fight demagogues of all parties never belong to any party always opposeprivileged classes and public plunder never lack sympathy for the poor alwaysremain devoted to the public welfare never be satisfied with merely printing thenews always be drastically independent never be afraid to attack wrong whetherby predatory plutocracy or predatory poverty
mdashJoseph Pulitzer
A t eighteen Joseph Pulitzer a penniless gangling Hungarian emigrant re-cruited in Europe to fight in the Civil War threw himself from the ship
bringing him to the United States and swam ashore to collect the bounty hethought should come to him and not to his recruiter He fought in the UnionArmy and after the war while working at various menial jobs taught himselfenough English to become a lawyer a US congressman a superb journalistand eventually the multimillionaire owner of two great American newspapersthe St Louis Post-Dispatch and the New York World At its peak in the late1890s the World had a million daily readers
Always a hands-on owner Pulitzer focused on his high-minded informedand intelligent editorials
One of his early editors John Cockerill who often handled the newspages defined news as ldquoany hitherto unprinted occurrence which involves the
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 1
violation of any one of the Ten Commandments and if it involves a fracture ofthe Vth VIth VIIth VIIIth or IX Commandments and by those people whosenames people have heard and in whose doings they are specifically interestedby knowledge of their official and social position then it is great newsrdquo
Perhaps this explains why the World had a mass audiencePulitzer however insisted that ldquoSensationalism as generally understood is
to be avoided Cheap crimes are not to be seized upon to play up A sensationalstory that is worth featuring is to be pushed to the limit But no fakingrdquo
He told World reporter James Creelman ldquoI want to attack anything that iswrong in public service the police department or elsewhere I believe in thepaper being a moral teacher of what is right and what is wrong It must takepart I should turn in my grave if the paper sat on a fence The paper shouldnot run the government or make tariffs but it should lead public opinionrdquo
And lead it did Pulitzerrsquos influence became so great that he elected a pres-identmdashClevelandmdashprevented a war between the United States and Britain ex-posed and cleaned up corrupt insurance companies surpassed Theodore Roo-sevelt in trust-busting and outsmarted banker J P Morgan for the financialgood of the country Without Pulitzer there would be no Statue of Liberty Hesuccessfully fought slumlords crooked police and shady politicians Even hismost ferocious rival William Randolph Hearst acknowledged that Pulitzer wasldquoa mighty democratic force in the life of the nationrdquo and ldquoa towering figure innational and international journalismrdquo
One of Pulitzerrsquos less known achievements was to create a new way ofswearing that caught on such as his assertion that his World was ldquoindegod-dampendentrdquo That he invented it was confirmed by American language expertH L Mencken and is ldquoabsobloodylutelyrdquo part of todayrsquos talk and known asan ldquoinfixrdquo
A contemporary called him the most interesting man on the planet andthe Texas Newspaper Union ldquothe greatest journalist on earthrdquo To his friendHenry Watterson editor of the Louisville Courier-Journal Pulitzerrsquos life readldquolike a story out of the books of giants goblins and fairiesrdquo Theodore Rooseveltonce praised the World as ldquomagnificent and strongrdquo and called its editorial pageldquothe finest in the countryrdquomdashuntil Pulitzer called Roosevelt a liar in his effort tocover up the bribery and corruption involved in buying the land for thePanama Canal Then Roosevelt sued him for criminal libel and tried to sendhim to prisonmdashan episode the ex-president failed to mention in his memoirs
But there was a time when Pulitzer betrayed his high principles For sev-eral months before and during the Spanish American War he engaged in afrantic attempt to outsell William Randolph Hearstrsquos New York Journal whichearned both men disrepute as purveyors of the sensational ldquoyellow pressrdquo As avisiting English newspaperman saw it theirs seemed like ldquoa contest of madmenfor the primacy of the sewerrdquo
2 Pulitzer
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 2
After the war Pulitzer bitterly regretted the exaggerations rumors and out-right lies his paper had printed and redirected the World to regain its formerglowing reputation as a great newspapermdashwhich it did
He was a blind invalid for the last twenty-two years of his lifemdashand so sen-sitive to noise that he traveled in a soundproofed yachtmdashbut he remained inactive control of the World relying on a group of secretaries to keep him in-formed and to write out his ideas complaints orders reminiscencesmdasheven hispersonal letters to his wife and children Most if not all of these records are inthe archives of Columbia University and the Library of Congress and providerich sources for a Pulitzer biographer
He died in 1911 at age sixty-four His World survived him by nineteenyears His Post-Dispatch still exists and flourishes Among his other legacies arethe annual Pulitzer Prizes the Columbia University School of Journalismmdashand the fountain in front of Manhattanrsquos Plaza Hotel
Pulitzerrsquos son Joseph Jr said that ldquoa flame of integrity was extinguished atthe death of my father but its light will always radiate to newspapermen of con-science everywhererdquo
More recently Arthur Krock of the New York Times wrote ldquoJoseph Pulitzerhad a shining personal character humility in possession of power and compas-sion for the unfortunate He hated cant sham injustice and corruption andwas incapable of any of these He was one of the few gifted with both humorand a sense of consecrationrdquo
His plea at a political convention in 1875 is still strikingly apposite over125 years later ldquoThe growth of money power in this country has been fabulousand its connections with and interest in the Government [are] alarming Letus never have a Government in Washington owing its retention to the power ofthe millionaires rather than to the will of the millionsrdquo
The evidence suggests that the restless pain-racked nerve-racked disease-riddenmdashand perhaps manic-depressivemdashgenius was the Einstein ShakespeareChurchill of journalists and is still the greatest newspaper editor of all time atleast in the English-speaking world
Joseph Pulitzer and His ldquoIndegoddampendentrdquo World 3
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 3
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 4
violation of any one of the Ten Commandments and if it involves a fracture ofthe Vth VIth VIIth VIIIth or IX Commandments and by those people whosenames people have heard and in whose doings they are specifically interestedby knowledge of their official and social position then it is great newsrdquo
Perhaps this explains why the World had a mass audiencePulitzer however insisted that ldquoSensationalism as generally understood is
to be avoided Cheap crimes are not to be seized upon to play up A sensationalstory that is worth featuring is to be pushed to the limit But no fakingrdquo
He told World reporter James Creelman ldquoI want to attack anything that iswrong in public service the police department or elsewhere I believe in thepaper being a moral teacher of what is right and what is wrong It must takepart I should turn in my grave if the paper sat on a fence The paper shouldnot run the government or make tariffs but it should lead public opinionrdquo
And lead it did Pulitzerrsquos influence became so great that he elected a pres-identmdashClevelandmdashprevented a war between the United States and Britain ex-posed and cleaned up corrupt insurance companies surpassed Theodore Roo-sevelt in trust-busting and outsmarted banker J P Morgan for the financialgood of the country Without Pulitzer there would be no Statue of Liberty Hesuccessfully fought slumlords crooked police and shady politicians Even hismost ferocious rival William Randolph Hearst acknowledged that Pulitzer wasldquoa mighty democratic force in the life of the nationrdquo and ldquoa towering figure innational and international journalismrdquo
One of Pulitzerrsquos less known achievements was to create a new way ofswearing that caught on such as his assertion that his World was ldquoindegod-dampendentrdquo That he invented it was confirmed by American language expertH L Mencken and is ldquoabsobloodylutelyrdquo part of todayrsquos talk and known asan ldquoinfixrdquo
A contemporary called him the most interesting man on the planet andthe Texas Newspaper Union ldquothe greatest journalist on earthrdquo To his friendHenry Watterson editor of the Louisville Courier-Journal Pulitzerrsquos life readldquolike a story out of the books of giants goblins and fairiesrdquo Theodore Rooseveltonce praised the World as ldquomagnificent and strongrdquo and called its editorial pageldquothe finest in the countryrdquomdashuntil Pulitzer called Roosevelt a liar in his effort tocover up the bribery and corruption involved in buying the land for thePanama Canal Then Roosevelt sued him for criminal libel and tried to sendhim to prisonmdashan episode the ex-president failed to mention in his memoirs
But there was a time when Pulitzer betrayed his high principles For sev-eral months before and during the Spanish American War he engaged in afrantic attempt to outsell William Randolph Hearstrsquos New York Journal whichearned both men disrepute as purveyors of the sensational ldquoyellow pressrdquo As avisiting English newspaperman saw it theirs seemed like ldquoa contest of madmenfor the primacy of the sewerrdquo
2 Pulitzer
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 2
After the war Pulitzer bitterly regretted the exaggerations rumors and out-right lies his paper had printed and redirected the World to regain its formerglowing reputation as a great newspapermdashwhich it did
He was a blind invalid for the last twenty-two years of his lifemdashand so sen-sitive to noise that he traveled in a soundproofed yachtmdashbut he remained inactive control of the World relying on a group of secretaries to keep him in-formed and to write out his ideas complaints orders reminiscencesmdasheven hispersonal letters to his wife and children Most if not all of these records are inthe archives of Columbia University and the Library of Congress and providerich sources for a Pulitzer biographer
He died in 1911 at age sixty-four His World survived him by nineteenyears His Post-Dispatch still exists and flourishes Among his other legacies arethe annual Pulitzer Prizes the Columbia University School of Journalismmdashand the fountain in front of Manhattanrsquos Plaza Hotel
Pulitzerrsquos son Joseph Jr said that ldquoa flame of integrity was extinguished atthe death of my father but its light will always radiate to newspapermen of con-science everywhererdquo
More recently Arthur Krock of the New York Times wrote ldquoJoseph Pulitzerhad a shining personal character humility in possession of power and compas-sion for the unfortunate He hated cant sham injustice and corruption andwas incapable of any of these He was one of the few gifted with both humorand a sense of consecrationrdquo
His plea at a political convention in 1875 is still strikingly apposite over125 years later ldquoThe growth of money power in this country has been fabulousand its connections with and interest in the Government [are] alarming Letus never have a Government in Washington owing its retention to the power ofthe millionaires rather than to the will of the millionsrdquo
The evidence suggests that the restless pain-racked nerve-racked disease-riddenmdashand perhaps manic-depressivemdashgenius was the Einstein ShakespeareChurchill of journalists and is still the greatest newspaper editor of all time atleast in the English-speaking world
Joseph Pulitzer and His ldquoIndegoddampendentrdquo World 3
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 3
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 4
After the war Pulitzer bitterly regretted the exaggerations rumors and out-right lies his paper had printed and redirected the World to regain its formerglowing reputation as a great newspapermdashwhich it did
He was a blind invalid for the last twenty-two years of his lifemdashand so sen-sitive to noise that he traveled in a soundproofed yachtmdashbut he remained inactive control of the World relying on a group of secretaries to keep him in-formed and to write out his ideas complaints orders reminiscencesmdasheven hispersonal letters to his wife and children Most if not all of these records are inthe archives of Columbia University and the Library of Congress and providerich sources for a Pulitzer biographer
He died in 1911 at age sixty-four His World survived him by nineteenyears His Post-Dispatch still exists and flourishes Among his other legacies arethe annual Pulitzer Prizes the Columbia University School of Journalismmdashand the fountain in front of Manhattanrsquos Plaza Hotel
Pulitzerrsquos son Joseph Jr said that ldquoa flame of integrity was extinguished atthe death of my father but its light will always radiate to newspapermen of con-science everywhererdquo
More recently Arthur Krock of the New York Times wrote ldquoJoseph Pulitzerhad a shining personal character humility in possession of power and compas-sion for the unfortunate He hated cant sham injustice and corruption andwas incapable of any of these He was one of the few gifted with both humorand a sense of consecrationrdquo
His plea at a political convention in 1875 is still strikingly apposite over125 years later ldquoThe growth of money power in this country has been fabulousand its connections with and interest in the Government [are] alarming Letus never have a Government in Washington owing its retention to the power ofthe millionaires rather than to the will of the millionsrdquo
The evidence suggests that the restless pain-racked nerve-racked disease-riddenmdashand perhaps manic-depressivemdashgenius was the Einstein ShakespeareChurchill of journalists and is still the greatest newspaper editor of all time atleast in the English-speaking world
Joseph Pulitzer and His ldquoIndegoddampendentrdquo World 3
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