[ back ]
New biography throws light on Joseph Pulitzer’s rough life
(by Jennifer Alexander - March 03, 2010)
Joseph Pulitzer is a significant figure in the history of St. Louis and the nation.
In Pulitzer: A Life in Politics, Print and Power, James McGrath Morris calls Pulitzer the midwife to the birth of modern mass media. This comprehensive biography tells a story of great achievement and great sadness. Morris traces Pulitzer’s remarkable accomplishments and his struggles. It is a fascinating portrait of a man who is known mainly today for the journalism prizes that bear his name.
Pulitzer was born in Hungary in 1847. The death of his father, his mother’s remarriage and a general lack of work contributed to Pulitzer’s decision in 1864 to go to the United States. Lying about his age for the first of many times, Pulitzer joined a group of Union army recruits. Scams abounded in which bounty hunters collected money for immigrant recruits. Pulitzer cleverly turned the situation to his advantage, avoiding being fleeced and collecting $200 to take the place of a drafted man.
After the war, Pulitzer lived in New York looking for work during the day and sleeping on a park bench at night. Soon he decided to try his luck in St. Louis, where a large German-speaking population and the promise of opportunity attracted him. He arrived penniless on the Illinois side of the Mississippi River. There was no bridge and the only way across was on Wiggins Ferry. Pulitzer worked his way across the river shoveling coal in the boiler of the ferry.
Pulitzer worked at many jobs in St. Louis while he learned English and got his bearings. He joined the Mercantile Library, which gave him access to a large collection of books and a network of lawyers, newspapermen and politicians. Pulitzer worked diligently on improving his English through reading and conversation. When he began reporting for the Westliche Post, Pulitzer showed the drive that would characterize his work for the rest of his life. He threw himself into work and the politics of the city.
In 1878, Pulitzer bought the failing evening paper, The Dispatch. Having only enough savings to run the paper for weeks, he used the Dispatch’s valuable membership in the Associated Press news cooperative to entice a merger with another evening paper, The Post. Soon the new Post and Dispatch was increasing circulation. Pulitzer’s successful methods included sending reporters out to interview citizens on what they thought about tax abuses, touting the paper’s accomplishments in headlines and publishing public documents that exposed corruption.
Pulitzer found quick success with his St. Louis newspaper and began looking for a New York paper to acquire. After buying the New York World in 1883, Pulitzer began the enterprise that would bring him worldwide fame, great wealth, multiple professional enemies and a complicated legacy tainted with the pejorative “yellow journalism.”
Morris describes both Pulitzer’s success and his inability to fully enjoy it. Throughout his life, Pulitzer had difficulty dealing with people. He was estranged from his brother and had contentious relationships with his wife and his children. His temper was often uncontrolled, leading him to attack his enemies both physically and in print. The drive that contributed to his accomplishments left him never satisfied. Pulitzer was obsessive about controlling every detail of his paper.
Pulitzer also suffered from physical ailments. He began losing his sight in 1887 and suffered from anxiety and a hypersensitivity to sound. His inability to read did not lessen Pulitzer’s control over the paper — he simply had every word of the paper read to him.
Morris illuminates Pulitzer’s career with personal details that create a story of both triumph and sorrow. Joseph Pulitzer rose from poverty to a position of wealth and power in a remarkably short time. But success brought Pulitzer no peace. His drive and restlessness were with him until he died in 1911.
Morris used previously unavailable sources for this rich biography of Joseph Pulitzer. Documents discovered in a dumpster in St. Louis included the original receipts for Pulitzer’s purchase of the Dispatch. Morris also used an unpublished memoir written by Joseph’s younger brother, Albert Pulitzer. In Pulitzer, Morris draws a complex portrait of the man and illustrates his central position in the development of modern news culture.
• James McGrath Morris will discuss and sign Pulitzer: A Life in Politics, Print and Power at 7 p.m. March 23 at Left Bank Books, 399 N. Euclid Ave. Call 367-6731 for more information. Morris will also discuss and sign Pulitzer at 7 p.m. March 24 at the Missouri History Museum in Forest Park. Call 746-4599 for more information.
[ back ]
