Joseph Pulitzer

Joseph Pulitzer (April 10, 1847 – October 29, 1911), was a Hungarian-born American journalist. Pulitzer was born in Makó, Hungary, immigrated to the United States, and became an American newspaper man and journalist. The Pulitzer Prizes, first awarded in 1917, were provisions in Pulitzer's will.

Related Topics:
April 10 - 1847 - October 29 - 1911 - Hungarian - American - Journalist - Makó - Pulitzer Prize - 1917

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Pulitzer (pronounced "pull-it-ser") immigrated to the United States in 1864, where he served in the American Civil War. He then settled in St. Louis, Missouri, where in 1868 he began working for a German-language daily newspaper, the Westliche Post. He joined the Republican Party and was elected to the Missouri State Assembly in 1869. In 1872, Pulitzer purchased the Post for $3,000. Then, in 1878, he bought the St. Louis Dispatch for $2,700 and merged the two papers, which became the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, which remains St. Louis' daily newspaper.

Related Topics:
1864 - American Civil War - St. Louis, Missouri - 1868 - Republican Party - Missouri - 1869 - 1872 - 1878 - St. Louis Post-Dispatch

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A wealthy man by 1883, Pulitzer purchased the New York World, a newspaper that had been losing $40,000 a year, for $346,000 from Jay Gould. Pulitzer shifted its focus to human-interest stories, scandal, and sensationalism. In 1885, the same year he would be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, he recruited Richard F. Outcault to draw cartoons based on life in the slums, and circulation reached 600,000--from a circulation of 15,000 when he bought the paper--making it the largest newspaper in the country. In 1887, he recruited the famous investigative journalist Nellie Bly.

Related Topics:
1883 - New York World - Jay Gould - 1885 - Richard F. Outcault - 1887 - Nellie Bly

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The editor of the rival New York Sun attacked Pulitzer in print, calling him in 1890 "The Jew who abandoned his religion" (Pulitzer's father was Jewish, while his mother was Roman Catholic and his wife, Kate Davis, was Episcopalian). The move, intended to alienate Pulitzer's Jewish readership, caused Pulitzer's already failing health to deteriorate rapidly and he resigned his editorship, although he maintained financial control of his newspapers.

Related Topics:
New York Sun - 1890 - Jew - Roman Catholic - Episcopalian

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In 1895, William Randolph Hearst purchased the New York Journal, which led to a journalism war between Pulitzer's World and Hearst's Journal. This competition with Hearst, particularly the coverage before and during the Spanish-American War, linked Pulitzer's name with yellow journalism. In 1896, the World began a color supplement, an innovation at the time.

Related Topics:
1895 - William Randolph Hearst - New York Journal - Spanish-American War - Yellow journalism - 1896

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After the World exposed a fraudulent payment of $40 million by the United States to the French Panama Canal Company in 1909, Pulitzer was indicted for libeling Theodore Roosevelt and J. P. Morgan. The courts dismissed the indictments, in a victory for freedom of the press.

Related Topics:
1909 - Theodore Roosevelt - J. P. Morgan

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In 1892, Pulitzer offered Columbia University's president, Seth Low, money to set up the world's first school of journalism. The university initially turned down the money, evidently unimpressed by Pulitzer's unscrupulous character. In 1902, Columbia's new president Nicholas Murray Butler was more receptive to the plan for a school and prizes, but it would not be until after Pulitzer's death that this dream would be fulfilled. Pulitzer left the university $2 million in his will, which led to the creation in 1912 of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, but by then the first school of journalism had been created at the University of Missouri. Columbia's Graduate School of Journalism remains one of the most prestigious in the world.

Related Topics:
1892 - Columbia University - Seth Low - Nicholas Murray Butler - 1912 - Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism - University of Missouri

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Joseph Pulitzer died aboard his yacht in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina in 1911. He is interred in the Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx, New York. In 1917, the first Pulitzer Prizes were awarded, in accordance with Pulitzer's wishes.

Related Topics:
Charleston, South Carolina - 1911 - Woodlawn Cemetery - The Bronx - New York - 1917 - Pulitzer Prize

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