Joseph Pulitzer

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Joseph Pulitzer bigraphy, stories - Journalists

Joseph Pulitzer : biography

April 10, 1847 – October 29, 1911

Joseph Pulitzer (. The more anglicized pronunciation is common but widely considered incorrect. April 10, 1847 – October 29, 1911), born Pulitzer József, was a Hungarian-American Jewish newspaper publisher of the St. Louis Post Dispatch and the New York World. Pulitzer introduced the techniques of "new journalism" to the newspapers he acquired in the 1880s. He became a leading national figure in the Democratic Party and was elected Congressman from New York. He crusaded against big business and corruption.

In the 1890s the fierce competition between his World and William Randolph Hearst’s New York Journal caused both to use yellow journalism for wider appeal; it opened the way to mass-circulation newspapers that depended on advertising revenue and appealed to readers with multiple forms of news, entertainment and advertising.

Today, he is best known for the Pulitzer Prizes, which were established by money he bequeathed to Columbia University, as was the Columbia School of Journalism. The prizes are given annually to award achievements in journalism and photography, as well as literature and history, poetry, music and drama.

Legacy

Journalism schools

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. In 1902, Columbia’s new president Nicholas Murray Butler was more receptive to the plan for a school and journalism prizes, but it would not be until after Pulitzer’s death that this dream would be fulfilled.

Pulitzer left the university $2,000,000 in his will. In 1912 the school founded the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. This followed the Missouri School of Journalism, founded at the University of Missouri with Pulitzer’s urging. Both schools remain among the most prestigious in the world.

Pulitzer Prize

In 1917, Columbia organized the awards of the first Pulitzer Prizes in journalism. The awards have been expanded to recognize achievements in literature, poetry, history, music, and drama.

Legacy and honors

  • The Pulitzer Museum of Art in Saint Louis was founded by his family’s philanthropy and is named in their honor.
  • In 1989 Joseph Pulitzer was inducted into the St. Louis Walk of Fame.

Death

For six months during 1908, the South African writer, poet and medical doctor C. Louis Leipoldt was Pulitzer’s personal physician aboard his yacht Liberty. As he was traveling to his winter home at the Jekyll Island Club on Jekyll Island, Georgia in 1911, Pulitzer had the yacht stop in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina. On October 29, 1911, Pulitzer said his last words while his German secretary read to him about King Louis XI of France. As the secretary neared the end, Pulitzer said in German: "Leise, ganz leise" (English: "Softly, quite softly")."Joseph Pulitzer Dies Here," Charleston (S.C.) News & Courier, October 30, 1911, p.1. He is interred in the Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx, New York.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

In 1872, Pulitzer purchased a share in the Westliche Post for $3,000, and then sold his stake in the paper for a profit the following year. In 1879, he bought both the St. Louis Dispatch, and the St. Louis Post, merging the two papers as the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. It continues as St. Louis’ daily newspaper. With his own paper, Pulitzer developed his role as a champion of the common man, featuring exposés and a hard-hitting populist approach.

After the war

After the war, Pulitzer returned to New York City, where he stayed briefly. He moved to New Bedford for the whaling industry, learned it was moribund, and returned to New York with little money. Flat broke, he slept in wagons on cobble stone side streets. He decided to travel by "side-door Pullman" (a euphemism for a freight boxcar) to St. Louis, Missouri. He sold his one possession, a white handkerchief, for 75 cents.