This biography brings the song of 'the' Joseph Pulitzer out from behind his colorful father's shadow and shows him to have been one of American's most important newspapermen, ranking with Adolph Ochs, William Allen White, and Robert R. McCormick.Based on hitherto untapped archival sources, including a wealth of personal correspondence, this first biography of Joseph Pulitzer II tells the story of his drive and dedication to make the St. Louis Post-Dispatch one of the most effective liberal newspapers in the United States. Daniel Pfaff covers the seventy-year lifetime of the bearer of a famous name who succeeded in advancing the highest ideals of mainstream liberal journalism in his forty-three-year career as editor-publisher of the Post-Dispatch and head of the Pulitzer Publishing Company. Unlike his colorful father (1847-1911), who is now chiefly remembered for establishing the Pulitzer Prizes at Columbia University and for creating a so-called new journalism that combined attention-getting sensationalism with public-service investigatory crusading at the turn of the century, the second Joseph Pulitzer (1885-1955) was a man of more even temperament and measured administrative style. Throughout his career he was unswervingly dedicated to his father's highest ideals. But he and his staff had new waters to navigate: two world wars, the Great Depression, the beginning of the civil rights movement, and involvement in what became the Vietnam War as well as the challenges of combating malfeasance in state and local political and business circles. Operated by one of the ablest staffs in the country, the Post-Dispatch under Joseph Pulitzer II achieved national and international distinction by the late 1920s and maintained that stature throughout his career. In contrast, the New York World, which the first Joseph Pulitzer had intended to be his lasting monument had left in the care of his other two sons, foundered and, in 1931, failed. Had it not been for the journalistic acumen of Pulitzer's namesake son, in whom he had the least confidence, the Pulitzer presence in American journalism would have ended then. Instead, it is still thriving today. While Joseph Pulitzer II's professional life and his newspaper's involvement in events of this era form the major part of this biography, Pfaff also chronicles his personal life--- his sometimes stormy relationship with is father, his two marriages, and his social and recreational life. Thus the book succeeds in giving a well-rounded picture of the man and his times.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
As a young man, Joseph Pulitzer II (1885-1955) had to contend with an almost impossibly difficult father. Pulitzer Sr. was nearly blind, hypersensitive to noise, quixotic, irascible and as used to having his own way as an absolutist monarch. Also the founder of a journalistic dynasty, he made the World the most respected paper in New York City and tended to regard the St. Louis, Mo., Post-Dispatch as a sort of stepchild. But his son and namesake did not admire the World , preferring to stay in the Midwest; and young Pulitzer's hunch that he held a better future in Middle America began to seem prescient when the World folded in 1931 and the St. Louis paper continued to grow and became increasingly profitable. Pulitzer II steered a careful course between isolationism and interventionism in the pre-World War II era, and managed to be both anti-Communist and anti-Joe McCarthy in the early '50s. His light hand on the reins made the paper the very model of enlightened American liberalism. Additionally, he could spot a trend brilliantly: seeing his first flickering TV show through failing eyes in 1947, he concluded, "That's the end of radio." Penn State journalism professor Pfaff has written an outstanding biography, one that may set students of journalistic history to wondering whether Pulitzer II was not a better newsman than his revered father. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Kirkus Reviews
Solid biography of the longtime editor-publisher of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, by Pfaff (Journalism/Penn State). Joseph Pulitzer, Sr., was a larger-than-life figure, a Hungarian Jew plagued by diabetes, ill-health, and violent mood- swings who once shot a fellow-legislator for calling him a liar. (Joseph II later took a swing at William Randolph Hearst for calling his father a pimp.) Pulitzer, Sr., continued to run his publishing empire after going blind, all the while harassing his three sons unceasingly. His middle son and namesake (1885-1955) grew into a big, hearty, sports-loving, happy-go-lucky adolescent who was thrown out of prep school, flunked out of Harvard, made friends wherever he went, and became quintessentially American while infuriating Father by his enjoyment of life. As much a book about publishing greats, this is a father-son black comedy about a pair of high-stakes edge-players, both of them awesomely industrious. The father demanded an endless apprenticeship of his sons that involved reporting in detail on daily activities and being moved about the world like chessmen, but Joseph II never feared him, crossing him from time to time (e.g., by suggesting that lucrative patent-medicine ads be dropped from his father's New York World). Joseph II stuck it out, and after his father's death in 1911 created a great ``crusading, liberal, usually Democratic'' newspaper that sent reporters far afield. ``Many a politician and wealthy St. Louis businessman detested the Post-Dispatch,'' says Pfaff, and with reason--it pioneered investigative journalism on issues including the Teapot Dome scandal, the impeachment of corrupt judges, and even an illegal railroad-franchise scheme involving Joseph II's uncle. By the time of his death in 1955, Joseph Pulitzer II was virtually blind himself, working as hard as his father ever had. The vigor and creativity of the Pulitzers have never been in question, but who they were as people comes through richly here. (Sixty-nine photographs--not seen.) -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
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