Customer Reviews

No Ordinary Joe: A Life of Joseph Pulitzer III (Missouri Biography Series)

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As you watch the national news it is easy to see how the national organizations have blurred news and entertainment. Any attempt on their part to present all sides of a complex story disappears if they can find a blown up vehicle or an injured person. Politicans have learned that the few second sound byte has to convey the message they want or the message isn't getting on the air at all.

Further, there are only a handfull of newspapers that attempt to provide a full story. During the reign of Joseph Pulitzer III, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch was one of that handfull. Politically liberal, the paper prospered during the years that other newspapers were failing, merging or converting to tabloid style.

This biography of Joseph Pulitzer III covers his life, but his life was never far removed from the newspaper. This book presents the story of a man not seen so often. Trained by his father from birth to run the paper he had the problems of employees not liking his style, of friction within the rest of the family, and more. It is a fascinating story, well researched, and well told.

Amidst his readable, interesting forays into the life and politics of Joseph Pulitzer III, Pfaff provides one of the best accounts of the economic quandaries of a family-owned newspapers during the 1950s-1980s. Based on extensive research. My own writing on newspaper history is indebted to this book.

No Ordinary Joe: A Life Of Joseph Pulitzer III provides a very fine scholarly biographical survey of the man who created the widely known Pulitzer Prize. Joseph was trained for succession to the Pulitzer media empire and worked hard to maintain his family's paper's liberal philosophy even as competitors began mixing news with entertainment. His many achievements in the newspaper world are detailed alongside interviews with over seventy who knew or worked with him: the result is a study spiced with personal insight and celebrating Pulitzer's impact on the publishing world as a whole.

No Ordinary Joe: A Life Of Joseph Pulitzer III provides a very fine scholarly biographical survey of the man who created the widely known Pulitzer Prize. Joseph was trained for succession to the Pulitzer media empire and worked hard to maintain his family's paper's liberal philosophy even as competitors began mixing news with entertainment. His many achievements in the newspaper world are detailed alongside interviews with over seventy who knew or worked with him: the result is a study spiced with personal insight and celebrating Pulitzer's impact on the publishing world as a whole.