The Rose Man of Sing Sing: A True Tale of Life, Murder, and Redemption in the Age of Yellow Journalism (Communications and Media Studies) [Paperback]

James M. Morris (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0823222683 | ISBN-13: 978-0823222681 | Publication Date: October 1, 2005

Today, seventy-three years after his death, journalists still tell tales of Charles E. Chapin. As city editor of Pulitzer's New York Evening World , Chapin was the model of the take-no-prisoners newsroom tyrant: he drove reporters relentlessly-and kept his paper in the center ring of the circus of big-city journalism. From the Harry K. Thaw trial to the sinking of the Titanic , Chapin set the pace for the evening press, the CNN of the pre-electronic world of journalism. In 1918, at the pinnacle of fame, Chapin's world collapsed. Facing financial ruin, sunk in depression, he decided to kill himself and his beloved wife Nellie. On a quiet September morning, he took not his own life, but Nellie's, shooting her as she slept. After his trial-and one hell of a story for the World's competitors-he was sentenced to life in the infamous Sing Sing Prison in Ossining, New York. In this story of an extraordinary life set in the most thrilling epoch of American journalism, James McGrath Morris tracks Chapin's rise from legendary Chicago street reporter to celebrity powerbroker in media-mad New York. His was a human tragedy played out in the sensational stories of tabloids and broadsheets. But it's also an epic of redemption: in prison, Chapin started a newspaper to fight for prisoner rights, wrote a best-selling autobiography, had two long-distance love affairs, and tapped his prodigious talents to transform barren prison plots into world-famous rose gardens before dying peacefully in his cell in 1930. The first portrait of one of the founding figures of modern American journalism, and a vibrant chronicle of the cutthroat culture of scoops and scandals, The Rose Man of Sing Sing is also a hidden history of New York at its most colorful and passionate.James McGrath Morris is a former journalist, author of Jailhouse Journalism: The Fourth Estate Behind Bars , and a historian. He lives in Falls Church, Virginia, and teaches at West Springfield High School.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Journalist Morris (Jailhouse Journalism) excellently portrays Charles E. Chapin (1858-1930), scandal-dogged legendary city editor of Joseph Pulitzer's New York Evening World. Backed by extensive research, Morris builds the driven man's roller-coaster life with each masterfully etched chapter, starting with an overview of Chapin's career and demise, succeeding ones detailing his childhood, his apprenticeship with a Kansas newspaper and his arrival in Chicago, landing a plum reporting job at the Tribune. Chapin quickly excels at his new job, with his skills for sniffing out a story, finding its emotional core and writing it up in colorful, energetic prose. After a series of successes as a reporter and editor in Chicago, Chapin moves to New York and is hired at the World, wowing his boss, reporters and rivals. Morris portrays Chapin's turbulent personal life and the world of yellow journalism that ruled newspapers of that time, sharing captivating facts and anecdotal glimpses of early 20th-century America. Dogged by illness, the burden of a fragile wife and growing debt, Chapin, enjoying the fruits of a wildly successful career, suddenly faces financial ruin and scandal after a run of bad investments, which leads him to decide to murder his wife and himself. Unable to shoot himself after killing his wife in 1918, Chapin flees but is captured, tried and sentenced to 20 years to life in New York's notorious Sing Sing prison after a sensational, grueling trial. Morris's impressive achievement will enthrall readers.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

. . .Morris’s opus is a worthy contribution to this period of American history. -- Ben Procter, author of William Randolph Hearst: The Early Years, 1863–1910

A fascinating look at what happened when an outsized public figure landed in a tiny cell. -- Ted Conover, author of Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing

A first rate, highly readable, meticulously researched biography. -- Denis Brian, author of Pulitzer: A Life --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 470 pages
• Publisher: Fordham University Press (October 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0823222683
• ISBN-13: 978-0823222681
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.8 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,880,472 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

In addition to his new biography of Joseph Pulitzer, James McGrath Morris is the author of The Rose Man of Sing Sing: A True Tale of Life, Murder, and Redemption, which was selected as a Washington Post Best Book of the Year for 2004. He is the editor of the monthly Biographer's Craft, and his writing has appeared in the Washington Post, the New York Observer, and the Baltimore Sun. He lives in New Mexico.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Newspaper Legend's Crime and Redemption, February 24, 2004

By 

R. Hardy "Rob Hardy" (Columbus, Mississippi USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Rose Man of Sing Sing: A True Tale of Life, Murder, and Redemption in the Age of Yellow Journalism (Communications and Media Studies) (Hardcover)

If you looked at the January 1925 issue of that arbiter of domestic taste, _House and Garden_, you would have seen a photo layout of a rose garden that would have been the envy of any socialite or country club. The garden was tasteful, with fountains, a pool of water lilies, and blue spruce trees in addition to thousands of roses. Besides the obvious beauty of the garden, there was one other thing that made it unique. At one end of the garden was an old execution chamber. The garden was in the middle of the infamous prison, Sing Sing, in New York. It was the creation of a prisoner who, before he murdered his wife, was a legendary newsman who worked directly for Joseph Pulitzer, and often himself handled coverage of society murders. The term of Charles Chapin as city editor of the _New York Evening World_ was full of spectacular tabloid stories, and James McGrath Morris, himself a former journalist, has brought back Chapin's forgotten story and explained how the press worked in the early parts of the twentieth century in the astonishing book, _The Rose Man of Sing Sing: A True Tale of Life, Murder, and Redemption in the Age of Yellow Journalism_ (Fordham University Press). It is a story at times as lurid, melodramatic, and spectacular as any of the stories Chapin himself published.

Chapin started delivering the local paper at age fourteen. He was determined to get himself an education, and although he could not attend school, he read ravenously and well. A kindly editor selected books for the boy, classics that Chapin drew upon all his life. He was thrilled to become a reporter in Chicago, but eventually made his lasting mark in New York, where at the _Evening World_, he presided over a technological revolution. The new telephone allowed Chapin to give orders to reporters in the field, and to shape the stories. Field reporters would call in the details of a story, and the new "rewrite reporters" would write it up for the paper. As a result, Chapin gave the _World_ unrivaled immediacy in reporting New York's news. Especially fascinating is the story of how Chapin got the news about the sinking of the _Titanic_. Chapin was recognized as the best of city editors, but he was not easy to work for. He was merciless on himself, and extended this treatment to his reporters. His abilities made them tolerate working for him. He was devoted to his wife, and seems sincerely to have wanted to put her out of prospective misery when his investments failed; he had planned a murder suicide, but only killed her, and turned himself in. He was convicted of murder in 1919 and given twenty years to life. In Sing Sing, the warden took particular interest in him, which is not surprising given how different Chapin must have been from the usual criminals there. Chapin had never been a gardener, but began to cultivate a small plot; he became obsessed with his plants, solicited donations from those he knew in the business world, and commanded inmate assistants with the same fervor he had used on reporters. Ladies clubs came to take the tour of the grounds, as did celebrities like Booth Tarkington and Houdini.

Chapin thus proved to be a model prisoner, and applied for pardon, but no pardon ever came. He was involved in two mostly postal romances with women on the outside, neither of which ended well, mostly because of his lifelong inability to see or accept ambiguity; it was as if he expected a well-chosen headline to cover all the underlying details. He died a convict in 1930, and was buried, according to his wishes, with the wife he had murdered twelve years before. This story, never told before in full, is full of engrossing detail about the competitive working press of the time. Chapin's life, that of a brilliant and limited man who eventually found horticultural redemption, is almost operatic in its sweep, and makes an unforgettable story.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Couldn't put it down, January 18, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: The Rose Man of Sing Sing: A True Tale of Life, Murder, and Redemption in the Age of Yellow Journalism (Communications and Media Studies) (Hardcover)

I first heard about this book on ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. It reads likes novel, even better like a true-crime novel in that every time a chapter ends you want to read on.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great story and storytelling, December 23, 2003

By 

Robin Gerber (Bethesda, Maryland USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Rose Man of Sing Sing: A True Tale of Life, Murder, and Redemption in the Age of Yellow Journalism (Communications and Media Studies) (Hardcover)

For a fun read that has everything, get a copy of this book. McGrath Morris brings Chapin to life with a page-turner that reads like a novel. The author succeeds in bringing history to life as well as exploring the darker side of our emotions.