Joseph Pulitzer II and the Post Dispatch: A Newspaperman's Life.

Abstract

This biography brings 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 story of his drive and dedication to make St. Louis Post-Dispatch one of most effective liberal newspapers in United States. Daniel Pfaff covers seventy-year lifetime of bearer of a famous name who succeeded in advancing highest ideals of mainstream liberal journalism in his forty-three-year career as editor-publisher of Post-Dispatch and head of Pulitzer Publishing Company. Unlike his colorful father (1847-1911), who is now chiefly remembered for establishing Pulitzer Prizes at Columbia University and for creating a so-called new journalism that combined attention-getting sensationalism with public-service investigatory crusading at turn of century, 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, Great Depression, beginning of civil rights movement, and involvement in what became Vietnam War as well as challenges of combating malfeasance in state and local political and business circles. Operated by one of ablest staffs in country, Post-Dispatch under Joseph Pulitzer II achieved national and international distinction by late 1920s and maintained that stature throughout his career. In contrast, New York World, which first Joseph Pulitzer had intended to be his lasting monument had left in care of his other two sons, foundered and, in 1931, failed. Had it not been for journalistic acumen of Pulitzer's namesake son, in whom he had least confidence, 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 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 book succeeds in giving a well-rounded picture of man and his times.