Pulitzer, Joseph, 1847-1911

<p>Joseph Pulitzer was born to a wealthy family of Magyar-Jewish origin in Mako, Hungary on April 10, 1847. The elder Pulitzer (a grain merchant) retired in Budapest and Joseph grew up and was educated there in private schools and by tutors.</p>

<p>Restive at the age of seventeen, the gangling 6'2" youth decided to become a soldier and tried in turn to enlist in the Austrian Army, Napoleon's Foreign Legion for duty in Mexico, and the British Army for service in India. He was rebuffed because of weak eyesight and frail health, which were to plague him for the rest of his life. However, in Hamburg, Germany, he encountered a bounty recruiter for the U.S. Union Army and contracted to enlist as a substitute for a draftee, a procedure permitted under the Civil War draft system.</p>

<p>At Boston he jumped ship and, as the legend goes, swam to shore, determined to keep the enlistment bounty for himself rather than leave it to the agent. Pulitzer collected the bounty by enlisting for a year in the Lincoln Cavalry, which suited him since there were many Germans in the unit. He was fluent in German and French but spoke very little English. Later, he worked his way to St. Louis. While doing odd jobs there, such as muleteer, baggage handler, and waiter, he immersed himself in the city's Mercantile Library, studying English and the law.</p>

PULITZER, Joseph, a Representative from New York; born in Makdo, near Budapest, Hungary, April 10, 1847; received his early training from a private tutor; immigrated to the United States in 1864; enlisted as a private in the Union Army at the age of seventeen in the First Regiment, New York (Lincoln) Cavalry, in Kingston, N.Y., September 30, 1864; mustered out in Alexandria, Va., June 5, 1865; resumed civil life in St. Louis, Mo.; studied law and was admitted to practice by the supreme court of Missouri; entered journalism in 1867 as a reporter on the St. Louis Westliche Post and became managing editor and part proprietor; elected to the Missouri legislature in 1869; delegate to the Reform Republican Convention at Cincinnati in 1872; member of the State constitutional convention in 1874; founded the St. Louis Post-Dispatch December 10, 1878, and continued to own and publish it until his death; delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1880; moved to New York City in the Spring of 1883 and bought the New York World; elected as a Democrat to the Forty-ninth Congress and served from March 4, 1885, until April 10, 1886, when he resigned; died aboard his yacht in the harbor of Charleston, S.C., October 29, 1911; interment in Woodlawn Cemetery, New York City.

<p>Joseph Pulitzer (/ˈpʊlɪtsər/ PUUL-it-sər; born József Pulitzer; Hungarian: [ˈjoːʒɛf ˈpulit͡sɛr]; April 10, 1847 – October 29, 1911) was a Hungarian-born American newspaper publisher of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the New York World. He became a leading national figure in the Democratic Party and was elected congressman from New York. He crusaded against big business and corruption, and helped keep the Statue of Liberty in New York.</p>

<p>In the 1890s the fierce competition between his World and William Randolph Hearst's New York Journal caused both to develop the techniques of yellow journalism, which won over readers with sensationalism, sex, crime and graphic horrors. The wide appeal reached a million copies a day and opened the way to mass-circulation newspapers that depended on advertising revenue (rather than cover price or political party subsidies) and appealed to readers with multiple forms of news, gossip, entertainment and advertising.</p>

<p>Today, his name is best known for the Pulitzer Prizes, which were established in 1917 as a result of his endowment to Columbia University. The prizes are given annually to recognize and reward excellence in American journalism, photography, literature, history, poetry, music, and drama. Pulitzer founded the Columbia School of Journalism by his philanthropic bequest; it opened in 1912.</p>