Joseph Pulitzer  "Immigrant To Newspaper Magnate"  April 10, 1847 - October 29, 1911

Joseph Pulitzer was born in Hungary to a wealthy Jewish grain dealer. Before age 17, with his father having died and his mother remarried, Pulitzer left home to get away from his stepfather. He tried to enlist in the French Foreign Legion, and the British army in India, but was rejected because he had poor eyesight and was underage and frail. In 1864, a U.S. agent in Hamburg, Germany, recruited Pulitzer for the Union army in North America's Civil War.

The tall, skinny 17-year-old, who spoke almost no English, arrived in Boston in September 1864. He made his way to New York City, where he told the recruiting officer he was 18 and assured him he could ride horses well. Pulitzer was assigned to the 1st New York Lincoln Cavalry, a seasoned unit made up mostly of Germans were openly anti-Semitic. These fellow soldiers showed their antagonism toward Pulitzer both verbally, and sometimes, physically, but the scrappy Pulitzer fought back and once slugged a corporal who made insulting remarks about Pulitzer's mother. An officer who often played chess with Pulitzer helped keep the boy from getting in serious trouble. After a new major joined the unit and chose Pulitzer as his orderly, army life became easier for the young Hungarian.

After the war Pulitzer looked for work in New York City. Entering French's Hotel to get his shoes shined one day, he was turned away because of his frayed uniform. He moved to St. Louis, MO, where he found only menial jobs before becoming a reporter in 1868. In 1874 he bought a St. Louis German newspaper. In 1878 he bought two more newspapers and merged them into the best-selling evening paper.

In 1883 he bought a New York morning paper, The World, and four years later began The Evening World. In his success, he bought French's Hotel and built The World headquarters on the site of his earlier humiliation. The newspaper magnate died in Charleston, SC, at age 63. His endowment has awarded eight coveted journalism awards annually since 1917.

Fascinating Fact:  Pulitzer married a relative of Confederate President Jefferson Davis in 1878.


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