Pulitzer

August 20, 2001
Without question, newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer lived a notable life. Born in 1847 in Hungary, he traveled to the U.S. as a teenager to fight for pay in the Civil War. He learned English, became a lawyer, got involved in politics and later in journalism. He bought the struggling St. Louis Post-Dispatch, then turned the New York World
into a superb daily newspaper by upholding the following fool-proof tenet: "cater to the masses and earn their trust." By the time of his death in 1911, Pulitzer had achieved global fame. Unfortunately, Brian delivers a largely warmed-over version of Pulitzer's life. In the acknowledgments, Brian (biographer of J.B. Rhine, Ernest Hemingway and Albert Einstein) thanks previous chroniclers of Pulitzer's life. If Brian's study contains anything of significance missed by those biographers, it is well hidden. The endnotes only occasionally mention primary documents (such as the many extant letters to and from Pulitzer), citing instead, over and over, earlier books about the publisher. Brian details Pulitzer's big newspaper stories, such as "A Dastard's Deed: Cold-Blooded Treachery at Last Conquers Jesse James," concerning the official price on James's head and the confidante who betrayed him. Though interesting, the rehashed news stories don't make for a meaty biography. In 1994, Brian published a book about the life-writing craft that is relentlessly critical of prominent biographers; the title was Fair Game: What Biographers Don't Tell You. Here, Brian fails to tell readers why they should read this highly derivative biography.

August 3, 2001
Joseph Pulitzer emigrated to the United States from his native Hungary in 1864 for a bounty offered by Union army recruiters. Discharged in 1865, he made his way to St. Louis, where with little command of English at the start, he got involved in local politics, entered the newspaper business, and eventually gained control of the Post-Dispatch. In 1883, he bought the New York World, then revolutionized American journalism and became wealthy through his sensational approach to the news and his grasp of the entertainment role of newspapers. Highly eccentric, a near-invalid for much of his life, Pulitzer is a marvelous subject for biography. Yet Brian, author of Einstein: A Life and other biographical works, has not done a marvelous job with his material. Readers will find a patchy narrative, which too often treats Pulitzer simply as a character, without insight into his person or perspective on his era. W.A. Swanberg's Pulitzer (1967) is a better book, and David Nasaw's biography of Pulitzer's great contemporary and rival, The Chief: The Life of William Randolph Hearst (LJ 6/1/00), a much better book. An optional purchase for journalism collections. Robert F. Nardini, Chichester, NH

Copyright 2001 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 15, 2001
\deflang1033\pard\plain\f3\fs24 Brian has written an engaging biography of a giant in American journalism whose name is attached to the most prestigious award in the profession. Joseph Pulitzer, a Hungarian immigrant who came to the U.S. penniless and speaking no English, rose to the most influential position in American journalism in its formative stages. As publisher of the \plain\f3\fs24" New York World \plain\f3\fs24 and \plain\f3\fs24" St. Louis Post-Dispatch, \plain\f3\fs24 Pulitzer was a pioneer of the sensationalist "yellow" journalism of the latter part of the nineteenth century, a period marked by fierce newspaper rivalries. Pulitzer undertook trust-busting campaigns and uncovered government corruption; his exposure of government shenanigans involving the Panama Canal prompted a lawsuit by President Theodore Roosevelt. He kept his hands in the political, economic, and social affairs of the U.S. even as creeping blindness and illnesses rendered him a virtual recluse, traveling the world and issuing strict instructions to his family and staff. Brian captures the amazing verve of an exciting period in American politics and journalism, disclosing the flaws and foibles of well-known figures from Roosevelt to \plain\f3\fs24" World\plain\f3\fs24 reporter Nellie Bly to newspaper magnate and rival William Randolph Hearst. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2001, American Library Association.)