Pulitzer: A Life in Politics, Print & Power
by James McGrath Morris
Summary
The definitive biography of the man who created the modern media – the first comprehensive biography of this remarkable historical icon in more than 40 years. Morris traces the epic story of this Jewish Hungarian immigrant’s rise through American politics and into journalism where he accumulated immense power and wealth only to fall blind and become a lonely tormented recluse wandering the globe. But not before Pulitzer transformed American journalism into a medium of mass consumption and immense influence
Excerpt
On the afternoon of February 17, 1909, a small boat pushed off from the dock in Havana’s harbor, cut through the pearl-green waters hugging the shoreline, and slid into the ultramarine-blue bay. Out ahead of it, one of the most luxurious private yachts in the world lay at anchor.
The length of a football field, the Liberty was rivaled in size and extravagance only by J.P. Morgan’s Corsair, which had set the standard of seagoing opulence for a decade. With two raked masts front and aft of a large smokestack, the white-hulled Liberty was like the beautiful schooners that had plied the oceans years earlier. “II have never seen a vessel of more beautiful lines,” said one man on board, who had served on a yacht belonging to the second white raja Sarawak. Inside, the spacious vessel contained a gymnasium, a library, drawing and smoking rooms, an oak-paneled dining room that could easily seat a dozen people, quarters for its forty-five man crew, and twelve staterooms fitted by a decorator who had designed furnishings for London’s Victoria and Albert Museum.
At this hour, on board all was still. The engines were silent, the bulkhead doors remained closed, and the upper deck gangways were roped off. The Liberty’s owner, Joseph Pulitzer, had jus gone down for his after-lunch nap, and severe consequences would befall anyone who disturbed the repose of America’s most powerful newspaper publisher.
Since becoming blind at the apex of his rise to the top, the sixty-one-year-old Pulitzer suffered from insomnia as well as numerous other real and imagined ailments, and was tormented by even the smallest sound.
Every consideration possible was made to eliminate noise on board. Engraved brass plaques in the forward part of the ship warned, “This door shall not be opened until Mr. Pulitzer is awake.” At sea, the ship’s twin steam engines drove propellers set at different pitches and running at varying speeds in order to minimize vibrations carried through the hull. The Liberty was a temple of silence.
It was also Pulitzer’s cocoon. The demons that beset him never rested. For two decades, he had roamed the globe. At any moment, he might be found consulting doctors in Germany, taking baths in southern France, resting on the Riviera, walking in a private garden in London, riding on Jekyll Island, hiding in his tower of silence in Maine, or at sea. Since his yacht was launched the year before, water had become his constant habitat. In fact, the Liberty carried sufficient coal to cross and re-cross the Atlantic without refueling.
Wherever he went, it was in the company of an all-male retinue of secretaries, readers, pianists, and valets. In every practical sense, they replaced his wife and children. From morning to night, these men tended to his every whim and kept the world at bay. By long practice, they had mastered handling his correspondence, and discerned the most soothing manner by which to read books aloud from his well-stocked traveling library.
Reviews
A Horatio Alger tale shaded with Shakespearean darkness. - Kirkus
Highly recommened - Library Journal
Fascinating portrayal of the man his era, and his long-ranging impact. --Booklist
Author's Biography
James McGrath Morris is author of PULITZER. His previous book, The Rose Man of Sing Sing, was selected as a Washington Post Best Book of the Year & was optioned as a film. His writing has appeared in numerous magazines & newspapers, including The Washington Post & New York Observer.