Horace Greeley Biography

Dictionary of Literary Biography on Horace Greeley

Horace Greeley, an idealist with strong conservative tendencies, possessed a vision of the destiny of America: a unified, powerful, and prosperous place where its citizens had the opportunity to live full and useful lives. This vision, reinforced by moral zeal and genuine humanitarian sympathies, drew him to a public life, and it is in his many public roles that his reputation lies. As crusader, reformer, and politician, he directly affected his contemporaries in New York and Washington. As editor of the New York Tribune, one of the most prominent newspapers of the nineteenth century, Greeley combined these roles and extended his ideas and influence across the whole nation. His name was a household word, often linked with truth, determination, and moral courage. The articles written by "Uncle Horace" appearing in the Weekly Tribune were read with respect, if not with complete agreement, by rural and urban Americans. Today, he is studied by students of the history of journalism as the founder and editor of the Tribune and as one of the "fathers" of modern journalism.

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