One of the most powerful and respected newspaper publishers in American journalism history, Joseph Pulitzer built his empire with two major newspapers in the post-Civil War era. His somewhat paradoxical achievements as a "New Journalist" and "yellow journalist" of the 1880s and 1890s reflect his efforts to combine editorial crusading on behalf of the middle class (in St. Louis) and the poor (in New York) with a highly competitive and financially profitable business enterprise. His legacy to the journalism profession includes his endowment of the Columbia University School of Journalism (opened in 1912) and establishment of the Pulitzer Prizes, awarded annually since 1917.

Born in Mako, Hungary, about 135 miles southeast of Budapest, on 10 April 1847, Pulitzer was the son of a Magyar-Jewish father, Philip, and a Christian, Austro-German mother, Louise Berger. He was the second of four children: Louis was the oldest; Albert was third; and Irma was the youngest and...