Pulitzer_ A Life in Politics, Print, and Power - James McGrath Morris [214]
Fortunately, Kate and the baby hardly weighed on Joseph’s mind when they finally came together. Rather, he was recovering from listening to a reading of Phillips’s novel, which had been published under the pseudonym John Graham. Phillips had to use another name because in bringing out the book, he had violated one of the World’s cardinal rules, included in his contract: that publishing any work outside the paper was prohibited. The breaking of this rule, however, paled in comparison with the accusation in the novel that Pulitzer had sold out his ideals.
“I not only read it but enjoyed it very much with one single reservation,” Pulitzer told Phillips, without further elaboration. “The book showed undoubted talent, imagination, and skill in constructing dialogue.” To Pulitzer’s mind, it also showed treachery. “Mr. Pulitzer was keenly hurt when he discovered that the author of the novel was Mr. Phillips,” said Seitz. He had trusted Phillips and treated him at times like a son. Pulitzer asked if Phillips had read Crime and Punishment. “If not, don’t let twenty-four hours pass before you do so.”
In selecting Dostoyevsky’s novel from the countless ones he had read, Pulitzer chose a work in which a murderer is racked by guilt. His implication would not be lost on Phillips. The Great God Success did not end their friendship, but it would never be the same again. Not long after the book’s publication, Phillips resigned from the World.
Joseph left Kate and the children in Aix-les-Bains and went to spend the summer of 1902 at Chatwold. Kate’s French doctor warned him to send her as few letters or telegrams as possible and said that those he did send must be bright and cheery. “She is suffering from one great nervous depression which causes gastric trouble and loss of weight,” reported the doctor. “It is necessary for her cure to take a very severe treatment for two months.” By late summer Kate’s health improved. “I am better but it takes very little to throw me back again,” she wrote. “I am not yet permitted to take the douches, and the doctor does not tell me when I can do so. He says that in my condition they would be dangerous.”
Alone in Maine, except for his staff, Joseph mostly obeyed the doctor’s orders regarding correspondence with Kate. Yet he was, once again, furious over Kate’s spending. Since he could not complain to her, Joseph decided to turn over her allowance to Ledlie and have him pay the bills. This put Ledlie, who was close to Kate, in an impossible position. If Kate were to order him not to pay a bill because she felt it was Joseph’s responsibility, then Ledlie would have to do battle with his boss. He and Butes, Pulitzer’s main personal secretary, quickly consulted with each other behind their boss’s back and decided they were both in a hopeless position as long as Joseph and Kate continued their fiscal war.
In September, John Dillon, who was now fifty-nine, came to Maine for an overdue reunion with Pulitzer. After quitting the World in 1900, he had soon regretted his decision and had come back to work for his old partner. As was customary when one visited Pulitzer, the two men went out for a horseback ride, accompanied by at least one of Pulitzer’s companions, who minded the horse for him. During the ride, Dillon was thrown from his mount. When they managed to get him back to the house, doctors said that he had suffered two broken ribs and some undetermined internal injuries.
Telegrams to Dillon’s family assured them there was no cause for alarm. “Excellent care by two nurses. Takes nourishment. Must wait healing and subsidence of inflammatory condition resulting from fall.” The healing did not come. Rather, pneumonia set in, and Dillon’s heart grew weak. Pulitzer called to the house the noted doctors S. Weir Mitchell and William Sydner Thayer, both of whom had treated Joseph and Kate. There was little they could do, and once again Chatwold became the scene of a deathwatch. On October 15, Dillon died with his wife and