Pulitzer_ A Life in Politics, Print, and Power - James McGrath Morris [265]
But without Joseph and his brilliant editor Frank Cobb, who died in 1923, Ralph and Herbert were ill-equipped to run the newspaper. The blame rested as much on their father as on the two sons. As an absentee owner, Joseph had refused to cede sufficient control so that a corporate management structure could be built. The internal disunion at the paper was aggravated by his system of keeping his managers competing and spying on each other. Until the end, Joseph had remained the keystone in the arch of management. After 1911, “the Pulitzer building was a haunted house,” said one of the World’s writers. When the Depression came in 1929, the World’s losses mounted. Ralph, Herbert, and Joe agreed that maintaining the paper was a lost cause.
The reporters and editors at the city desk that morning had taken part in a last-ditch effort to persuade the brothers to sell the paper to the staff. Instead, the three sons surrendered the World and Evening World to Scripps-Howard for $5 million after obtaining a judge’s consent to break their father’s enjoinment that the paper never be sold. The resulting New York World-Telegram carried only the name of the paper. Joseph Pulitzer’s World was gone.
The city editor James Barrett had just put the final edition carrying the announcement of the sale to bed. “Everyone found a paper cup, or two,” said one of the reporters. “And the bottles weren’t filled with water, because what they were filled with took the wax off the cups and curdled.” Suddenly, Barrett slapped the desk and burst into song. To the tune of the “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” the men belted out, “J.P.’s body lies a-mouldering in the grave, but the staff goes marching on.” At three in the morning, they decided to move their wake to Daly’s, a speakeasy popular with newspapermen. They left the Pulitzer Building, went into the chilly night, and marched down Park Row singing.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The idea for this book belongs to my editor Tim Duggan. At first, I was unconvinced there was a need for a new biography of Joseph Pulitzer. The last serious one had been written in 1967 by W. A. Swanberg, whose books first got me interested in biography. However, after some modest research, I found that Swanberg had missed a great deal and that a new look at Pulitzer was long overdue. So, I remain thankful to Duggan for his clairvoyance and to the literary agent Mark Reiter, then with PFD New York, who negotiated the contract and supported the project from the start.
At HarperCollins, I also owe thanks to assistant editor Allison Lorentzen and copyeditor Susan Gamer for shepherding the manuscript to publication.
Like most authors, I live in fear of not properly thanking the many who made this book possible. But, here to the best of my ability, is my supporting cast.
The description of the Pulitzer family genealogy and of their life in Makó would not be so complete were it not for the work of historian András Csillag, a professor of American Civilization at Szeged University, Szeged, Hungary. Since the 1980s, he has doggedly pursued research into the family’s history. The tour he provided me of Makó, Pulitzer’s birthplace, was of enormous help. I was also assisted in Makó by Laszlo Molnar, Adrienn Nagy, and Marton Eacsedi, caretaker of the Jewish Cemeteries. In Budapest, Gyorgyi Haraszti, of the Institute of History of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Victor Karady, in the Jewish Studies Department of Central European University, and Mátyás Gödölle, of the Hungarian National Museum answered my many questions about Pest when Pulitzer lived there as a child. Istvan Deak, at Columbia University,