Pulitzer_ A Life in Politics, Print, and Power - James McGrath Morris [289]
The New York Sun: Turner, When Giants Ruled, 95; Allen Churchill, Park Row (New York: Rinehart, 1958), 12.
The famous editor’s office: Don Carlos Seitz, Newspaper Row: Some Account of a Journey along the Main Street of American Journalism (unpublished, American Heritage Center), 98; Smythe, The Gilded Age Press, 10.
Pulitzer told the men: Mitchell, Memoirs of an Editor, 264; John Schumaker to JP, 10/29/1887, JP-CU.
The nation’s partisan press: StLoTi, 11/11/1876, 4 and 11/16/1876, 4.
In New York: Mitchell, Memoirs of an Editor, 265; Harper’s Weekly, 12/30/1876, 1055; Young, The American Statesman, 1593.
As a member: NYS, 12/30/1876, 3.
By this point: NYS, 12/29/1876, 3.
Pulitzer did not limit: ChTr, 1/9/1877, 1. The New York Times described Pulitzer’s “fiery talk” as being “on the order which was current among German students of 1848” (NYT, 1/9/1877, 1). Watterson found his speech hard to live down. “I became the target for every kind of ridicule and abuse. Nast drew a grotesque cartoon of me, distorting my suggestion for the assembling of 100,000 citizens, which was both offensive and libelous…. For many years afterward I was pursued by this unlucky speech, or rather by the misinterpretation given to it alike by friend and foe. Nast’s first cartoon was accepted as a faithful portrait, and I was accordingly satirized and stigmatized, though no thought of violence ever had entered my mind, and in the final proceedings I had voted for the Electoral Commission Bill and faithfully stood by its decisions. Joseph Pulitzer, who immediately followed me on the occasion named, declared that he wanted my ‘one hundred thousand’ to come fully armed and ready for business; yet he never was taken to task or reminded of his temerity.” (Watterson, Henry Marse, 303.)
On March 2: The end of Reconstruction was not, of course, such a simple matter. For a more complete story, see Foner, Reconstruction; or Lemann, Redemption. See also Turner, When Giants Ruled, 96.
The loss stung: Galveston Daily News, 3/10/1877, 1.
In St. Louis: ChTr, 4/12/1877, 1; NYT, 4/12/1877, 1.
On April 10: MoRe, 4/12/1877, 4. Reynolds, in “Joseph Pulitzer,” believed it was a “tea party,” given by Mrs. Dan Morrison, that Pulitzer attended. The only thing known with certainty is that Pulitzer returned to his hotel at midnight.
The fire engines: ChTr, 4/12/1877, 1. One fireman, Phelim O’Toole, saved a dozen people from the fire and inspired a song, the second stanza of which is: “To save helpless women, at the word of command,/He bravely came forward, for duty he strives;/Ascending the ladder, his life in his hand,/Defying the fire fiend, while hope now survives./Brave Phelim O’Toole mounts higher and higher,/And reaches the high elevation at last;/He bears fainting women from torturing fire/Down the perilous ladder the danger is past.”
Pulitzer was the first witness: MoRe, 4/17/1877, 4.
On April 27: ChTr, 4/28/1877, 2; NYT, 4/28/1877, 5.
A month later: NYT, 4/27/1877, 8. Albert’s itinerary is reprinted in APM, 152–153. The letter from Fannie Pulitzer is reprinted in APM, 154–157.
Pulitzer found the aging editor: Ohio Democrat, New Philadelphia, OH, 7/12/1877.
With a flourish: The article in the Sun, which appeared during August, was reprinted in the Washington Post, 1/22/1878, 2, shortly after Bowles’s death. It carried the byline “J. P.”
Pulitzer sprained his ankle: WRR, 54–55. The account of this month is based on Johnson’s diary.
CHAPTER 11: NANNIE AND KATE
Much of this chapter revolves around the story told in six surviving love letters by Pulitzer. Three of them have been long known because they are reprinted in full in Seitz’s 1924 biography. The originals seem to have been lost in the years since then. They are remarkable in how honest and prescient Pulitzer was in warning Davis of the kind of life they would lead after their marriage.
Two of the other three letters, the ones to Tunstall, have also been