Pulitzer_ A Life in Politics, Print, and Power - James McGrath Morris [295]
At the beginning: PD, 9/12/1881, 1. However, Pulitzer became so nervous about being alone in his negative predictions that he resorted to filing a few encouraging dispatches. Within days, though, he was back in his role as a doomsayer.
On September 15: PD, 9/15/1881, 1; WaPo, 9/16/1881, 1; NYT, 9/16/1881, 1.
The tide of: NYT, 9/17/1881, 1; PD, 9/17/1881, 1.
On Monday morning: PD, 9/19/1881, 1, quoted in WRR, 75; Ackerman, Dark Horse, 427.
The day after: PD, 9/20/1881, 4.
The success of: Circulation figures, PLFC.
Pulitzer trumpeted the: PD, 6/1/1882, quoted in JSR, 206.
As a consequence: WaPo, 1/23/82, 2.
The hostility grew: ChTr, 3/25/82, 5; also see JSR, 292.
In March, on: WaPo, 3/22/1882, 2; PD, 3/16/1882, 4.
Perhaps inspired by: APM, 167–177.
During his years: ThJo, 12/20/1884, 6.
If the railroad: PD, 10/14/1880, 4; NYW, 5/13/1883, 1.
Gould became Pulitzer’s: PD, 3/18/1882, 4 and 7.
Broadhead aroused the: Donald F. Brod, “John A. Cockerill’s St. Louis Years,” Bulletin, Vol. 26, No. 3 (April 1970), MHS, 232.
In his office: Compiled press accounts. See, for instance, ChTr, 10/16/1882.
News of the shooting: Daily Kennebec Journal, 10/16/1882, 2.
Slayback’s friend Clopton: Sarah Lane Glasgow to William Glasgow, 10/18/1882, William Carr Lane Collection, MHS.
On October 18: Harper’s Weekly, 11/4/1882 quoted in JSR, 289; circulation figures, FP.
As part of: ChTr, 10/19/1882, 3; Janesville Daily Gazette, 10/24, 1882, 2; JSR, 292, note 26.
By November, Pulitzer: St. Louis Spectator, 11/11/1882, MHS.
One of the men: Turner, When Giants Ruled, 105; ThJo, 1/15/87, 12.
A few hours later: Julius Chambers, quoted in APM, 231.
CHAPTER 16: THE GREAT THEATER
One of the most persistent myths about Pulitzer was that he purchased the New York World while in New York with Kate preparing to board a ship for Europe. In fact, Pulitzer had been stalking the paper for months. See, for example, the Springfield Republican, 2/19/1883, 4.
On April 7: NYT, 4/4/1883; Klein, The Life and Legend of Jay Gould, 315–319.
He decided to: NYW, 5/13/1883, 1. “The only changes I can suggest would cost money,” one of the paper’s managers had written a few months earlier—hardly glad tidings to bring to the boss (Elmer Speed to William Hurlbert, 1/15/1883, WP CU).
In January, Gould: WaPo, 1/28/1878, 2; ChTr, 1/25/1883, 3; PD, 4/11/1883, quoted in JSR, 297.
On the day: R. L. Cotteret to Edwin H Argent, 3/3/1883, JP-CU. For a sample of the reporting sheet, see January–June 1883 folder, JP-CU, Box 4.
On the way: WaPo, 4/7/1883, 4; Smith to JP, 8/6/1887, WP-CU.
This purchase, unlike: ThJo, 4/19/84, 4; ChTr, 4/16/1883, 5.
Pulitzer did not: Renehan, The Dark Genius of Wall Street, 3.
On April 28: The original contract is among the JPII-LC Papers. Conkling later billed Pulitzer for the services; see JP to Conkling, 12/19/1885, WP-CU. His role as Pulitzer’s lawyer in the purchase is detailed in Atchison Daily Globe, 11/19/1887, 1.
He confessed his anxiety: JSR, 302. Later in life, Joseph often credited Kate with giving him the resolve to go through with the deal. See RP to John C. Milburn, of Carter, Ladyard & Milburn, 1/5/1912, JP-CU. Pulitzer’s friends Watterson and Melville Stone, who co-owned the Chicago Daily News, both later claimed that he asked them to become partners in the World after he bought it. That seems highly unlikely, as Pulitzer never wanted a real partner in any enterprise.
Word of the: GlDe, 05/06/1883, 6.
On May 9: The New York Herald, which printed the Journal, disclosed that it was running off 50,000 copies a day: NYT, 5/23/1883, 8; APM, 205–210.
At the Fifth Avenue Hotel: NYH, 5/10/1883, 8.
Escorting Pulitzer around: DCS-JP, 135–136.
While Joseph made: APM, 205–206.
There may have been: Herald editorial, reprinted in NYT, 5/23/1883, 8.
A few weeks: APM, 210.
For those who had watched: Charles Gibson to JP, 5/14/1883, JP-CU; John H. Holmes to JP, undated but certainly between May and June 1883, JP-CU, Box 5.
Taking from his bag: NYW, 5/12/1883, 1.
Then—also as he: Stephen Richardson, JP-LC, Box 11, Folder