Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Pulitzer, Joseph

PULITZER, Joseph (pul'-it-zer), journalist, b. in Buda-Pesth, Hungary, 10 April, 1847. He was educated in his native city and came to this country in early youth. Soon after arriving in New York he went to St. Louis, where he quickly acquired a knowledge of English, became interested in politics, and was elected to the Missouri legislature in 1869, and to the State constitutional convention in 1874. He entered journalism at twenty as a reporter on the St. Louis “Westliche Post,” a German Republican newspaper, then under the editorial control of Carl Schurz. He subsequently became its managing editor, and obtained a proprietary interest. In 1878 he founded the “Post-Dispatch” in that city by buying the “Dispatch” and uniting it with the “Evening Post,” and he still retains control of the journal. In 1872 he was a delegate to the Cincinnati convention which nominated Horace Greeley for the presidency, and in 1880 he was a delegate to the Democratic National convention, and a member of its platform committee from Missouri. In 1883 he purchased the New York “World,” which, after twenty-three years of existence under various managers, had achieved no permanent success, and he has greatly increased its circulation. He is at present its editor and sole proprietor. He was elected to congress in 1884, but resigned a few months after taking his seat, on account of the pressure of journalistic duties.