Inspiration to Live Your Magic: 75 Inspiring Biographies

Joseph Pulitzer
A journalist, investigative reporter, publisher, and advocate for 
freedom of the press, Joseph Pulitzer also started the first school of 
Journalism - at Columbia University - and created the famous Pulitzer 
Prizes for journalism and literature.
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If Joseph Pulitzer had been born with better eyesight, or hadn’t known how to play chess, 
our newspapers would not be the same today. When he was a teenager in Hungary in the 
1860s, Joseph decided to become a soldier, but his eyesight was so bad that no army 
would take him. Finally, a recruiter from the United States signed him up to fight in the 
American Civil War.
After a year as a soldier, and having managed to survive the Civil War, Pulitzer stayed in 
America, working odd jobs and learning English. Then, a chance meeting changed his 
life and changed the world of journalism forever.
As he was studying at the library in St. Louis, he saw two men playing chess. He 
suggested a good move to one of them, and the three started up a conversation. The two 
men were publishers of a newspaper, and they offered Pulitzer a job.
Joseph Pulitzer turned out to be a brilliant and hard-working reporter. After a few years, 
he became publisher of the newspaper. Then, after making one smart deal after another, 
he wound up owning the largest newspaper in the city - the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
That’s when Pulitzer’s real genius came out. He made his newspaper the voice of the 
common people, investigating gambling rackets, political corruption, and rich tax 

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dodgers. People loved this new, crusading style of journalism, and circulation soared.
Joseph Pulitzer kept working hard even after he had become very ill and his eyesight was 
nearly gone. He believed that it was important for newspapers to serve a social purpose 
and help protect people from dishonesty and corruption. After a few years, he was able to 
buy another newspaper, this time in New York, and bring his populist approach to an 
even larger audience.
In 1909, his New York paper broke the story of one of the biggest political scandals in 
American history - $40 million in illegal payments in the Panama Canal deal. The U.S. 
government tried to sue him, but Pulitzer stood firm and won an important victory for 
freedom of the press.
Joseph Pulitzer willed part of his fortune to establish the world’s first school of 
journalism at New York’s Columbia University. He also set aside money for annual 
prizes for journalists and writers; today, winning one of the famous Pulitzer Prizes makes 
you a superstar among writers.
Although he fell into journalism by accident, Joseph Pulitzer set standards that 
newspapers still strive to attain today.
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