I'm sure many of people have heard of Joseph Pulitzer or the annual journalist award that is named after him "The Pulitzer Prize". But Joseph Pulitzer didn't start out as just any ordinary journalist. Pulitzer was born to a wealthy family in Mako, Hungary on April 10, 1847. His father the eldest was a grain merchant and retired in Budapest and Joseph grew up in private schools there.
At the age of seventeen Pulitzer was 6'2 and decided he wanted to be a soldier, he tried to enlist in the Austrian Army. He was declined due to weak eyesight and frail health, these things would plague him for the rest of his life. Pulitzer later became fluent in German and French but he spoke very little English. He made his way to St. Louis, Missouri to study English and Law. Following this, in 1868 he became a reporter on a German daily newspaper, the Westliche Post. During 1871-72 he helped to organize the Liberal Republican Party in Missouri, after this party's subsequent collapse, Pulitzer became and remained a lifelong democrat.
Pulitzer included in his newspapers, political corruption and crusading investigative reporting with publicity stunts, self-advertising, and sensationalistic journalism. He also introduced innovations such as comics, sports coverage, and illustrations in his newspapers. Making them not just entertainment but as well as informative.
Although Pulitzer was a hard worker, he paid the price for this his health would start declining, his eyesight would begin to fail. During 1883 Pulitzer and his wife set out for New York to board a ship on a "doctor-ordered European vacation". While this was in the process, he met with Jay Gould a financier, and they negotiated the purchase of The New York World, which was in financial straits.
In 1912, one year after Pulitzers death, the Columbia school of journalism was founded, and the first Pulitzer Prizes were awarded in 1917.
https://www.pulitzer.org/page/biography-joseph-pulitzer
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Joseph-Pulitzer
