author
Charles E. Chapin
1858–1930
A hard-driving newspaper editor who helped shape big-city journalism, he became almost as famous for the shocking crime that ended his career. His life moved from Pulitzer’s newsroom to Sing Sing, where he later wrote about his rise and downfall.
1 Audiobook
Charles Chapin's story : Written in Sing Sing Prison
by Charles E. Chapin
About the author
Born in Watertown, New York, in 1858, Charles E. Chapin built his reputation in newspapers and eventually became the longtime city editor of Joseph Pulitzer’s Evening World in New York. He was known as a fierce, demanding editor whose sense for news helped keep the paper at the center of the city’s fast, competitive journalism scene.
In 1918, Chapin’s life took a dramatic turn when he killed his wife, Nellie, and was convicted of murder. He was sentenced to Sing Sing prison, a fall that stunned people who knew him only as one of the most powerful editors in New York.
While imprisoned, he wrote Charles Chapin's Story, a memoir that recounts both his newspaper career and the tragedy that destroyed it. His story is still remembered as one of the most striking rises and collapses in American journalism.