author
Ralph Pulitzer
1879–1939
A newspaper publisher, author, and heir to one of America’s great press dynasties, he helped lead the New York World after the death of his father, Joseph Pulitzer. His life bridged the high drama of early 20th-century journalism and the fading era of big metropolitan newspapers.
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About the author
Born in St. Louis on June 11, 1879, he was the eldest son of Joseph Pulitzer and later became president of the Press Publishing Company, the publisher of the New York World and the Evening World. After his father’s death in 1911, he took on a central role in the family’s newspaper business and became a prominent figure in American publishing.
He was also an author as well as a publisher, and his name is often linked with the final chapter of the World, one of the most influential newspapers of its time. Under his leadership, the paper continued its long public presence before financial pressures and changing conditions led to its sale in the early 1930s.
Remembered today mainly through the Pulitzer family legacy, he represents a generation that inherited the power of the great newspaper empires and tried to carry them forward in a rapidly changing media age. He died in New York City on June 14, 1939.