author
Whitelaw Reid
1837–1912
A powerful newspaper editor turned diplomat, he helped shape public opinion in the United States and later represented the country abroad at a high level. His life moved from Civil War reporting to the New York Tribune and on to major posts in Paris and London.
2 Audiobooks
After the War: A Southern Tour. May 1, 1865 to May 1, 1866
by Whitelaw Reid
Problems of Expansion As Considered in Papers and Addresses
by Whitelaw Reid
About the author
Born in Ohio in 1837, Whitelaw Reid began his career in journalism after graduating from Miami University. He gained national attention as a Civil War correspondent for the Cincinnati Gazette, and he later wrote Ohio in the War, a widely read history that helped establish his reputation.
Reid joined the New York Tribune in the late 1860s, became managing editor, and after Horace Greeley’s death in 1872 rose to lead the paper as editor and publisher. Under his direction, the Tribune remained one of the most influential newspapers in the United States, and Reid himself became a prominent Republican public figure, including a run for vice president in 1892.
Public service was a major part of his later life. He served as U.S. minister to France and, from 1905 until his death in London in 1912, as ambassador to the United Kingdom. That mix of reporter, editor, historian, politician, and diplomat makes him a striking figure from the world of 19th-century American public life.