Joseph Pulitzer (1847-1911) was born in Budapest, Hungary, and died in Charleston, South Carolina. He married Katherine "Kate" Davis in Washington, D.C. in 1878. He was a journalist, philanthropist, and congressman, who also served in the American Civil War for the Union. He entered journalism as a reporter on the Westliche Post in 1868, and became managing editor and part proprietor. He studied law, was elected to the Missouri Legislature in 1869, and continued his political career in Missouri and New York. In 1878, he bought the St. Louis Dispatch and merged it with the Evening Post as the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Between 1883-1911 he was the proprietor of the New York World. He made the paper into a symbol of sensational yellow journalism, including an extensive article on Mary Baker Eddy published on October 28, 1906. He established a number of educational scholarships, including $2,000,000 which was used to establish the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, resulting in the establishment of the Pulitzer Prizes from 1917 onward.

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