Halmágyi Pál: A Pulitzer-kultusz 100 éve Makón 1911–2011. A Makói Múzeum Füzetei 112. (Makó, 2011)

Mellékletek - Csillag András: Joseph Pulitzer, The Newspaper King (Makó, Hungary, April 10,1847 - Charleston, USA, October 29,1911)

JOSEPH PULITZER, THE NEWSPAPER KING MAKÓ, HUNGARY, APRIL 10, 1847 - CHARLESTON, USA, OCTOBER 29, 1911 The name of Joseph Pulitzer is known nowadays mainly for the prizes endowed by him and awarded annually for notable achievements in American journalism, letters and music. A penniless immigrant joining the Union Army in the Civil War, he kept body and soul together by hard labor; later as a newspaperman and congressman, he came to live the life of a true American until his death. Pulitzer was one of the greatest figures in modern journalism and a democratic reformer of his age. He founded and made a respectable newspaper of the St. Louis PostDispatch, he studied law and became active in politics. His career as an innovator of mass-appeal journalism began in 1883 when he bought the nearly bankrupt New York World and made it an exponent of democracy and social justice based on mass circulation. He established his credentials as a master journalist by responding quickly and adroitly to the drift of social change. The World became a "national institution": although Democratic in its principles, it was one of the leading independent voices of opinion in the United States and frequently attracted notice as a crusading organ. In his later years, stricken with almost complete blindness and ill health, Pulitzer relinquished direct management of his publications but continued to control policy. His bequest made possible the founding of the Pulitzer School of Journalism at New York's Columbia University and the establishment of the Pulitzer Prizes. József (Joseph) Pulitzer was born on 10 April 1847 at Makó. His parents were Fülöp (Philip) Pulitzer, a "trader", and Elize Berger. Fülöp was a well-trained businessman from Makó, and in 1838 he married Joseph's mother, who also came from a Jewish family of traders in Pest. Two of Fülöp's brothers, also businessmen, served in the National Guard during the Revolution of 1848-49. Joseph was the fourth child in the family. His younger brother, Albert, born on 10 July 1851, later went to America after Joseph. Fülöp Pulitzer established his trading enterprise in the town centre of Makó with a new house built on the plot right across from the County Hall. It was here that Joseph was born. By 1844, Fülöp had already been trading in land produce in large quantities. He bought up locally grown tobacco, cereals, onion and wool to sell to other wholesale merchants in various parts of the Austrian Empire. He ordered rape, spices, sugar and occasionally fish for his store. Before his business trips, he received the best reference from the magistrate describing him as a good tax-payer, a sober and honest merchant who enjoyed great respect in town. During the Revolution of 1848-49, he was food-supplier to the insurgent troops in the south of Hungary. In the 1850's, a successful and wealthy merchant, he often went on business trips across the Empire, occasionally accompanying his eldest son, Lajos (Louis) to an economic school in Vienna. Little Joseph had a carefree and cheerful boyhood. A private tutor taught the children at home. By 1854, Fülöp Pulitzer had become a "foremost merchant of the highest credit" in town. But in the spring of 1855 the Pulitzers made a great decision: they turned to the Council of the City of Pest for permission to settle there permanently. Having sold their fine house, they left Makó for good in the hope of economic expansion. Joseph was eight years old at this time. In the following year, Fülöp 42