EDITOR

A Handpicked Successor.

In 1904 Joseph Pulitzer, legendary publisher of the New York World and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, surveyed his editorial staff. While John Heaton, William H. Merrill, Horatio Seymour, and Pulitzer's own son Ralph were all able men, the publisher wanted to find someone more like himself: a leader, a bold writer, and someone with deep knowledge of American history. He sent his personal secretary Samuel M. Williams on a nationwide hunt. In Detroit the editorials of the Free Press caught Williams's eye. They were clear and concise. He found that they were written by Frank Cobb, a man still in his early thirties. Over a series of lunches Williams quizzed Cobb on his knowledge of history and government and his views on journalism, and he assessed everything from his temperament to his table manners. Williams reported to Pulitzer that he had found his man. Born in rural Kansas...