Joseph Medill Patterson

Joseph Medill Patterson (January 6th, 1879 – May 26th, 1946) was an American journalist and publisher, the grandson of publisher Joseph Medill who worked as the owner of the Chicago Tribune and served as a mayor of Chicago. Joseph Medill Patterson was the older brother of fellow publisher Cissy Patterson and the father of Alicia Patterson, founder and editor of New York’s Newsday. During his lengthy career as editor of the Chicago Tribune and founder of the Pulitzer Prize winning New York Daily News, Patterson emerged as one of the dominant newspaper publishers in the United States, rivaled primarily by William Randolph Hearst. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery alongside his second wife, Mary King Patterson.

Life

Joseph Medill Patterson was born on January 6th, 1879 in Chicago, Illinois. His father, Robert W. Patterson Jr. had risen to a position of prominence at the Chicago Tribune and married the owner's daughter, Nellie. Patterson was groomed from birth to follow in the footsteps of his famous grandfather. His mother and his aunt, Kate, both named their firstborn sons after their famous father, aware of the importance of creating a family dynasty.

Patterson enjoyed an affluent upbringing, attending the exclusive prep school Groton during his youth. Following his graduation, Patterson postponed his entry into college to live as a cowboy in Wyoming before attending Yale in 1897. Following his graduation from Yale, Patterson began working for his father at the Chicago Tribune where he covered the police beat and wrote editorials. However he eventually resigned over a disagreement with his father.

In 1902 Patterson married socialite Alice Higgenbotham, the daughter of a partner in the Marshall Field department store. To Patterson’s disappointment, the couple had three daughters. However his second daughter, Alicia, would act as a surrogate son, accompanying her father fishing, hunting and riding and following in his footsteps as founder and editor of New York's Newsday. In 1903 Patterson was elected to the Illinois House of Representatives, and would later serve as the commissioner of public works under Mayor Edward Dunne. A staunch socialist, Patterson condemned the lifestyles of the rich and resigned from office in 1906 to pursue farming.

He later returned to the newspaper industry, establishing the New York Daily News, the first successful tabloid in the United States. Though he denounced the United States’ entry into World War II, Patterson remained a loyal soldier. He again volunteered for service at the outbreak of the war, but he was denied reentry due to his age of 62.

Joseph Medill Patterson died in New York in 1946.

Work

In 1908 Patterson helped to run the presidential campaign of socialist Eugene V. Debs while publishing various socialist novels and plays including A Little Brother of the Rich in 1908 and The Fourth Estate in 1909. Discouraged by the lack of change brought about by socialism, Patterson returned to the Chicago Tribune after the death of his father in 1910.

Patterson took over the management of the Chicago Tribune where he began experimenting with the content of the front page by featuring more crime news. At the outbreak of World War I, he left the Tribune to serve in the U.S. Army. While in London, Patterson began reading the flashy British tabloids, and believed that American readers would respond favorably to similar publications.

After the end of the war, Patterson returned to the United States. In 1919, leaving the Tribune in the hands of his cousin, Robert Rutherford McCormick, Patterson moved to New York to found the New York Daily News. With its large photographs and lurid stories, it was an instant hit; by 1925 its circulation had soared past one million.

Legacy

Throughout his career, Joseph Medill Patterson often condemned the world in which he was raised and surrounded. As a young supporter of the socialist party, Patterson withdrew from hereditary riches to pursue personal political interests, though he would later become disappointed in the party's political impact. For a series of editorials supporting the presidential campaign of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Patterson received a Pulitzer Prize.

One of Patterson’s most lasting contributions to the publishing industry is the personal hand he took in managing the various comic strip properties he ran in his papers. It was at his suggestion that the lead character of Gasoline Alley adopt a foundling child who became a central character in the strip. Another famous strip he influenced was Dick Tracy, suggesting the preliminary title to be changed from Plainclothes Tracy and generally supporting its creator, Chester Gould, who insisted on a technical, grotesque and extremely violent style of storytelling. Patterson was also responsible for the idea of a comic strip about the orient, a suggestion that would lead to the creation of the strip, Terry and the Pirates.

Major Publications

• Patterson, Joseph Medill. Confessions of a Drone. See Sharp Press., 1906.
• Patterson, Joseph Medill. A Little Brother of the Rich: A Novel. The Reilly & Britton Co., 1908.
• Patterson, Joseph Medill. Rebellion: A Novel. The Reilly & BrittonCo., 1911.
• Patterson, Joseph Medill. The Note Book of a Neutral. Duffield & Co., 1916.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Arlington National Cemetery Website. Joseph Medill Patterson. Biography, Arlington National Cemetery Website. Retrieved 1 November 2007.
• The Alicia Patterson Foundation. Alicia Patterson. Hofstra University Biography. Retrieved 1 November, 2007.
• Stevens, John. Sensationalism and the New York Press. Columbia University Press; New York. 1991. ISBN 0231073968.
• McKerns, Joseph. Biographical Dictionary of American Journalism. Greenwood Press, 1989. ISBN 0313238189.
• Smythe, Ted. The Gilded Age Press, 1865-1900. Praeger Publishers, 2003. ISBN 0313300801.

External Links

• The Nickelodeons, 1907. The Saturday Evening Post.
• Great Poems of the World War, 1922.
• Joseph Medill Patterson. Arlington National Cemetery.
• Joseph Medill Patterson.

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