James Gordon Bennett (Sr.) ( born James Gordon Bennett, Sr. , September 1, 1795 - June 1, 1872 ) - American journalist and bookseller, translator, proofreader. Founder, publisher and editor of the New York Herald , a major figure in the history of the American press .
| James Gordon Bennett (Sr.) | |
|---|---|
| James Gordon Bennett, Sr. | |
 | |
| Date of Birth | September 1, 1795 |
| Place of Birth | Whale , Scotland |
| Date of death | June 1, 1872 (76 years old) |
| Place of death | New York , USA |
| A country | |
| Occupation | publisher |
| Children | James Gordon Bennett (Jr.) |
Content
Biography
James Gordon Bennett was born into a prosperous Catholic family in Newmill , Scotland . At the age of 15 he entered the Catholic seminary in Aberdeen [1] , where he studied for four years [2] .
After leaving the seminary, Bennett devoted himself to reading and traveling. In 1819, he went with his friend to North America . Four weeks later, their ship came to Halifax , Nova Scotia , where Bennett found temporary work as a teacher. Having accumulated money, he moved to Portland , Maine , where he again got a job at a school in the village of Addison. Before the new year 1820, Bennett moved to Boston [2] . Here he worked as a proofreader and book seller until he got a job as a translator from Spanish to Charleston Courier . In 1823, Bennett moved to New York , taking up newspaper journalism, and then became an assistant editor at New York Courier and Enquirer .
In May 1835, James Gordon Bennett, after several years of unsuccessful attempts, founded the New York Herald . In April 1836, he shocked readers with an editorial about the murder of a prostitute Helen Juitt ; Bennett organized an interview for the first time in newspaper history for this article. Herald was the first to offer advertisers a 100% advance payment, which later became standard practice in the industry. Bennett was also at the forefront of news gathering and presentation technology, and began to supply woodcut illustrations. In 1839, he first took an exclusive interview with the US president , Martin Van Buren [3] .
On June 6, 1840, James Gordon Bennett (Sr.) was married to Henrietta Agnes Creen. The wedding took place in New York. They had three children in marriage, including James Gordon Bennett (Jr.) and Jeanette Gordon Bennett, who later became the wife of Isaac Bell , an American businessman and diplomat.
By the time Bennett transferred the management of the Herald to his son in 1866, the circulation of the newspaper had grown to 84,000, making it the most popular in America. But under Bennett Jr., the newspaper began to lose readers, and after the death of the new owner in 1924, it was bought by the rival New York Tribune .
It is known that James Gordon Bennett suffered with strabismus for most of his life. In one case he was described as follows: “he looked so terribly that when he looked at me with one eye, he looked at the city hall with the other” [4] .
Political orientation
Officially, the Herald was considered a politically independent newspaper, but supported presidents William Henry Harrison , Zachary Taylor , James Knox Polk , Franklin Pierce and John Fremont . However, Bennett eventually cooled down to Pierce, which, according to the writer Gary Boulard, was due to the post of ambassador to France, who longed for, but did not receive Bennett. After that, the newspaperman did not miss the opportunity to criticize Pierce both on the front page and in the editorial column, often calling him "poor Pearce." Bennett spoke in favor of James Buchanan during an escalating debate over slavery . In the presidential campaign of 1860, he first supported John Breckinridge , then switched to the side of John Bell . In 1864, he wrote about George McClellan , but did not support any of the presidential candidates. Despite his opposition to Abraham Lincoln , Bennett supported the National Union , and after the assassination of the president led the campaign to make Lincoln a martyr . Bennett supported the majority of Andrew Johnson 's proposals for reconstruction .
Memory
A street and park in North Manhattan are named after James Gordon Bennett.
Bennett's Herald article on the assassination of Helen Jewitt was included by The Library of America in the 2008 True Crime anthology.
Notes
- ↑ Bennett, James Gordon // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
- ↑ 1 2 Crouthamel, James L. Bennett's New York Herald and the Rise of the Popular Press. - Syracuse University Press, 1989.
- ↑ Paletta, Lu Ann and Worth, Fred L. (1988). "The World Almanac of Presidential Facts"
- ↑ Bennett, James Gordon (1795-1872) . Archived on September 26, 2012.
Literature
- Bennett, James Gordon // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
- Boulard, Garry The Expatriation of Franklin Pierce (2006). '