Park Row.

by Allen Churchill

First edition. Park Row, of New York City, is the setting for this chronicle about famous newspapers and their colorful personalities. Pulitzer, Hearst, and Bennett are part of this story. Very good condition. viii , 344 pages. cloth, dust jacket.. 8vo..

Genres: History, New York

344 pages, Hardcover

First published November 12, 1973

Reviews

[Derek Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent, if overly nostalgic study of turn-of-the-twentieth-century journalism in New York City. Written in the late 1950s, it harks back to an era when the newspaper reporter was king of the hill, and New York was the mecca of journalists. Park Row was the address of nearly every New York paper of this heyday.

We learn a surprising amount about publishers Pulitzer, Hearst and Gordon Bennett, and reporters Richard Harding Davis, David Graham Phillips and Irvin S. Cobb. We learn a startling lot about city editor (and murderer) Charles Chapin. What stands out most is that all were walking egos and most were stark raving mad. But if you have enough money (like Pulitzer, Hearst and Bennett) you can be a total indecent loon, get away with it yourself, and hire other loons to carry out your crazed desires.

Where the nostalgia seems misplaced is that this era of extravagance was also an era of wholly dishonest reporting that could make Fox News look unbiased. With a few exceptions (Davis, for one), the truth was of no interest to those peddling papers – it was all for the scoop, the exclusive, the sensational. Fun? Yes. Journalism? No.