The name Pulitzer conjures pure prestige, but the man arrived in America broke, speaking no English, and once shot a political rival in the knee. Joseph Pulitzer essentially invented the modern sensationalist media landscape, then posthumously funded the most respectable prize in journalism, a staggering historical paradox.

From selling his last handkerchief for a meal in St. Louis to buying the failing New York World, Pulitzer built an empire on short, punchy, provocative content aimed at the working class and new immigrants. He used his massive audience to crowdfund the Statue of Liberty's pedestal, then watched his formula spawn the cutthroat circulation war with Hearst that birthed the term yellow journalism.

• His desperate early years, from Civil War recruit to sleeping in wagons
• The steamboat scam that accidentally l ...