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JAMES GORDON BENNETT (1794-1872)

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Originally appearing in Volume V03, Page 741 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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JAMES See also:GORDON See also:BENNETT (1794-1872)  , See also:American journalist, founder and editor of the New See also:York See also:Herald, was See also:born at Newmills in See also:Banffshire, See also:Scotland, in 1794 (not in 1800, as has been stated) . He was educated for the See also:Roman See also:Catholic priesthood in a See also:seminary at See also:Aberdeen, but in the See also:spring of 181g, giving up the career which had been chosen for him, he emigrated to See also:America . Landing at See also:Halifax, Nova See also:Scotia, he earned a poor living there for a See also:short See also:time by giving lessons in See also:French, See also:Spanish and bookkeeping; he passed next to See also:Boston, where See also:starvation threatened him until he got employment in a See also:printing-See also:office; and in 1822 he went to New York . An engagement as translator of Spanish for the See also:Courier of See also:Charleston, See also:South Carolina, took him there for a few months in 1823 . On his return to New York he projected a school, gave lectures on See also:political See also:economy and did. subordinate See also:work for the See also:journals . During the next ten years he was employed on various papers, was the See also:Washington correspondent first of the New York Enquirer, and later of the Courier and Enquirer in 1827–1832, his letters attracting much See also:attention; he founded the short-lived Globe in New York in 1832; and in 1833–1834 was the See also:chief editor and one of the proprietors of the Pennsylvanian at See also:Philadelphia . On the 6th of May 1835 he published the first number of a small one-cent See also:paper, bearing the See also:title of New York Herald, and issuing from a cellar, in which the proprietor and editor played also the See also:part of salesman . " He started with a See also:disclaimer of all principle, as it is called, all party, all politics "; and to this he consistently adhered . By his See also:industry, sagacity and unscrupulousness, and by the variety of his See also:news, the " spicy " See also:correspondence, and the See also:supply of See also:personal See also:gossip and See also:scandal, he made the paper a See also:great commercial success . He devoted his attention particularly to the gathering of news, and was the first to introduce many of the methods of the See also:modern American reporter . He published on the 13th of See also:June 1835, the first See also:Wall See also:Street See also:financial See also:article to appear in any American newspaper; printed a vivid and detailed See also:account of the great See also:fire of See also:December 1835, in New York; was the first, in 1846, to obtain the See also:report in full by See also:telegraph of a See also:long political speech; and during the See also:Civil See also:War maintained a See also:staff of sixty-three war correspondents . See also:Bennett continued to edit the Herald almost till his See also:death, at New York, on the 1st of June 1872 .

His son, See also:

JAMES See also:GORDON BENNETT (1841— ), took over the management of the paper during the last See also:year of its founder's See also:life, and succeeded him in its See also:control . It was he who sent See also:Henry M . See also:Stanley on his See also:mission to find See also:Livingstone in Central See also:Africa, and he fitted out the " See also:Jeannette" Polar Expedition, and in 1883 established (with See also:John W . See also:Mackay) the Commercial See also:Cable See also:Company .

End of Article: JAMES GORDON BENNETT (1794-1872)
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