The American journalist Charles Anderson Dana (1819-1897), as editor of the New York Sun in the late 19th century, created the first modern newspaper.

Charles A. Dana was born on Aug. 8, 1819, in the small country town of Hinsdale, N.H., the son of an unsuccessful country storekeeper. When the family moved to upstate New York, Charles went to work in an uncle's general store in Buffalo. During the Panic of 1837, the store failed, and at the age of 18 Dana found himself with $200 saved but without a job. Luckily, he had spent much of his youth educating himself and had learned enough Greek and Latin to pass the entrance exams for Harvard College.

Dana attended Harvard for 2 years but was forced to leave because of failing eyesight and lack of money. An interest in the ideas of Charles Fourier, the French utopian socialist, led Dana to join the major...