As a reporter, columnist, publisher, and editor, David Lawrence stood at the top among his fellow journalists for more than sixty years. He was, the New York Times wrote in an editorial after his death in 1973, "one of the nation's most highly respected and warmly regarded newspapermen, and it is as such that he would want to be remembered." His work throughout his career was motivated in large part by a personal fascination with public affairs and a commitment to the ideal that citizens must be provided every means possible for keeping informed about the affairs of the nation and the world. His guiding belief was that there was a great need for "enlightened public opinion, steadily and persistently" and that it was the task of journalists to provide the means for enlightenment.

Lawrence was born on Christmas Day in 1888 in a room one floor below his father's...