Though he labored always in the shadow of his brother, George Ochs-Oakes accomplished enough to fill two lifetimes. At various times he served as general manager of the Chattanooga Times, Philadelphia Times, and Philadelphia Public Ledger. But he excelled as editor of Current History. All of these publications were owned by his brother Adolph Ochs, founder in 1896 of the modern New York Times.

George Washington Ochs was born in 1861, three years after Adolph. There were three boys and three girls in the Ochs family, sons and daughters of Julius and Bertha Ochs, natives of Germany who had immigrated to America in the 1840s. When George was born, his father was serving with the Union forces guarding the railroad between Cincinnati, Ohio, and Saint Louis, Missouri, and he directed that the newborn child should be named George Washington, after the first president of the United States.

After the war...