John A. Cockerill, perhaps the finest editor to come out of Joseph Pulitzer's "talent hunts," teamed with Pulitzer in establishing the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the New York World as leading nineteenth-century newspapers. With an energy and perfectionism that matched his great publisher's, Cockerill implemented Pulitzer's "new journalism" strategies, using attention-grabbing human interest stories and innovative display to win readers, and solid news coverage, lively prose, and tight editing to keep them. Extolled in a Eugene Field poem as "very smart indeed," "Johnny" Cockerill had a keen news sense and a pragmatic managerial style that won him accolades as the ideal managing editor. Yet his outstanding service was marred by a series of tragic and disillusioning events.

Born 5 December 1845 at Locust Grove, Ohio, Cockerill was christened Joseph Daniel Albert Cockerill. His parents soon dropped "Joseph" and "Daniel," his father's and grandfather's names, in favor of "John." John was...