George Sibley Johns (1857–1941) was an American journalist, most notable as editor of the ''
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
The ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'' is a major regional newspaper based in St. Louis, Missouri, serving the St. Louis metropolitan area. It is the largest daily newspaper in the metropolitan area by circulation, surpassing the ''Belleville News-Dem ...
''.
Biography
Johns was born in
St. Charles,
Missouri
Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...
, to John Jay Johns and Jane Amanda Durfee. He was named after
George Champlin Sibley
George Champlin Sibley (April 1, 1782 – January 31, 1863) was an American explorer, soldier, Indian agent, politician.
Biography
Early life
Sibley was born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, on April 1, 1782, the son of John Sibley (doct ...
, founder of
Lindenwood College. Johns attended
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...
, where he met
Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was an American politician and academic who served as the 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921. A member of the Democratic Party, Wilson served as the president of ...
. They remained friends for the remainder of Wilson's life. Upon returning to St. Charles, George studied law briefly with his uncle, Theodoric McDearmon. He and his brother, Glover Johns, started a weekly paper, the ''St. Charles Journal''. Later, George went to work for
Joseph Pulitzer
Joseph Pulitzer ( ; born Pulitzer József, ; April 10, 1847 – October 29, 1911) was a Hungarian-American politician and newspaper publisher of the ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'' and the ''New York World''. He became a leading national figure in ...
at the ''St. Louis Post Dispatch'', where he eventually became editor and was known as one of Pulitzer's "Fighting Editors".
Johns was married to Minnehaha McDearmon, with whom he had six sons, George McDearmon Johns, Horace Durfee Johns, John Hoyt Johns, Frederick Winston Johns, John Jay Johns and the poet and playwright
Orrick Glenday Johns
Orrick Glenday Johns (June 2, 1887 – July 8, 1946) was an American poet and playwright. He was one of the earliest modernist free-verse poets in Greenwich Village in 1913-1915 and associated with the artist's colony at Grantwood, New Jerse ...
.
Works
Books
* ''Joseph Pulitzer: Early Life in St. Louis and His Founding and Conduct of the Post-Dispatch up to 1883''
* ''David Laroque: a drama in four acts'' (St. Louis, c1987)
* ''Philip Henson, the Southern Union spy. The hitherto unwritten record of a hero of the War of the Rebellion'' (St. Louis, Nixon-Jones Print. Co., 1887)
Articles
* "Joseph Pulitzer" ''Missouri Historical Review'', January 1931, April 1931, July 1931 (Vol. 25, Nos. 2, 3 and 4), pp. 201–218, 404–420, 563–575.
References
* Johns, Orrick and George Sibley Johns. ''Time of Our Lives: The Story of My Father and Myself'' (1937)
1857 births
1941 deaths
Princeton University alumni
American newspaper editors
Writers from St. Louis
St. Louis Post-Dispatch people
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