Herbert Bayard Swope (January 5 1882 - June 20 1958) was a U.S. editor and journalist. Born in
St. Louis, MissouriSt. Louis is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. With an estimated population of 354,361 in 2008, it is the principal municipality of Greater St. Louis, population 2,866,517, the largest urban area in Missouri and sixteenth largest in the United States...
, he was the younger brother of businessman
Gerard SwopeGerard Swope was a U.S. electronics businessman. He served as the president of General Electric Company between 1922 and 1939, and again from 1942 until 1944...
.
Swope spent most of his career at the
New York WorldThe New York World was a newspaper published in New York from 1860 until 1931. It played a major role in the history of American newspapers.-Early years:...
newspaper.
He was the first recipient of the
Pulitzer Prize for Reporting-Winners:*1917: Herbert Bayard Swope, New York World, for articles which appeared October 10, October 15 and from November 4 daily to November 22, 1916, inclusive, entitled, "Inside the German Empire."*1918: Harold A...
in 1917 for a series of articles that year entitled "Inside the German Empire" The articles formed the basis for a book released in 1917 entitled
Inside The German Empire: In The Third Year Of The War, which he wrote with James W.
Herbert Bayard Swope (January 5 1882 - June 20 1958) was a U.S. editor and journalist. Born in
St. Louis, MissouriSt. Louis is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. With an estimated population of 354,361 in 2008, it is the principal municipality of Greater St. Louis, population 2,866,517, the largest urban area in Missouri and sixteenth largest in the United States...
, he was the younger brother of businessman
Gerard SwopeGerard Swope was a U.S. electronics businessman. He served as the president of General Electric Company between 1922 and 1939, and again from 1942 until 1944...
.
Swope spent most of his career at the
New York WorldThe New York World was a newspaper published in New York from 1860 until 1931. It played a major role in the history of American newspapers.-Early years:...
newspaper.
He was the first recipient of the
Pulitzer Prize for Reporting-Winners:*1917: Herbert Bayard Swope, New York World, for articles which appeared October 10, October 15 and from November 4 daily to November 22, 1916, inclusive, entitled, "Inside the German Empire."*1918: Harold A...
in 1917 for a series of articles that year entitled "Inside the German Empire" The articles formed the basis for a book released in 1917 entitled
Inside The German Empire: In The Third Year Of The War, which he wrote with James W. Gerard.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1436646170
He is known for his quote, "I can't give you a sure-fire formula for success, but I can give you a formula for failure: try to please everybody all the time." He is also the person credited with coining the phrase "
Cold WarThe Cold War was the continuing state of political conflict, military tension, and economic competition existing after World War II , primarily between the USSR and its satellite states, and the powers of the Western world, including the United States...
".
He was the first newspaperman to utilize the concept of "
op-edAn op-ed, abbreviated from opposite the editorial page , is a newspaper article that expresses the opinions of a named writer who is usually unaffiliated with the newspaper's editorial board. These are different from editorials, which are usually unsigned and written by editorial board members...
", opinion pieces printed on the opposite of the
editorialEditorials are featured in many newspapers and magazines, usually written by the senior editorial staff or publisher of the publication. Additionally, most print publications feature an editorial, or letter from the editor, sometimes followed by a Letters to the Editor section...
.
Although standard editorial pages have been printed by newspapers for many centuries, first modern op-ed page was created in 1921 Swope. When he took over as editor in 1920, he realized that the page opposite the editorials, was "a catchall for book reviews, society boilerplate, and obituaries." He is quoted as writing:
"It occurred to me that nothing is more interesting than opinion when opinion is interesting, so I devised a method of cleaning off the page opposite the editorial, which became the most important in America... and thereon I decided to print opinions, ignoring facts."
He was a legendary poker player, at one point in his life winning over $470,000 in a game with an oil baron, steel magnate and entertainer.
External links
Legacy interview and short biography of Herbert Bayard Swope Jr
http://www.legacymemorybank.org/Donors/bayardswope.htm