Adolph Ochs was a young man with a dream—to publish one of the finest newspapers in the country. That dream began at the age of eleven when he delivered newspapers in Knoxville, Tennessee. From the moment he first smelled printer's ink, his destiny was determined. He learned everything he could about newspapers, starting as a printer's devil and working up to a compositor.

At the age of twenty, with borrowed money, he bought a small newspaper in Chattanooga and within a few years turned it into one of the leading publications in the South. Then he heard that The New York Times was up for sale. Again with borrowed money he purchased the paper, gambling everything he had to make it a success.

He poured his enormous energy and brilliant imagination into producing a newspaper that would measure up to his personal high standards of journalism. He believed that a paper could succeed by giving complete and impartial coverage to news, rather than the biased and sensational reporting that was then vogue. "All the news that's fit to print" became the paper's motto, and the Times began to prosper.

Ochs hired the finest editors and reporters, putting the reputation of the Times above any desire for personal power, and demanded of his staff only that they give their best to the paper. Its news coverage became the envy of the journalistic world. The first paper to use the wireless, the Times scored scoop after scoop reporting the Russo-Japanese war, and its story of the Titanic disaster was a masterpiece of reporting. Its complete and thorough coverage made the paper a necessity for those interested in the events of the day, and it became a must in schools and libraries all over the country.

Today the New York Times is one of the world's great newspapers, and it is because of Adolph Ochs and his ideals and determination that it has become a symbol of unswervingly honest and socially responsible journalism.

From the dust jacket