Background
Ervin Wardman was born on December 25, 1865 in Salt Lake City, Utah, but his parents, George and Mary Virginia (Ervin) Wardman, were from New England.
(This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)
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Ervin Wardman was born on December 25, 1865 in Salt Lake City, Utah, but his parents, George and Mary Virginia (Ervin) Wardman, were from New England.
He was educated at Phillips Academy, Exeter, N. H. , and at Harvard, where he received the degree of A. B. in 1888.
Joining the staff of the New York Tribune, he made his mark with his reports of the Johnstown flood (1889), and was soon assistant city editor. In 1895 he left the Tribune to become managing editor of the New York Press, and the next year was made editor-in-chief, a position he held with distinction until 1916, except for a few months spent at the front during the Spanish-American War, in which he served as a member of Troop A, United States Volunteers, as first lieutenant of the 202nd New York Infantry, and as aide-de-camp to Gen. John R. Brooke in the Puerto Rico campaign. After the war he resumed his work of making the Press an aggressive and effective organ of liberal Republicanism. It was he who, in the late 1890's, coined the term "yellow journalism" (New York Tribune, January 14, 1923). His own editorial style was crisp and hard-hitting, though remarkably well informed. In 1905 a series of outspoken editorials concerning an alleged attempt to bribe state legislators resulted in Wardman's being summoned to Albany to explain the sources of his accusations. These he steadfastly refused to divulge on the score of newspaper ethics; his position was later supported by the courts. During the last four years of Wardman's editorship of the Press, Frank A. Munsey was the owner. When Munsey bought the Sun in 1916 and merged the Press with it, E. P. Mitchell, editor of the Sun, assumed editorship of the combined papers, and Wardman became publisher. This position he retained after Munsey bought the Herald in 1920 and merged the Sun with it. He continued to contribute editorials, however, and after Mitchell's retirement was again in charge of the editorial page. He was chairman of the labor committee and a member of the arbitration committee of the Publishers' Association. When the United States entered the World War he originated the Sun Tobacco Fund, through which some $500, 000 worth of tobacco was distributed among the soldiers. He died suddenly of pneumonia early in 1923. For some years before his death he lived during most of the year at New Rochelle, N. Y. , but maintained a country place at Sherbrooke, Canada.
(This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)
He was a clean-cut New England type, "grim jawed" but with a glint of humor in his eye, and with a magnificent physique apparently untouched by the strain of his indefatigable industry. His interests were wide, but as an editorial writer his chief field was labor economics.
In spite of his vigorous forthrightness in controversy, he was much liked personally and showed his native generosity by many anonymous charities.
Quotes from others about the person
The Newspaper Editors' and Publishers' Association held a special memorial meeting and passed resolutions in which he is described as "a shining example of the truth, honor, independence, and integrity that are at the foundation of good journalism" (New York Times, January 18, 1923).
Wardman was twice married: first, May 14, 1902, to Caroline Klink Eyre, of Washington, D. C. , who died in 1908; second, Feburary 8, 1910, to Violet Boyer of Barrie, Ontario. He was survived by his second wife and by a son.