Pulitzer was a rags to riches fellow who revolutionized the newspaper industry by introducting sensationalism and shaking the ground of American politics. As the first person to push for the goals of the Progressive agenda, Pulitzer raised red flags about the exploitation of the poor by the very rich in a very different time. Crimmins' novel brings us into the day to day life of this unique genius, who arrived in America as an immigrant who barely spoke English, yet twenty years later developed and edited two of the biggest newspapers in the country. Pulitzer's run-ins with the other newspaper titans of the Gilded Age show us the men who laid the foundations of American journalism, and his confrontations with the wealthy robber barons brings us into the drama of how Pulitzer began a surge for reform that was so very important to improve the quality of American life. Pulitzer's wife tries desperately to comfort the man who she deeply loves, yet their romance is shattered by Pulitzer's workaholic Napoleonic ambitions. Such frantic behavior came to cause him a terrible breakdown, casting his newspaper widow further to the sidelines in this captivating drama of American life. Crimmins' dramatic novel helps us to understand significant historicl events at the heart of American society, describing the life of a man who fought essential political battles that changed life as we know it in the United States.