Wt stead biography of michael
W. T. Stead and the Eastern Question (1875-1911); or, How to Rouse England and Why?
Author: Stéphanie Prévost
Article
W. T. Stead and the Eastern Question (1875-1911); or, How to Rouse England and Why?
Author: Stéphanie Prévost
Abstract
W. T. Stead, who had viewed his appointment as editor of the new Darlington daily, the Northern Echo, in 1871 as ‘a glorious opportunity of attacking the devil’, took up many crusades beyond that of the ‘Maiden Tribute’. Among the career-long causes that allowed him to ‘attack the devil’, one holds a special place: the suffering of Ottoman Christians, in particular Balkan Slavs and Armenians, at the hands of their tutelary authority, the Sultan, whom Stead did not recoil from calling ‘the Eastern ogre’ at the time of two episodes of atrocities, first against Bulgarians in 1876, and then against Armenians twenty years later. Indeed, on Stead’s own avowal, the Bulgarian agitation ‘made [him]’. Undeniably, the denunciation of this episode of ‘atrocities’ put him on the journalistic map, eventually winning him the esteem of leading Liberal statesmen and the position of assistant editor at the Pall Mall Gazette in 1880. Although Stead’s early interest in the Ottoman Empire has received some attention, his career-long commitment to the Eastern Question (1875–1911) remains understudied, including the fact that, in 1911, he was cordially entertained by the successor of Sultan Abdul Hamid, whom he had assimilated to the ‘Eastern ogre’ only a few years earlier. Assuming that Stead’s early coverage of the ‘Bulgarian atrocities’ in 1876 proved a defining moment for him, this article contends that his understanding of the Eastern Question was largely dictated by those writings that proved of utmost help ‘in some of the critical moments of his life’, namely, the Bible, Thomas Carlyle’s Cromwell, and the work of the American poet and ambassador, James Russell Lowell. Delving into Stead’s mind, to paraphra A major work by a brilliant young biographer, Muckraker details the tenacity and verve of one of Victorian Britain's most compelling characters. Credited with pioneering investigative reporting, W. T. Stead made a career of 'muckraking': revealing horrific practices in the hope of shocking authorities into reform. As the editor of the Northern Echo, he won the admiration of the Liberal statesman William Gladstone for his fierce denunciation of the Conservative government; at the helm of London's most ininfuential evening paper, the Pall Mall Gazette, he launched the career-defining Maiden Tribute campaign. To expose the scandal of child prostitution, Stead abducted thirteen-year-old Eliza Armstrong (thought by many to be the inspiration behind Eliza Doolittle, from friend George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion), thrusting him into a life of notoriety. Labelled a madman in later life for dabbling in the occult, W. T. Stead conducted his life with an invincible zeal right up until his tragic demise aboard the Titanic. Revealing a man full of curious eccentricities, W. Sydney Robinson charts the remarkable rise and fall of a true Fleet Street legend in this enthralling biography.Muckraker: The Scandalous Life and Times of W. T. Stead, Britain's First Investigative Journalist
W. T. Stead
English newspaper editor (1849–1912)
William Thomas Stead (5 July 1849 – 15 April 1912) was an English newspaper editor who, as a pioneer of investigative journalism, became a controversial figure of the Victorian era. Stead published a series of hugely influential campaigns whilst editor of The Pall Mall Gazette, including his 1885 series of articles, The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon. These were written in support of a bill, later dubbed the "Stead Act", that raised the age of consent from 13 to 16.
Stead's "new journalism" paved the way for the modern tabloid in Great Britain. He has been described as "the most famous journalist in the British Empire". He is considered to have influenced how the press could be used to influence public opinion and government policy, and advocated "Government by Journalism". He was known for his reportage on child welfare, social legislation and reformation of England's criminal codes.
Stead died in the sinking of the RMS Titanic.
Early life
Stead was born in Embleton, Northumberland on 5 July 1849, the son of the Reverend William Stead, a poor and respected Congregational minister, and Isabella (née Jobson), a cultivated daughter of a Northumberland farmer, John Jobson of Warkworth. A year later the family moved to Howdon on the River Tyne, where his younger brother, Francis Herbert Stead, was born. Stead was largely educated at home by his father, and by the age of five he was already well-versed in the Holy Scriptures and is said to have been able to read Latin almost as well as he could read English. It was Stead's mother who perhaps had the most lasting influence on her son's career. One of Stead's favourite childhood memories was of his mother leading a local campaign against the government's controversial Contagious Diseases Acts – .