Horace Greeley

About

Remembered most as the founder and longtime editor of the New-York Tribune, he is also notable for his political career. In the late 1840s, he represented New York's sixth district in the United States Congress; three decades later, he passed away while running for president on the Liberal Republican Party ticket.

Before Fame

In his teens, he apprenticed at the office of a Vermont newspaper called the Northern Spectator. Later, he worked for the Erie Gazette (in Pennsylvania) and The Spirit of the Times (in New York).

Trivia

Something of an eccentric, he is believed by several biographers to have been afflicted with Asperger's syndrome.

Family Life

His unhappy marriage to Mary Young Cheney began in 1836. Of the couple's seven children, only two survived past childhood.

Associated With

He played a major role in the 1840 presidential campaign of Whig candidate William Henry Harrison, publishing a pro-Harrison political journal called The Log Cabin and writing several campaign songs for "Tippecanoe" (a popular nickname for Harrison).