I’m a first-generation entrepreneur committed to learning as much about entrepreneurship as I can. The best way I’ve found to do this is to study other entrepreneurs. So, every week, I read a book about an entrepreneur, usually a biography. Then, every Sunday, I post my latest read in my Library on this site.

A few months ago, I read a biography about Albert Lasker, the entrepreneur who pioneered advertising techniques that helped usher in the era of American consumerism. I learned he teamed up with Adolph Ochs to help free a man charged with murder in Atlanta in 1913. They felt he was being wrongly accused because he was Jewish. Researching Ochs, I learned he acquired a failing New York Times (NYT) and turned the newspaper into an internationally respected paper.

I read a biography about Ochs, An Honorable Titan, in March, and I recently read a second biography about him, Printer's Devil to Publisher. The second one was written by Doris Faber, who worked at the NYT, albeit after Ochs had passed. It contains more of the details I craved—specifically, the early years of his life as an information entrepreneur selling directories of all the businesses in Chattanooga and the specifics of how he acquired his first newspaper, the Chattanooga Times, when he was broke and 20 years old. This book also details how speculating on land during a financial bubble ruined Ochs financially and led him to take the biggest gamble of his life: moving to New York City and buying majority ownership of the failing NYT with no money down.

This book isn't too long, but well researched. It gives readers a glimpse of the newspaper world of the early 1900s and explains how a high school dropout acquired one of the most prestigious media properties of that era and influenced the world.

If you’re interested in learning more about Ochs or the early days of the NYT, consider reading Printer’s Devil to Publisher.