James Gordon Bennett Jr.
James Gordon Bennett Jr. (May 10, 1841 – May 14, 1918) was an American newspaper publisher who ran the New York Herald, the paper his father founded. Born in New York City and partly educated in France at the École Polytechnique, he moved to the United States in 1861 to join the Union Navy. In 1867 he took control of the Herald and helped raise its profile by backing Henry Morton Stanley’s 1869 expedition to Africa to find David Livingstone, in exchange for exclusive news.
He built new Herald buildings in Manhattan and helped expand the paper overseas, starting Paris and London editions that led to the modern International Herald Tribune. Bennett was also a major sportsman and sponsor. He was the youngest Commodore of the New York Yacht Club and won the first transatlantic yacht race in 1866 with the Henrietta. He helped popularize polo in the United States and founded trophies for yachting, automobile racing, ballooning, and airplane speed. He financed exploration, shipping, and cable ventures, including the Commercial Cable Company.
Bennett’s life was known for extravagance and scandal. He left New York for Europe after a public incident in 1877 and settled in Paris, where he launched the Paris Herald. In 1914 he married Maud Potter, the widow of Julius Reuter’s heir, and she became Baroness de Reuter. He died in Beaulieu-sur-Mer, France, in 1918 after battling influenza and pneumonia and was buried in Paris. His name lives on in various clubs, cups, and places named for him and his family.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 07:36 (CET).