James Gordon Bennett Jr.

{{Short description|American publisher (1841–1918)}} {{Use American English|date=December 2025}} {{Use mdy dates|date=November 2024}} {{Infobox person | name = James Gordon Bennett Jr. | image = Portrait of James Gordon Bennett, Jr..jpg | image_size = | caption = | birth_date = {{Birth date|1841|5|10}} | birth_place = New York City, New York, U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|1918|5|14|1841|5|10}} | death_place = Beaulieu-sur-Mer, Alpes-Maritimes, France | education = École polytechnique | occupation = Publisher | spouse = {{marriage|Baroness de Reuter<br>|1914|1918<!--Omission per Template:Marriage instructions-->}} | parents = James Gordon Bennett Sr.<br>Henrietta Agnes Crean | children = | relatives = Isaac Bell Jr. (brother-in-law) }}

'''James Gordon Bennett Jr.''' (May 10, 1841{{spaced ndash}}May 14, 1918) was an American publisher. He was the publisher of the ''New York Herald'', founded by his father, James Gordon Bennett Sr. (1795–1872), who emigrated from Scotland. He was generally known as Gordon Bennett to distinguish him from his father. Among his many sports-related accomplishments he organized both the first polo match and the first tennis match in the United States, and he won the first trans-oceanic yacht race. He sponsored explorers including Henry Morton Stanley's trip to Africa to find David Livingstone, and the ill-fated USS ''Jeannette'' attempt on the North Pole.

Bennett's controversial reputation is thought to be the inspiration behind the phrase "Gordon Bennett!", used as an expression of incredulity.<ref name="worldwidewords">[https://www.worldwidewords.org/articles/gordon.htm "Gordon Bennett: A puzzling British exclamation"] ''World Wide Words''</ref><ref name="peevish">{{Citation | title = Gordon Bennett! | url = http://www.peevish.co.uk/slang/articles/gordon-bennett.htm | access-date = 8 September 2017 }}</ref><ref name="phrases">{{Citation | title = Gordon Bennett! - the meaning and origin of this phrase | url = https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/gordon-bennett.html | access-date = 8 September 2017 }}</ref>

==Early life== Bennett was born on May 10, 1841, in New York City to James Gordon Bennett Sr. (1795–1872), the founder, editor and publisher of the ''New York Herald''. He was the only son in the family. He grew up mostly in France, and attended the École polytechnique.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=http://www.neighborhoodpreservationcenter.org/db/bb_files/95-bennettbuilding.pdf|title=Landmark Preservation Analysis – Bennett Building – James Gordon Bennett, Jr. and The Daily Herald|publisher=NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission|page=2|access-date=2018-05-01|archive-date=2016-03-03|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303174118/http://www.neighborhoodpreservationcenter.org/db/bb_files/95-bennettbuilding.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="worldwidewords"/>

==Career== In 1861, he moved to the United States, and enlisted in the Union Navy. In 1867, under his father's tutelage, he founded ''The Evening Telegram'', an entertainment and gossip paper<ref name=":0" /> that later became the ''New York World-Telegram''. On January 1, 1867, the elder Bennett turned control of the ''Herald'' over to him.<ref name=":0" /> Bennett raised the paper's profile on the world stage when he provided the financial backing for the 1869 expedition by Henry Morton Stanley into Africa to find David Livingstone in exchange for the ''Herald'' having the exclusive account of Stanley's progress.

In 1872, he commissioned a Manhattan building design from Arthur D. Gilman, who popularized Second Empire and cast-iron facades. The building still exists, on Nassau Street. Though he sold it in 1889 and it was greatly expanded over the following five years, it continues to be known as the Bennett Building.<ref name=":0" /> It was built on a site previously occupied by the Herald's offices and printing plant, and the ''Herald'' later moved back into it. In 1890, he commissioned a new Herald building at Sixth and Broadway, completed in 1895.<ref name=":0" />

In 1880, Bennett established international editions of his newspaper in Paris and London; their successor is the ''New York Times International Edition'', previously known as the ''International Herald Tribune''.<ref name=":0" /> In 1883, he partnered with John W. Mackay to found the Commercial Cable Company. It was a successful business and provided an additional large income to Bennett.<ref name=":0" />

==Lifestyle== Bennett, like many of his social class, indulged in the "good life": yachts, opulent private railroad cars, and lavish mansions. He was the youngest Commodore ever of the New York Yacht Club. Bennett became Commodore of the N.Y.Y.C in 1870 after Henry G. Stebbins's term, which was from 1863 to 1870.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/79709452/honey/ |title=The Yacht Phantom. |work=Boston Post |place=Boston, Massachusetts|date=13 May 1879|page=2|access-date=2021-06-16}}</ref>

===Yachts=== [[File:Currier & Ives-Schooner Henrietta.jpg|right|thumb|255px|The yacht ''Henrietta'']]

In 1861, Bennett volunteered his newly built schooner yacht, ''Henrietta'', for the U.S. Revenue Marine Service during the Civil War. At the same time, Bennett was commissioned as a third lieutenant in the Revenue Marine Service (equivalent to an ensign in the U.S. Navy) and assigned to the U.S. Marine Revenue schooner ''Henrietta'' (the yacht he had loaned to the U.S. Government) beginning in June 1861. She patrolled Long Island until February 1862 when she was sent to Port Royal, South Carolina. On March 3, 1862, Bennett commanded the ''Henrietta'' as part of the fleet which captured Fernandina, Florida. Bennett and the ''Henrietta'' returned to civilian life in New York in May 1862.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/pers-us/uspers-b/jg-bennt.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040214065457/http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/pers-us/uspers-b/jg-bennt.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=February 14, 2004|title=Department of the Navy, Navy Historical Center, "James Gordon Bennett Jr. (1841–1918)"}}</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20040219031942/http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/sh-civil/civsh-h/henrieta.htm "Schooner Yacht ''Henrietta'' (1861)"], Department of the Navy, Naval Historical Center,</ref>

thumb|James Gordon Bennett Jr.

In 1866, on a bet, he won the first trans-oceanic yacht race. The race was between three American yachts, the ''Vesta'' (owned by Pierre Lorillard IV), the ''Fleetwing'' (owned by George and Frank Osgood) and the ''Henrietta''. Each yachtsman put up $30,000 in the winner-take-all wager. They started off in Sandy Hook, New Jersey, on 11 December 1866 amid high westerly winds and raced to The Needles, the furthest westerly point on the Isle of Wight, famous for its lighthouse. Bennett's ''Henrietta'' won with a time of 13 days, 21 hours, 55 minutes.<ref>Greeley, Horace (1895) ''The Tribune Almanac and Political Register'' Tribune Association, New York, 7(1): [https://books.google.com/books?id=J-4WAAAAYAAJ&pg=PT252 p. 252], {{OCLC|2559580}}</ref><ref>Thompson, Winfield M. and Lawson, Thomas William (1902) ''The Lawson History of the America's Cup'', Boston, Massachusetts [https://books.google.com/books?id=w1Z3GFPbbEQC&pg=PA46 p. 46], {{OCLC|911964}}</ref>

In April 1867, Bennett purchased the yacht ''L'Hirondelle'' for $75,000 from Bradford.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/79464415/purchased/ |title= Literary And Personal. |work=The Buffalo Commercial |place=Buffalo, New York |date=14 Apr 1867 |page=1 |access-date=2021-06-12}}</ref> In May 1867, Bennett refitted the ''L'Hirondelle'' and changed her name to the ''Dauntless''.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/79465008/dauntless/ |title=Topics of To-Day. |work=The Brooklyn Daily Eagle |place=Brooklyn, New York |date=1 May 1867 |page=2 |access-date=2021-06-12}}</ref> She was rebuilt and rigged as a schooner. Bennett added 23 feet to her length. Her new dimensions were 121 feet long, 25-foot beam and 299 tons.<ref name="Shipbuilding">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4ljcDwAAQBAJ |title= Connecticut River Shipbuilding |date= 5 October 2020 |page=143|publisher= Arcadia |isbn= 9781439670491 |access-date=2021-06-11}}</ref>

He entertained guests aboard his steam-yacht "Namouna". American expatriate artist Julius LeBlanc Stewart painted several works set on the yacht.

On May 11, 1870, the pilot boat ''James Gordon Bennett'', No. 6, was launched from the Lawrence & Foulks shipyard at Williamsburg. At the launch and naming ceremony, Katie Chapman, daughter of Captain Daniel C. Chapman, gave the boat the name ''James Gordon Bennett''.<ref>{{cite news |url= https://www.newspapers.com/clip/73617881/launch/ |title=The New Pilot Boat. Launch of the James Gordon Bennett, No. 6, Her Dimensions, Fittings, Spars and Crew. |work=New York Herald |place=New York, New York |date=12 May 1870|page=2|access-date=2020-12-24}}</ref>

Bennett presented the cup and prizes at the October 14, 1873, New York Yacht Club, Cape May Challenge Cup {{convert|140|mi|km|adj=on}} regatta, which was a race from Owl's Head Point around to Cape May Lighthouse in New Jersey, and back to Sandy Hook Light.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/yachtsmansscrapb00loubrich/page/268/mode/2up?q=Robert+Fish|title=A yachtsman's scrap book: or, The ups and downs of yacht racing|date=1887|last=Loubat|first=Joseph Florimond|place=New York|publisher=Brentano Brothers|page=268}}</ref>

===Scandal=== Bennett often scandalized society with his flamboyant and sometimes erratic behavior. In 1877, he left New York for Europe after an incident that ended his engagement to socialite Caroline May. According to various accounts, he arrived late and drunk to a party at the May family mansion, then urinated into a fireplace (some say grand piano) in full view of his hosts.<ref name="worldwidewords"/><ref>Homberger, Eric (2002) ''Mrs. Astor's New York: Money and Social Power in a Gilded Age'' Yale University Press, New Haven, Connecticut, [https://books.google.com/books?id=13jwkUPvYGcC&pg=PA13 page 13], {{ISBN|0-300-10515-0}}</ref><ref name="autorace">[https://forix.autosport.com/8w/gbt03.html "Britain's first international motor race"] ''Who? What? Where? When? Why? on the World Wide Web''</ref><ref>Wallace, David Rains (1999) ''The Bonehunters' Revenge: Dinosaurs, Greed, and the Greatest Scientific Feud of the Gilded Age'' Houghton Mifflin, Boston, [https://books.google.com/books?id=Z8Tj2HvfHRwC&pg=PA5 page 5], {{ISBN|0-395-85089-4}}</ref>

Bennett's controversial reputation is thought to have inspired, in Britain, the phrase "Gordon Bennett!" as an expression of incredulity.<ref name="worldwidewords"/><ref name="peevish"/><ref name="phrases"/>

===Move to Paris=== Settling in Paris, he launched the Paris edition of the ''New York Herald'', named the ''Paris Herald'', the forerunner of the ''International Herald Tribune''. He backed George W. De Long's voyage to the North Pole on the USS ''Jeannette'' via the Bering Strait.

The ill-fated expedition led to the deaths from starvation of DeLong and 19 of his crew, a tragedy that increased the paper's circulation. He was a co-founder of the Commercial Cable Company, a venture to break the Transatlantic cable monopoly held by Jay Gould. The 2014 nonfiction book ''In The Kingdom of Ice'' written by historian Hampton Sides recounts the voyage and Bennett's role as a financier of the expedition.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://time.com/3062894/review-in-the-kingdom-of-ice-brings-cold-comfort|title=In the Kingdom of Ice Brings Cold Comfort|author=Grossman, Lev|magazine=Time|date=July 31, 2014}}</ref>

===The Winter Colony at Pau=== thumb|right|Master of the Pau Hounds, James Gordon Bennett Jr.<ref name="Levesque">{{cite book|author-first=Donatien|author-last=Levesque|title=En déplacement Chasses à Courre en France et en Angleterre, Dessins de S. Arcos.|publisher=Noumit|location=Paris|date=1887|pages=117–153|url=https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k6526126d/f125.item}}</ref>The Pau Hunt had been known to be accessible to subscribers with pulmonary diseases, but the difficulty level became exclusionary to less capable riders due to the popularity and frequency of drag hunting plus the hunting of animals that had been captured for release as bagmen.<ref name="Craven1">{{cite magazine|last1=One of them|title=Fox Hunting in the South of France|magazine=The Sporting Review, ed. by Craven|location=London|date=18 July 1848|url=https://books.google.fr/books?id=boMEAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA172#v=onepage&q&f=false}}</ref><ref Name="Craven2">{{cite magazine|last1=One of them|title=Fox Hunting in the South of France (Part 2)|magazine=The Sporting Review, ed. by Craven|location=London|date=18 September 1848 |url=https://www.google.fr/books/edition/The_Sporting_review_ed_by_Craven/gIsEAAAAQAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA44&printsec=frontcover}}</ref><ref name="Howth1">{{cite book|author-last=St Lawrence, 4th Earl of Howth|author-first=William|title=Leicestershire in France or the Field at Pau, translated into French by Charles Salverte|publisher=Imprimerie Vignancour|location=Pau|date=1907|url=https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k6456680h/f5.item}}</ref><ref name="Howth2 " >{{cite magazine|author-first=William|author-last=St Lawrence, 4th Earl of Howth|title=''Invalided Sportsmen'' |magazine=Baily's Magazine of Sport and Pastimes, Vol. 43 |publisher=A. H. Baily and Co.|location=London|date=November 1884}}</ref> The Count of Bari brought in a private pack of hounds in 1879 and began a competing hunt. The Pau Hunt, claimed Bari had no right to hunt in their territory, but he replied he had no intention to negotiate and would continue the competing hunt during the 1880-1881 season. The Pau Hunt decided to liquidate.<ref name="PH Minutes 1867">{{cite document|title=Pau Kennel Committee Meeting Minutes 1867-1885|publisher=Pau Hunt Archives|location=Archives communautaire Pau Béarn Pyrénées Cote 36Z1}}</ref> At the beginning of the 1880-1881 season, Thomas G. Burgess, the brother of yacht designer Edward Burgess, wrote for the assistance of Bennett, who shortly arrived from Paris. Bennett met first with the mayor followed by the Count of Bari, who gave his hounds to the town hall. On December 2, 1880 with Bennett as Master assisted by Thomas Burgess they formed a private hunt.<ref name="Kennels">{{cite document|title=Chenil Torrance (quartier Berlanne), Société des Chasses à courre : statuts, correspondance des présidents, masters et autres membres|trans-title=Torrance Kennels (Berlanne), Pau Hunt correspondance (with the town of Pau) |language=fr |publisher=Pau Municipal Archives|location=Archives communautaire Pau Béarn Pyrénées Cote 1M6/3}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=La chasse au renard |trans-title=Fox Hunting |url=https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k5221279d/f1.item |language=fr |work=Le Memorial des Pyrénees |location=Pau, France |date=8 December 1880}}</ref> Bennett purchased 40 hound couples that were delivered in 1881. In 1882, Mayor Nicholas Renault insisted the Pau Hunt be reconstituted to conform with the law, proposing they alternate packs to satisfy the needs of all riding levels. Satisfied, Bennett agreed and gave the new pack to the municipality with Thomas Burgess replacing Bennett as master of the Pau Hounds on 1 November 1882.<ref name="PH Minutes 1867" /><ref>{{cite news |title=Nouvelles et Echos |url=https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k75183739/f1.item.r=burgess.zoom |language=fr |work=Gil Blas |location=Paris |date=27 December 1881}}</ref> On 4 April 1881 Bennett launched a mail coach service from the English Club of Pau to Biarritz three times per week driven exclusively by gentlemen coachmen, or "whips", who later formed The Reunion Road Club.<ref>{{cite news |title=M. Gordon Bennett est l'hôte de Biarritz|url=https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k52299569/f3.image.r=(prOx:%20%22bennett%22%2010%20%22biarritz%22)?rk=21459;2 |language=fr |work=L'Echo des Pyrénéés|location=Paris |date=7 April 1881}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author-last=Grant|author-first=Maria M.|title=The Sun-Maid |publisher=Tauchnitz |location=Leipzig |date=1877 }}</ref>

===Return to the US=== Bennett returned to the United States{{when|date=July 2018}} and organized the first polo match in the United States at Dickel's Riding Academy at 39th Street and Fifth Avenue in New York. He helped found the Westchester Polo Club in 1876, the first polo club in America. He established the ''Gordon Bennett Cup'' for international yachting and the Gordon Bennett Cup for automobile races.<ref name="autorace"/> In 1906, he funded the Gordon Bennett Cup in ballooning (''Coupe Aéronautique Gordon Bennett''), which continues to this day. In 1909, Bennett offered a trophy for the fastest speed on a closed circuit for airplanes. The 1909 race in Reims, France was won by Glenn Curtiss for two circuits of a 10&nbsp;km rectangular course at an average speed of 46.5 miles per hour (74.8&nbsp;km/h). From 1896 to 1914, the champion of Paris, USFSA football (soccer), received a trophy offered by Gordon Bennett.

==Personal life and death== Bennett did not marry until he was 73. His wife was Maud Potter, widow of George de Reuter, son of Julius Paul Reuter, founder of Reuters news agency.

Bennett spent the winter of 1917 in his villa in Beaulieu-sur-Mer, France. He contracted influenza while visiting a hospital in Paris and travelled to southern France. He died the morning of May 14, 1918 of pneumonia in Beaulieu-sur-Mer after having been in a coma for two days.<ref>{{Cite web |title=May 15, 1918, page 7 - New-York Tribune at Newspapers.com™ |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/469153787/?match=1&terms=james%20gordon%20bennett |access-date=2026-03-03 |website=Newspapers.com |language=en-US}}</ref> Bennett is buried at the Cimetière de Passy in Paris.<ref>{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20160310034706/http://www.pariscemeteries.com/passy-1/ "Cimetière de Passy"]}}, Paris Cemeteries. Retrieved 5 June 2020</ref>

James Stillman was an intimate friend of James O. Bloss and John William Sterling. After the death of Bennett it was learned by the administrators of his estate that he had appointed Stillman one of the administrators and trustees. Stillman had little or no opportunity to act under the authority of Bennett's will, as he died a few weeks after Bennett's death. Stillman named Sterling one of his executors. Sterling could hardly have begun his duties under Stillman's will when he too died suddenly. The Bennett estate, the Stillman estate and the Sterling estate totaled about $76,000,000. After Sterling's death it was learned that he had appointed his long time intimate companion, Bloss, one of the executors. A few weeks after Sterling's death, Bloss died.<ref name="The Wall Street Journal 1918">{{cite journal|title=Three Strange Coincidences – 21 Dec 1918, Sat • Page 2|journal=The Wall Street Journal|date=1918|page=2|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/16221590/the_wall_street_journal/|access-date=3 January 2018}}{{PD-notice}}</ref>

==Honors== Asteroid 305 Gordonia is named after him. He also has a street named for him near Chopin Airport in Warsaw, Poland.<ref>[http://www.um.warszawa.pl/o-warszawie/kompendium-wiedzy/ulica-jamesa-gordona-bennetta Ulica Jamesa Gordona Bennetta] ''Warszawa - oficjalny portal stolicy Polski''</ref> The ''Avenue Gordon Bennett'' in Paris, where the French Open's Stade de Roland Garros is sited is named after his father.<ref>[https://parisisinvisible.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/gordon-bennett-what-strange-address.html Invisible Paris]: see street sign</ref> thumb|Avenue Gordon Bennett near the Stade Roland Garros in Paris Bennett, British Columbia, now a ghost town, as well as nearby Bennett Lake<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.yukoninfo.com/lake-bennett-yukon/|title=Bennett Lake &#124; Yukon Territory Alaska Northern British Columbia|date=25 May 2020 }}</ref> and Bennett Peak are named for him, as is Bennett Island, discovered during the ''Jeannette'' expedition.

==Gallery== <gallery mode="packed"> File:Julius LeBlanc Stewart - On the Yacht„Namouna“, Venice.jpg|''On the Yacht "Namouna", Venice'', by Stewart. Bennett is center left, in the white suit. Lillie Langtry is the woman seated, right (1890). File:Stewart yachting.jpg|''Yachting on the Mediterranean'', by Stewart (1896) File:James Gordon Bennett Jr. (1904 painting).jpg|Bennett as painted by Julian Story (1904) Image:CoupeGordonBennet1906.jpg|The 1906 Gordon Bennett Cup in Ballooning (1906) File:Bennet 5285332007 5a1b05f599 o.jpg|Bennett (c. 1910–1915) </gallery>

==References== {{Reflist|30em}}

==Further reading== * Crockett, Albert Stevens (1926) ''When James Gordon Bennett was Caliph of Bagdad'' Funk & Wagnalls, New York, {{OCLC|1373863}} * Seitz, Don Carlos (1928) ''The James Gordon Bennetts, Father and Son, Proprietors of the New York Herald'' Bobbs-Merrill, Indianapolis, {{OCLC|619637}}; reissued in 1974 by Beekman Publishers * O'Connor, Richard (1962) ''The Scandalous Mr. Bennett'' Doubleday, Garden City, New York, {{OCLC|332764}} * Cane, André (1981) ''James Gordon Bennett: Hôte Prestigieux et Fantasque de la Côte d'Azur'' (''James Gordon Bennett: Prestigious and Eccentric Host of the Riviera'') B. de Gourcez, Saint-Paul-de-Vence, {{OCLC|9465414}}, in French *{{cite book |title=In the Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the U.S.S. Jeannette |publisher=Doubleday |author=Hampton Sides |author-link=Hampton Sides |year=2014}} * Jefferson, Sam (2016) 'Gordon Bennett and the First Yacht Race Across the Atlantic'. Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing *Roethof, Guikje (2018) ''[http://www.jamesgordonbennett.nl/eng/ Gordon Bennett!] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190925223117/http://www.jamesgordonbennett.nl/eng/ |date=September 25, 2019 }}'' Uitgeverij Aspekt, Soesterberg, [https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1026502787 OCLC 1026502787], in Dutch.

==External links== * {{Commons category-inline}} * [http://www.gbennett.force9.co.uk/gb-timeline.htm Bennett family history] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304221325/http://www.gbennett.force9.co.uk/gb-timeline.htm |date=2016-03-04 }} * {{PM20|FID=pe/001467}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bennett, James Gordon Jr.}} Category:19th-century American newspaper publishers (people) Category:1841 births Category:1918 deaths Category:American expatriates in France Category:American male journalists Category:American male sailors (sport) Category:American polo players Category:Burials at Passy Cemetery Category:Businesspeople from New York City Category:Jeannette expedition Category:Members of the New York Yacht Club Category:People of New York (state) in the American Civil War Category:Union navy officers James Gordon Jr.