Murat Halstead

Murat Halstead (September 2, 1829 – July 2, 1908) was an American newspaper editor and magazine writer. He was an early war correspondent, reporting during three wars, and a zealous ally of the Republican Party. With his mother's help, he was a reader by the time he was four, He then decided to study law.

He had begun writing for newspapers when he was 18, He reported on the hanging of John Brown in 1859, and later personally reported from several battles during the Civil War. He was also a war correspondent for the Franco-Prussian War, where he sided emphatically with the Germans. The Cincinnati Gazette was consolidated with his paper in 1883, and he became president of the company that published the combined journal under the name of the Commercial Gazette, In an essay for the magazine Quest, American journalist and historian Garry Wills ranked Halstead above H.L. Mencken as "the classic reporter of our conventions," illustrating Halstead's penchant for fun invective with, among other things, his raucous description of Stephen Douglas:An exposed political empyric; a dishonest truckler for unsound popularity; a false pretender to notions of honor, and a foul-mouthed bully self convicted of cowardice, though a coat of whitewash a foot in thickness would not cause him to pass for a gentleman, it cannot be denied that he will make a most admirable candidate.

In 1890, he moved to Brooklyn, New York, where he edited the Standard Union, His son Marshall, at one time United States consul in Birmingham, England, predeceased him. The illustrious life of William McKinley: our martyred president, 1901 War Between Russia and Japan, 1904

He contributed to these newspapers and magazines: Editor for Cincinnati Commercial (merged into Cincinnati Commercial Gazette) Editor for Brooklyn Standard Union Published articles for Cosmopolitan Monthly