George D. Prentice
| George D. Prentice | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born | December 18, 1802 Preston, Connecticut |
| Died | January 22, 1870 (aged 67) Jefferson County, Kentucky |
| Cause of death | Influenza |
| Occupation | Newspaper Editor |
| Political party | Whig |
George Dennison Prentice (December 18, 1802 – January 22, 1870) was the editor of the Louisville Journal, which he built into a major newspaper in Louisville, Kentucky. He attracted readers by satire as well as exaggerated reporting and support of the Know-Nothing Party in the 1850s. His writing was said to contribute to rabid anti-Catholic and anti-foreigner sentiment, and a riot in 1855. During the Civil War, he created and wrote about a fictional guerrilla "Sue Mundy", whose activities he used to taunt the Union military commander of the state.
The son of a farmer, Prentice excelled in school and graduated from Brown University in 1823. Following graduation he began contributing to literary periodicals and studied law in Canterbury, Connecticut. Although he joined the bar in that state, he was more interested in literature. After practicing law briefly, he became editor of the Hartford New England Review in 1828.
On the strength of his political writings, he was invited to come to Kentucky to write a campaign biography of Henry Clay, which sold 20,000 copies. Prentice received no money for this work because the publisher went bankrupt. He stayed in Louisville and accepted an offer to co-found the Louisville Journal newspaper in 1830, with the goal of rivaling the then-dominant Louisville Public Advertiser. Prentice soon found himself in an editorial feud with Advertiser publisher Shadrack Penn, which continued until Penn left the city in 1841.
The Journal quickly became popular in Louisville, largely because of Prentice's biting editorials and the savage wit of his replies to detractors. Prentice was a dedicated backer of the Whig Party. In the 1850s, Prentice editorialized in support of the Know-Nothing party and the pro-slavery, anti-Catholic and anti-foreigner movement that reached a hysterical level in the 1850s in many parts of the nation.
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