Frank Irving Cobb (August 6, 1869 – December 21, 1923) was an American journalist, primarily an editorial writer, from 1896 to his death.
Cobb was born to a Yankee farm family in Shawnee County, Kansas, which includes the state capital Topeka.
Educated at local schools with a term at the state college, at age 21, he became a cub reporter on the Grand Rapids Herald for $6 a week.
[3] Cobb was an editorial writer at the Detroit Free Press from 1900 to 1904, when he was hired by Joseph Pulitzer, who owned the crusading New York City newspaper The World, then one of the two largest papers in the country.
The World reached the common man by a variety of news and entertainment features, and was a power in the Democratic Party because of its liberalism and its crusades against big business and government corruption.
Cobb was a fiercely independent journalist who resisted Pulitzer's attempts to "run the office" from his home.
Pulitzer raged at the insult, but slowly began to respect Cobb's editorials and independent spirit.