This is Texas Originals. From Humanities Texas, for the advancement of heritage, culture, and education.
His thousands of admirers called him a saint. His adversaries—and there were many—called him the Devil's apostle. But Waco publisher and journalist William Cowper Brann preferred to be known by the name of the weekly journal he published, the Iconoclast.
As arrogant as he was brilliant, Brann was among the most famous journalists in America in the late nineteenth century.
At its peak, the Iconoclast boasted a circulation of a hundred thousand readers. Raw, biting humor and corrosive satire were its trademarks.
The Iconoclast crusaded tirelessly against what Brann called "humbugs and humbuggery." He was an unrepentant racist to be sure—like many Texas journalists of the day—but neighboring Baylor University drew his most scathing attacks.
For example, Brann once called Baylor "that great storm-center of misinformation."
A group of Baylor students once kidnapped their nemesis, demanded that he retract his statements about the school, and ordered him to leave town, but Brann bucked their command and kept writing.
On April 1, 1898, a Waco businessman shot Brann in the back on a downtown street. The injured editor drew his own revolver, whirled around, and gunned down his assailant. Brann's own wound proved fatal; he died that evening.
William Cowper Brann is buried in Waco's historic Oakwood Cemetery. His granite monument is pock-marked by a bullet.
More information about William Cowper Brann and other Texas Originals is available at Texasoriginals.org. This program is produced by KUHF Houston Public Radio and Humanities Texas, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities.