Dana, Charles Anderson (1819-1897)

US journalist who covered the European revolutions of 1848 and earned a reputation as one of America's most able foreign correspondents. During the US Civil War he served as assistant secretary of war 1863-65 and in 1868 purchased the New York Sun, with which he pioneered the daily tabloid format.

Born in Hinsdale, New Hampshire, and educated at Harvard, Dana left college before graduating to become manager of Brook Farm, an experimental community in West Roxbury, Massachusetts, 1841-47. After its breakup he embarked on a journalistic career and became city editor of the New York Tribune 1847.