David Stern III

David Stern III (September 2, 1909 – November 22, 2003), also known as David J. Stern^[1] was an American prose fiction writer and scriptwriter, sometimes under the name Peter Stirling—that of the human lead opposite his most famous character, Francis the Talking Mule.^[2] He was the publisher of a New Orleans newspaper for a time, and was the son of a much more prominent newspaper publisher, J. David Stern.

Biography

During World War II, Stern became a captain in the US Army working on military newspapers.^[3] During this time he had an idea to write about a talking mule and published Francis in 1946. The Francis the Talking Mule books later became a film series, though his 1948 sequel Francis Goes to Washington was never filmed.

In 1949, he purchased the New Orleans Item-Tribune for $2,000,000. He ran the paper until its 1958 merger with the Daily States newspaper.^[4]

In 1958, the Item-Tribune merged with the Daily States (founded in 1880) to form the New Orleans Daily States-Item. In 1962, the publisher and businessman Samuel I. Newhouse bought the morning Times-Picayune as well as the afternoon States-Item, which continued to be published separately until they were merged and combined in 1980.^[5]