Complex sentence: Kate Davis Pulitzer, a distant cousin of Jefferson Davis and the wife of Joseph Pulitzer, had met Varina during a visit to the south and had solicited short articles from her for her husband's newspaper.
Split into simpler sentences: Kate Davis Pulitzer, a distant cousin of Jefferson Davis and the wife of Joseph Pulitzer, had met Varina Davis during a visit to the South. She solicited short articles from her for her husband's newspaper.