Lincoln Steffens

Lincoln Steffens (Joseph Lincoln Steffens), 1866-1936, American editor and author, b. San Francisco, grad. Univ. of California, 1889, and studied three years in Europe. Steffens became one of the leading muckrakers , and while he held (1902-11) successive editorial positions on McClure's, the American, and Everybody's magazines he wrote sensational articles exposing municipal corruption; they were later collected in The Shame of the Cities (1904), The Struggle for Self-Government (1906), Upbuilders (1909), and other volumes. His autobiography (1931) contains not only personal reminiscences but also valuable information on the leftist movements of his era.

Bibliography: See his Lincoln Steffens Speaking (1936) and his letters (ed. by E. Winters and G. Hicks, 2 vol., 1938); biography by J. Kaplan (1974).

Steffens, [Joseph] Lincoln (1866–1936),born in San Francisco, graduated from the University of California (1889), studied abroad, and entered New York journalism (1892). He is best known for his leadership of the muckraking movement. As managing editor of McClure's Magazine (1902–6) and associate editor of American Magazine and Everybody's (1906–11), he was a contributor to the journalistic exposé of business and government corruption. His articles are collected in The Shame of the Cities (1904), The Struggle for Self‐Government (1906), and Upbuilders (1909). His Autobiography (1931) tells the story of his gradual evolution of a theory of government and his transition from sensational reporting to the belief in a fundamental relation between the various forms of corruption he had discovered. It also contains an account of modern liberal and radical movements, with which he was affiliated during much of his life. Lincoln Steffens Speaking (1936) is a posthumous collection of articles written during his later years, and his Letters were collected in 1938.