Steffens, Lincoln (1866-1936)

At the beginning of the twentieth century, when corruption in city government ran rampant in large American cities, one of the original muckrakers—so named by Theodore Roosevelt for their aggressive journalistic tactics in investigating controversial stories—was Lincoln Steffens. Steffens hounded corrupt city officials all across the United States. He faced numerous death threats and stood up to local political machines in many cities, including Pittsburgh, New York City, and Minneapolis. His first effort at a story came in Philadelphia, where he compared the local extortionists' control of the city voting to that of the disenfranchisement of African-Ameri-cans in the South. He wrote in McClure's magazine, "The honest citizens of Philadelphia have no more rights at the polls than the Negroes in the South." Over the course of his career, Steffen's muckraking led to the indictment of eighteen municipal legislators in St. Louis and the ouster of twenty corrupt city councilman in Chicago. Through the journalistic ideology of muckraking, Steffens challenged the way in which city business was done and set a standard many others would follow.

Lincoln Steffens was born in 1866 in San Francisco. He failed his first attempt at the entrance exam to the University of California-Berkley. On his second try he succeeded and graduated in 1889 with a degree in philosophy. In 1891, Steffens moved to Paris and married Josephine Bontecou. He returned to New York City in 1892 after landing a job with the New York Evening Post. He later became managing editor of McClure's, joining other muckrakers like Ida Tarbell and Ray Stannard Baker. In a nationwide publication, Steffens exposed corrupt city officials, who often received and gave bribes, and bought and sold privilege at all levels. Steffens published six articles on corruption in local city governments and these articles formed the hallmark on city reform for the next half-century. The six articles were published together in a book in 1904. Shame of the Cities quickly became a bestseller and stood out for its prose and style.

Lincoln Steffens' public call for the end of democracy led to a permanent split with McClure's. In 1906, he became co-owner of American magazine, but sold his shares in 1907, after a little more than a year. By 1910, Steffens had become disillusioned with muck-raking and concerned himself with the radical revolutionaries in Mexico. This involvement led him to become even more skeptical of capitalism. In 1917, he traveled to Soviet Union, proclaimed himself a Marxist, and joined the Communist Party. At the conclusion of the Great War, Steffens attended the 1919 Paris Peace Conference at Versailles. After leaving Paris, Steffens returned to the United States and embarked on a cross-country tour promoting the Bolshevik Revolution. By late 1921, Steffens was pressured out of America with the onset of the first Red Scare. He first returned to Paris then later moved to Italy, where he wrote his autobiography in 1931. The Autobiography of Lincoln Steffens, and its theme of an intellectual reformer turned revolutionary, appealed to many during the Great Depression. The book, with its witty, charming, and compassionate narrative, sold well in the United States and laid the groundwork for autobiographical style for years to come. Steffens moved back to the United States in 1927 and died in 1936 in Carmel, California. He is buried in San Francisco. Lincoln Steffens' life will be remembered for many achievements in journalism. He helped end city corruption, published two popular books nearly thirty years apart, and became the first truly revolutionary writer. Steffens has left his mark on journalistic history.

—Scott Stabler

Further Reading:

Connery, Thomas, ed. A Sourcebook of American Literary Journalism: Representative Writers in an Emerging Genre. New York, Greenwood Press, 1992.

Palermo, Patrick. Lincoln Steffens. Boston, Twayne Publishers, 1978.

Steffens, Lincoln. The Autobiography of Lincoln Steffens. New York, Harcourt, Brace, and Co., 1931.

——. Shame of the Cities. New York, P. Smith, 1904.

Stinson, Robert. Lincoln Steffens. New York, F. Ungar Publishing Co., 1979.