Alfred Henry Lewis (January 20, 1855 – December 23, 1914) was an American
investigative journalist
Investigative journalism is a form of journalism in which reporters deeply investigate a single topic of interest, such as serious crimes, political corruption, or corporate wrongdoing. An investigative journalist may spend months or years rese ...
,
lawyer,
novelist
A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others asp ...
,
editor, and
short story
A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest ...
writer,
who sometimes published under the pseudonym Dan Quin.
[Marquis Who's Who in America]
1902, at archive.org
The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...
Career
Lewis began as a
staff writer
In journalism, a staff writer byline indicates that the author of the article is an employee of the periodical, as opposed to being an independent freelance writer. In Britain, staff writers may work in the office instead of traveling to cover a b ...
at the ''
Chicago Times'', and eventually became editor of the ''
Chicago Times-Herald''.
By the late 19th century he was writing
muckraker articles for ''
Cosmopolitan
Cosmopolitan may refer to:
Food and drink
* Cosmopolitan (cocktail), also known as a "Cosmo"
History
* Rootless cosmopolitan, a Soviet derogatory epithet during Joseph Stalin's anti-Semitic campaign of 1949–1953
Hotels and resorts
* Cosmopoli ...
''. As an investigative journalist, Lewis wrote extensively about
corruption in New York politics.
In 1901 he published a biography of
Richard Croker
Richard Welstead Croker (November 24, 1843 – April 29, 1922), known as "Boss Croker," was an Irish American political boss who was a leader of New York City's Tammany Hall. His control over the city was cemented with the 1897 election of ...
(1843–1922), a leading figure in the corrupt
political machine known as
Tammany Hall
Tammany Hall, also known as the Society of St. Tammany, the Sons of St. Tammany, or the Columbian Order, was a New York City political organization founded in 1786 and incorporated on May 12, 1789 as the Tammany Society. It became the main loc ...
, which exercised a great deal of control over New York politics from the 1790s to the 1960s.
As a writer of
genre fiction
Genre fiction, also known as popular fiction, is a term used in the book-trade for fictional works written with the intent of fitting into a specific literary genre, in order to appeal to readers and fans already familiar with that genre.
A num ...
, his most successful works were
Western
Western may refer to:
Places
*Western, Nebraska, a village in the US
*Western, New York, a town in the US
*Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western world, countries that id ...
s from his ''Wolfville'' series, which he continued writing until he died of
gastrointestinal disease
Gastrointestinal diseases (abbrev. GI diseases or GI illnesses) refer to diseases involving the gastrointestinal tract, namely the oesophagus, stomach, small intestine, large intestine and rectum, and the accessory organs of digestion, the liver, ...
in 1914.
Bibliography
Non-fiction
* ''Richard Croker'' (1901)
* ''Nation-famous New York Murders'' (1914)
Novels and short story collections
References
External links
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*
*
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Lewis, Alfred Henry
1855 births
1914 deaths
19th-century American novelists
20th-century American novelists
American investigative journalists
American male novelists
Ohio lawyers
Lawyers from Cleveland
Western (genre) writers
American male short story writers
20th-century American biographers
19th-century American short story writers
19th-century American male writers
20th-century American short story writers
Journalists from Ohio
20th-century American male writers
Novelists from Ohio
19th-century American lawyers
American male biographers