Lincoln Austin Steffens (April 6, 1866 – August 9, 1936) 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 ...

and one of the leading muckrakers of the

Progressive Era The Progressive Era (late 1890s – late 1910s) was a period of widespread social activism and political reform across the United States focused on defeating corruption, monopoly, waste and inefficiency. The main themes ended during Am ...

in the early 20th century. He launched a series of articles in ''

McClure's ''McClure's'' or ''McClure's Magazine'' (1893–1929) was an American illustrated monthly periodical popular at the turn of the 20th century. The magazine is credited with having started the tradition of muckraking journalism (investigative journ ...

'', called "Tweed Days in St. Louis", that would later be published together in a book titled ''

The Shame of the Cities ''The Shame of the Cities'' is a book written by American author Lincoln Steffens. Published in 1904, it is a collection of articles which Steffens had written for ''McClure’s Magazine''. It reports on the workings of corrupt political machines ...

''. He is remembered for investigating corruption in

municipal government A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

in American cities and for his leftist values.

Early life

Steffens was born in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, the only son and eldest of four children of Elizabeth Louisa (Symes) Steffens and Joseph Steffens. He was raised largely in

Sacramento ) , image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg , mapsize = 250x200px , map_caption = Location within Sacramento ...

, the state capital; the Steffens family mansion, a Victorian house on H Street bought from merchant Albert Gallatin in 1887, would become the

California Governor's Mansion The California Governor's Mansion is the official residence of the governor of California, located in Sacramento, the capital of California. Built in 1877, the estate was purchased by the Californian government in 1903 and has served as the exe ...

in 1903. Steffens attended the

Saint Matthew's Episcopal Day School Episcopal Day School of St. Matthew is a private co-educational day school located in San Mateo, California. It was founded in 1865, by Andrew Lee Brewer, and was previously a military school known as Saint Matthew's Hall or Saint Matthew's School. ...

, where he frequently clashed with the school's founder and director, stern disciplinarian, Alfred Lee Brewer.

Career

Steffens began his journalism career at the '' New York Commercial Advertiser'' in the 1890s, before moving to the ''

New York Evening Post The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates NYPost.com, the celebrity gossip site PageSix.com, and the entertainment site Decider.com. It was established i ...

''. He later became an editor of ''

'' magazine, where he became part of a celebrated

muckraking The muckrakers were reform-minded journalists, writers, and photographers in the Progressive Era in the United States (1890s–1920s) who claimed to expose corruption and wrongdoing in established institutions, often through sensationalist publ ...

trio with

Ida Tarbell Ida Minerva Tarbell (November 5, 1857January 6, 1944) was an American writer, Investigative journalism, investigative journalist, List of biographers, biographer and lecturer. She was one of the leading muckrakers of the Progressive Era of th ...

and

Ray Stannard Baker Ray Stannard Baker (April 17, 1870 – July 12, 1946) (also known by his pen name David Grayson) was an American journalist, historian, biographer, and author. Biography Baker was born in Lansing, Michigan. After graduating from the Michigan ...

. He specialized in investigating government and political corruption, and two collections of his articles were published as ''

'' (1904) and ''The Struggle for Self-Government'' (1906). He also wrote ''The Traitor State'' (1905), which criticized

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

for patronizing incorporation. In 1906, he left ''McClure's'', along with Tarbell and Baker, to form ''

The American Magazine ''The American Magazine'' was a periodical publication founded in June 1906, a continuation of failed publications purchased a few years earlier from publishing mogul Miriam Leslie. It succeeded ''Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly'' (1876–1904), ' ...

''. In ''The Shame of the Cities'', Steffens sought to bring about political reform in urban America by appealing to the emotions of Americans. He tried to provoke outrage with examples of corrupt governments throughout urban America. From 1914 to 1915 he covered the

Mexican Revolution The Mexican Revolution ( es, Revolución Mexicana) was an extended sequence of armed regional conflicts in Mexico from approximately 1910 to 1920. It has been called "the defining event of modern Mexican history". It resulted in the destruction ...

and began to see revolution as preferable to reform. In March 1919, he accompanied

William C. Bullitt William Christian Bullitt Jr. (January 25, 1891 – February 15, 1967) was an American diplomat, journalist, and novelist. He is known for his special mission to negotiate with Lenin on behalf of the Paris Peace Conference, often recalled as a mi ...

, a low-level State Department official, on a three-week visit to

Soviet Russia The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Russian SFSR or RSFSR ( rus, Российская Советская Федеративная Социалистическая Республика, Rossíyskaya Sovétskaya Federatívnaya Soci ...

and witnessed the "confusing and difficult" process of society in the process of revolutionary change. He wrote that "Soviet Russia was a revolutionary government with an evolutionary plan", enduring "a temporary condition of evil, which is made tolerable by hope and a plan." After his return, he promoted his view of the

Soviet Revolution The October Revolution,. officially known as the Great October Socialist Revolution. in the Soviet Union, also known as the Bolshevik Revolution, was a revolution in Russia led by the Bolshevik Party of Vladimir Lenin that was a key moment ...

and in the course of campaigning for U.S. food aid for Russia made his famous remark about the new Soviet society: "I have seen the future, and it works", a phrase he often repeated with many variations. The title page of his wife

Ella Winter Leonore (Ella) Sophie Winter Steffens Stewart (1898–1980) was an Australian-British journalist and activist. Early life She was born in 1898 to Freda Lust and Adolph Wertheimer in Nuremberg, Germany. Her parents were Freda Lust and Adolph W ...

's ''Red Virtue: Human Relationships in the New Russia'' (

Victor Gollancz Sir Victor Gollancz (; 9 April 1893 – 8 February 1967) was a British publisher and humanitarian. Gollancz was known as a supporter of left-wing causes. His loyalties shifted between liberalism and communism, but he defined himself as a Christ ...

, 1933) carries this quote. His enthusiasm for

communism Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

soured by the time his memoirs appeared in 1931. The autobiography became a bestseller leading to a short return to prominence for the writer, but Steffens would not be able to capitalize on it as illness cut his lecture tour of America short by 1933. He was a member of the California Writers Project, a

New Deal The New Deal was a series of programs, public work projects, financial reforms, and regulations enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1939. Major federal programs agencies included the Civilian Cons ...

program. He married the twenty-six-year-old socialist writer Leonore (Ella) Sophie Winter in 1924 and moved to Italy, where their son Peter was born in San Remo. Two years later they relocated to the largest art colony on the Pacific Coast,

Carmel-by-the-Sea, California Carmel-by-the-Sea (), often simply called Carmel, is a city in Monterey County, California, United States, founded in 1902 and incorporated on October 31, 1916. Situated on the Monterey Peninsula, Carmel is known for its natural scenery and ric ...

. Ella and Lincoln soon became controversial figures in the leftist politics of the region. An online facsimile of the entire text of Vol. 1 is posted on the Traditional Fine Arts Organization website (). When John O’Shea, one of the local artists and a friend of the couple, exhibited his study of "Mr. Steffens’ soul", an image which resembled a grotesque daemon, Lincoln took a certain cynical pride in the drawing and enjoyed the publicity it generated. In 1934, Steffens and Winters helped found the San Francisco Workers' School (later the

California Labor School The California Labor School (until 1945 named the Tom Mooney Labor School) was an educational organization in San Francisco from 1942 to 1957. Like the contemporary Jefferson School of Social Science and the New York Workers School, it represent ...

); Steffens also served there as an advisor.

Death

Lincoln Steffens historic marker in Carmel, California

Steffens died of a heart condition on August 9, 1936, in

. In 2011 Kevin Baker of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' lamented that "Lincoln Steffens isn’t much remembered today".

Works

*''Pittsburgh is Hell with the Lid Off'' (1903) (Painting Jules Guerin/Lincoln Steffens) *''

'' (1904)
online
at the

Internet Archive 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, ...

*''The Traitor State'' (1905)
''The Struggle for Self-Government'' (1906), online
at the Internet Archive
''Upbuilders'' (1909), online
at the Internet Archive
''The least of these: a fact story'' (1910), online
at the Internet Archive
''Into Mexico and --Out!'' (1916), online
at the Internet Archive *''Autobiography of Lincoln Steffens'' (1931)

In popular culture

Lincoln Steffens is mentioned in the Danny Devito movie ''Jack the Bear'' (1993). Lincoln Steffens is mentioned in the 1987 novel ''

The Bonfire of the Vanities ''The Bonfire of the Vanities'' is a 1987 novel by Tom Wolfe. The story is a drama about ambition, racism, social class, politics, and greed in 1980s New York City, and centers on three main characters: WASP bond trader Sherman McCoy, Jewish as ...

'' by

Tom Wolfe Thomas Kennerly Wolfe Jr. (March 2, 1930 – May 14, 2018)Some sources say 1931; ''The New York Times'' and Reuters both initially reported 1931 in their obituaries before changing to 1930. See and was an American author and journalist widely ...

. Characters on the American crime drama series '' City on a Hill'', which debuted in 2019, make numerous references to Lincoln Steffens. The ''Autobiography of Lincoln Steffens'' is the favorite book of one of the members of The Group in Mary McCarthy's 1963 novel of the same title. ''Autobiography of Lincoln Steffens'' is mentioned in the Joseph McElroy novel ''Women and Men''.

References

External links

* * Lincoln Steffens' collected journalism a

{{DEFAULTSORT:Steffens, Lincoln 1866 births 1936 deaths American autobiographers American male journalists Journalists from California American political writers American investigative journalists Writers from Sacramento, California Progressive Era in the United States Reform in the United States University of California, Berkeley alumni Writers about the Soviet Union People from Carmel-by-the-Sea, California Activists from California American anti-corruption activists Burials at Cypress Lawn Memorial Park