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

muckraker 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 ...

s 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, wa ...

'', called "Tweed Days in St. Louis", that would later be published together in a book titled '' The Shame of the Cities''. 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 ...

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 state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the ...

, 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 Victorian or Victorians may refer to: 19th century * Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign ** Victorian architecture ** Victorian house ** Victorian decorative arts ** Victorian fashion ** Victorian literature ...

house on H Street bought from merchant Albert Gallatin in 1887, would become the California Governor's Mansion in 1903. Steffens attended the Saint Matthew's Episcopal Day 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 ''

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''. He later became an editor of ''

'' magazine, where he became part of a celebrated muckraking trio with Ida Tarbell and Ray Stannard Baker. He specialized in investigating government and political corruption, and two collections of his articles were published as '' The Shame of the Cities'' (1904) and ''The Struggle for Self-Government'' (1906). He also wrote ''The Traitor State'' (1905), which criticized

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York (state), New York; on the ea ...

for patronizing

incorporation Incorporation may refer to: * Incorporation (business), the creation of a corporation * Incorporation of a place, creation of municipal corporation such as a city or county * Incorporation (academic), awarding a degree based on the student having ...

. 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 and began to see revolution as preferable to reform. In March 1919, he accompanied William C. Bullitt, 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'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 Chris ...

, 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 ...

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 The Federal Writers' Project (FWP) was a federal government project in the United States created to provide jobs for out-of-work writers during the Great Depression. It was part of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), a New Deal program. It w ...

, 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 Con ...

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. 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 The San Francisco Workers' School was an ideological training center of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) established in San Francisco for adult education in 1934. "It was a typical specimen of a Communist school, such as would come under investig ...

(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 Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. 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) *'' The Shame of the Cities'' (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'' 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