Background

Joseph Lincoln Steffens was born on April 6, 1866, in San Francisco, California, United States. He was the son of Joseph Steffens, a banker, and Elizabeth Louisa (Symes) Steffens. Steffens mostly grew up in Sacramento, the state capital.

Education

Steffens attended the Saint Matthew's Episcopal Day School. In 1889, he received a Bachelor of Philosophy from the University of California in Berkeley. He also studied at Heidelberg University and Leipzig University. From 1889 - 1892, he also studied at Sorbonne University.

Career

Upon returning to the United States in 1892, Steffens began working in the newspaper industry in New York City. In 1902, he became editor of McClure's Magazine. At McClure's magazine, Steffens collaborated with Ida Tarbell, and Ray Stannard Baker. He specialized in investigating government and political corruption. Two collections of his articles were published as The Shame of the Cities in 1904, and The Struggle for Self-Government in 1906. He also wrote The Traitor State, which criticized New Jersey for patronizing incorporation. In 1906, Steffens left McClure's to form American Magazine.

Steffens continued in journalism until approximately 1910 when he became interested in the revolution in Mexico. In January 1919, Steffens and his friend, William Christian Bullitt, assistant secretary of state, argued that they should be sent to Russia to open up negotiations with Lenin and the Bolsheviks. Permission was granted by the Secretary of State Robert Lansing on 18th February. Steffens and Bullitt had a meeting with Lenin in Petrograd on 14th March. The decline of muckraking journalism in 1910 coincided with Steffens’s growing doubts as to its effectiveness. He increasingly doubted the effectiveness of reform politics, which seemed to seek to eradicate the symptoms of corruption rather than its causes. By this stage of his career, Steffens had great difficulty finding magazines willing to publish his work. His unorthodoxy lost him to his American audience during the 1920s.

In the 1920s, Joseph moved to Europe and began working on his autobiography, which was highly successful upon its publication in 1931. In 1935 Steffens gave his name in support of the American Writers’ Congress to be held in New York City. Its main objective was to give support to those fighting Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini in Europe.

Achievements

• Journalist Lincoln Steffens was a leading writer and pioneer among the muckraking movement of the early 20th century. Steffens discovered abundant evidence of the corruption of politicians by businessmen seeking special privileges. He raised questions, jolting his audience into awareness of the ethical paradox of private interest in public affairs by comic irony rather than by moral indignation. He revealed the shortcomings of the popular dogmas that connected economic success with moral worth and national progress with individual self-interest.
  
  Steffen's contributions to journalism remain relevant even today, decades after his death. His name, philosophy, and journalistic approach are invoked regularly by writers who take issue with those who govern.
  
  

Works

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  • The Shame of the Cities

    (Renowned muckraker and investigative reporter Lincoln Ste...)

    1904
  • The Struggle for Self-government 1906
  • Upbuilders 1909
  • The least of these, a fact story 1910
  • Moses in Red 1926
  • The Autobiography Of Lincoln Steffens 1931
  • The Autobiography of Lincoln Steffens Volume II 1958
  • The Letters of Lincoln Steffens 1920
  • The Letters of Lincoln Steffens 1936
  • Lincoln Steffens speaking 1936

Politics

Though Steffens never joined the Communist Party, he believed only a Communist-style revolution could rescue America economically.

Views

Lincoln Steffens dedicated himself to awakening his readers to corruption within institutions most Americans took for granted. Steffens became disillusioned with advocacy journalism and took interest in political left-wing revolutions, traveling to Russia and writing against capitalism while the American economy was weak. His autobiography chronicles his evolution from a frivolous youth to a crusading journalist to a champion of revolutionary ideas. Steffens cited patterns, not just examples, of corruption and demonstrated how business people who seem the most trustworthy are often the most corrupt. Exposing corruption was not enough for Steffens; he also proposed solutions and instituted reform measures. He urged readers to take responsibility for cleaning up their governments. He saw capitalism as the root of social corruption and felt the Bolshevik Revolution validated his opinion.

Steffens also covered immigrant life, examining how children acclimated to America more easily than did their elders.

Quotations: "I have been contending with all my kind, always against God. The world which I tried so hard, so honestly, so dumbly, to change has changed me. And as for the world in general, all that was or is or ever will be wrong with that is my - our - thinking about it."

Personality

Steffens established himself as an adept interviewer who could elicit information from even the most slippery contact. His witty style also won over readers.

Quotes from others about the person

• "Lincoln Steffens was attracted to younger men and greatly enjoyed the influence he could exercise over them. As a topflight journalist, he was always being made an editor of some magazine or daily, yet he hated a desk and four walls and – was no editor at all – except for his uncanny ability to think up assignments for himself and his love of scouting for young writers. He had gone to Harvard to ask Copeland for the names of some promising young men." - Bertram D. Wolfe

Connections

In 1891, Steffens married Josephine Bontecou, but she died in 1911. In 1924, he married the twenty-six-year-old socialist writer Leonore (Ella) Sophie Winter. Later they divorced, claiming their relationship meant more without legal ties but remained together until Steffens’ death. They had a son, Pete Stanley. Winter worked outside the home while her husband essentially took care of the boy.

Father:

Joseph Steffens

Mother:

Elizabeth Louisa (Symes) Steffens

Son:

Pete Stanley Steffens

late wife:

Josephine Bontecou

ex-wife:

Leonore (Ella) Sophie Winter

(1898 - 5 August 1980)

Leonore (Ella) Sophie Winter Steffens Stewart was an Australian-British journalist and activist.

Friend:

William Bullitt

(January 25, 1891 – February 15, 1967)

William Christian Bullitt Jr. 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 missed opportunity to normalize relations with the Bolsheviks.

References

• Contemporary Authors New Revision Series In response to the escalating need for up-to-date information on writers, Contemporary Authors New Revision Series (Volume 198) brings researchers the most recent data on the world's most popular authors.
  2010
• Encyclopedia of World Biography Encyclopedia of World Biography contains 200 biographical entries new to the set. Each volume includes a balance of historic and contemporary figures who, like those appearing in the Encyclopedia of World Biography base set, have made a significant contribution to human culture and society.
  1998
• Lincoln Steffens
  1974
• Lincoln Steffens The acclaimed Pulitzer Prize winning biographer of Mark Twain and Walt Whitman brings alive the life and world of Lincoln Steffens, the original Muckraker and father of American investigative journalism.
  1974
• Lincoln Steffens
  1978
• Lincoln Steffens Reappraising the journalistic and autobiographical works of the early-twentieth-century social critic, Stinson views Steffen's writings as works of literary art and underscores the importance of viewing journalism as a legitimate part of serious literature.
  1979