The Letters Of Lincoln Steffens. retailer Illustrated. Two-Volume Boxed Set. 1st Edition, 1st Printing.

Lincoln Austin Steffens (April 6, 1866 – August 9, 1936) was an American investigative journalist and one of the leading muckrakers of the Progressive Era in the early 20th century. He is remembered for investigating corruption in municipal government in American cities and for his leftist values.

He was born in San Francisco, the only son of Elizabeth Louisa (Symes) Steffens and Joseph Steffens. He was raised largely in Sacramento, where the Steffens family mansion, a Victorian house on H Street, would later become the California Governor's Mansion (1903). He began his journalism career at the New York Commercial Advertiser in the 1890's, before moving to the New York Evening Post, and later became an editor of McClure's Magazine. There, he became part of a much-celebrated muckraking trio with Ida Tarbell and Ray Stannard Baker.

Steffens 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 the State of New Jersey for patronizing incorporation. He sought to bring about political reform in urban America by appealing to the emotions of Americans, and by provoking outrage with examples of corrupt governments throughout urban America.

In 1906, he left McClure's, along with Tarbell and Baker, to form "The American Magazine", a popular muck-raking periodical of the day. After covering the Mexican Revolution as a journalist in 1914-15, and visiting Soviet Russia in 1919, he began to see revolution as preferable to reform. In 1924, he married twenty-six-year-old socialist writer Leonore (Ella) Sophie Winter, and moved to Italy. Two years later, they relocated to the largest art colony on the Pacific Coast, Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. But by 1931, when his memoirs were published, his enthusiasm for communism had soured.

In 1934, Steffens and his wife helped found the San Francisco Workers' School, where he also served as an advisor. He passed away two years later, at age 70, in Carmel, California.

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NOTE: This item is over-sized & weighs more than 5lbs, which will necessitate extra costs for shipping - this is >included< retailer in the stated cost for the item.

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Harcourt Brace & Co., NY, 1938.

Two-Volume Boxed Set.

First Edition, stated.

Illustrated w/ 15 pages of B&W photographs in Book One & 16 pages of photos in Book Two.

Introductory Notes by Ella Winter and Granville Hicks; with a Memorandum by Carl Sandburg.

Very Good(+) copy.


Maroon buckram cloth, gilt letters. Minor spine bumping, head & foot, corners. Spine of both volumes are sun-faded; the gilt letters are somewhat subdued, but still extant & legible. Crisp white pages throughout w/o markings. Volume I has a couple of small light spots to the front board & spine. The publisher's original dust-jackets are missing. The heavy cardboard box is still in excellent shape, with only a few minor scrapes/chips to the paste-down label. A little wear in places (mainly the back side & bottom), but still completely intact & solidly built. 1072 pages.