Steffens
(JOSEPH) LINCOLN, an American writer and lecturer, born in San Francisco, Cal., in 1866. He graduated from the University of California in 1889 and studied philosophy at the universities of Berlin, Heidelberg, Leipzig, and Paris. He was a newspaper editor in New York City from 1892 to 1902, when he became managing editor of "McClure's Magazine." From 1906 to 1911 he was an associate editor of the "American" and "Everybody's" magazines. His researches into the mismanagement and corruption of municipal politics, published in various newspapers and magazines, resulted in great improvement in these conditions. He wrote "The Shame of the Cities" (1904); "The Struggle for Self-Government" (1906); "Upbuilders" (1909); "The Least of These" (1910). He was a frequent contributor of articles and short stories to magazines.