Ray Stannard Baker, a muckraker who tackled issues on racism, poverty, and political reform
Photo courtesy of wonderofcreation.org
Ray Stannard Baker was studying law at the University of Michigan when he was first exposed to journalism. Little did he know that dropping out of law school to pursue a career in writing would make him a well-respected muckraking reporter.
Baker was born in Lansing, Michigan, on April 17, 1870. He spent his early life on a farm before enrolling in Michigan Agricultural College (now Michigan State University) as an undergraduate. After Baker completed his studies at MAC, he enrolled in the University of Michigan to study law and literature. It was there he first came into contact with journalism and enrolled in a course called Rapid Writing, the first newspaper writing class in any American institution. His professor, Fred N. Scott, often criticized Baker's editorials. Yet it influenced him to be a better writer, and his interest in law and literature began to decline (Semonche, 51).
In 1892, Baker gave up studying law and applied for a reporting job at the Chicago Record. One of his first assignments involved covering the establishment of soup kitchens in the city. He was exposed to poverty-stricken conditions, homeless, and stormy church meetings at which concerned citizens gathered to figure out how to deal with urban problems. Fascinated by what he saw, he began submitting stories about it. His editor rejected them, saying the city couldn't be portrayed as poor (Baker, 2). He kept writing the stories that his editor wanted for the Record and wrote a freelance article on the Pullman, Illonois strike of 1894, which focused on the working class injustices (pbs.org)
By 1898, Baker had married his college sweetheart, Jessie Irene Beal, and relocated to New York to work for McClure's Syndicate. Baker joined McClure's at a time when the magazine was soaring in popularity. He was working alongside other rising muckrakers, such as Ida Tarbell and Lincoln Steffens. Baker's audience was moved by his writing. Even President Theodore Roosevelt praised Baker, telling him, "You have impressed me with your earnest desire to be fair, with your freedom from hysteria, and with your anxiety to tell the truth rather than to write something that will be sensational" (Dorman, 55). The same year Baker began writing for McClure's, he was promoted to managing editor of its syndicate and doing freelance work for the Youth's Companion (Baker, 98). A year later, he switched to McClure's Magazine as an associate editor and began publishing books. His most popular books were the ones written under the pen name David Grayson.
David Grayson showed a more philisophical, artistic side of Baker. His alter ego gave him a chance to write about a variety of topics from a farmer's point of view. Baker began writing a manuscript reflecting on his childhood on the farm after returning from one of his many New York trips. While Adventures in Contentment (1907) was actually the third book he wrote, it was the first of many books for which he used his Grayson pen name. After Adventures in Contentment, Baker received many responses from his readers. One of the fan letters he published in his autobiography, American Chronicle, likens his progressive and persistent drive for exposing corruption to the creative serenity Grayson captures in his philosophical essays.
In the mid-1900s, Baker began turning his attention to political reform and race relations, and President Roosevelt turned on Baker. Roosevelt, once a trusted friend to Baker, attacked Baker and other muckrakers for focusing exclusively on the negatives of American life. The more Roosevelt verbally assaulted investigate reporters, the harder they worked for Progressive Reform. After Baker and his muckraking friends bought American Magazine, he began an extensive evaluation on the social and political position of African-Americans. The series of articles drew so much positive feedback that Baker turned it into a book, Following the Color Line (1908). With its strong, episodic human interest appeal on such subjects as lynchings, Jim Crow laws, and mulattos, the book is considered the most significant piece of journalism of Baker's career (Baker 198-200).
Baker's book. Courtesy of npyl.org.
Baker was able to expose problems in society, identify the agents in control, indicate a preferred action, incite a response from his readers, and maintain authorial autonomy over his work (Stein, 402). He earned the support and respect of President Woodrow Wilson and eventually worked as his press secretary, He received a Pulitzer Prize for writing Wilson's biography.
Baker died of a heart attack on July 12, 1946, in Amherst, Massachusetts, a legendary muckraker, beloved popular author and a father of four children.
Caricature of Baker and muckraker Lincoln Steffens
in The New York World circa 1905.
Courtesy of www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk.
Selected Books by Baker
- Boys' Book of Inventions (1899)
- Our New Prosperity (1900)
- Seen in Germany (1901)
- Adventures in Contentment (1907)*
- Following the Color Line (1908)
- The Spiritual Unrest (1910)
- Adventures of Friendship (1910)*
- The Friendly Road: New Adventures in Contentment (1913)*
- Great Possessions: A New Series of Adventures (1917)*
- The New Industrial Unrest (1920)
- Woodrow Wilson and World Settlement (1922)
- Adventures in Understanding (1925)*
- Adventures in Solitude (1931)*
- Woodrrow Wilson: Life and Letters (1939)
* Books written under his pen name David Grayson
Annotated bibliography
1) http://diglib.princeton.edu/ead/getEad?eadid=MC004&kw=
This website includes an inventory of Baker's biography, a series of papers containing personal essays and a description of how his first article on a restaurant strike led him to investigative journalism.
2) http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/wilson/index.html American Experience-People: Woodrow Wilson.
A profile is included on Baker and how he came to be a well-known muckraking journalist and how his social reform movement led him to meet Wilson.
3) Baker, Ray Stannard. American Chronicle: The Autobiography of Ray Stannard Baker. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 1945, Print.
Baker tells his own story from his first assignment on a Chicago soup kitchen to his best works on social reform.
4) Dorman, Jessica. Where Are the Muckraking Journalists Today? Nieman Reports Quarterly Magazine, Summer 2000. Cambridge, MA: Nieman Foundation Harvard University, 2000, 3 pgs.
The author offers a brief reflection piece on Baker as a prominenet figure of the muckraking era.
5) Stein, Harry H. American Muckraking of Technology Since 1900. Journalism Quarterly Vol. 67 No. 2, Summer 1990. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina, 1990, 401-409.
The writer provides his own definition of muckraking journalism and how it has changed from Baker's time.
6) Semonche, John E. Ray Stannard Baker, A Quest for Democracy in Modern America, 1870-1918. North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press, 1969. Print
The author focuses on Baker's life up until World War I and how he impacted political reform.
Comments (7)
Howie Good said
at 8:35 am on Nov 8, 2009
The focus of this entry should be on his muckraking investigations, not on his career as a biographer or novelist. . . The annotations don't yet show much grasp of who Baker was or what he accomplished or how he fits into the Progressive Era. . . . The writing in the annotations required heavy editing for both clarity and content
rivers00@newpaltz.edu said
at 3:07 pm on Nov 10, 2009
Note to self, check out "Adventures in Contentment" and "Following the Color Line" try to tie in with his findings.
Howie Good said
at 3:10 pm on Nov 10, 2009
The weird thing about Baker is that his David Grayson persona is unconnected to his muckraking -- or, rather, is a retreat from it. I talk about him in my first book, ACQUAINTED WITH THE NIGHT
rivers00@newpaltz.edu said
at 10:16 pm on Nov 11, 2009
I'm checking out two of his books plus the book written by Semonche. I deleted the source by CC. Reiger because I had a hard time trying to find the book. I replaced it with Baker's autobiography and am still working on the annotated summaries.
Howie Good said
at 10:35 am on Nov 12, 2009
disorganized and incomplete. why? why?
Howie Good said
at 6:17 pm on Nov 29, 2009
it's spelled STEFFENS
Rachel Williams said
at 11:35 am on Nov 30, 2009
Larger font
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