The Making of An American. [WITH] Jacob A. Riis Autograph Letter Signed.

RIIS, Jacob.

$475.00

Item Number: 146700

New York: The Macmillan Company, 1902.

Early printing of this exceptional autobiography from the exceptional American reporter and reformer, Jacob A. Riis. Octavo, original blue ribbed cloth with gilt titles to the spine and front panel, tissue-guarded half-tone frontispiece portrait of Riis, top edge gilt illustrated with in-line and full-page half-tone drawings and photographs. In very good condtion with rubbing, bookplate of Walter Sondheim to the front pastedown. Rare autograph letter signed by the author, tipped in. Octavo, one page on Riis’s personal stationary, signed by Riis and dated Oct 1903. In near fine condition with mail folds. Also tipped in is a magazine article on Riis by Lincoln Steffens.

Jacob August Riis was a Danish-American social reformer, "muck-raking" journalist, and social documentary photographer. He contributed significantly to the cause of urban reform in the United States of America at the turn of the twentieth century by revealing the poor living conditions of the impoverished to the middle and upper classes. While living in New York, Riis himself experienced poverty and became a police reporter to write about the quality of life in the slums. As magazine writer Lincoln Steffens explained, "Riis was poor in pocket, but he was rich in sentiment and strength and courage."