"Charles Edward Russell was a muckraking journalist who exposed the dark underside of America's class system at the turn of the twentieth century. The scandals he revealed through his indefatigable brand of investigative reporting led to some of the most important and largest reform efforts of the period. A Pulitzer Prize winner, author of twenty-seven books, and a founder of the NAACP, Russell has nonetheless faded from public view.

In this fascinating biography, Robert Miraldi restores Russell to his rightful place in history, covering his early exposure to journalism as a boy in Iowa; his years as a prized editor for newspaper moguls Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst; and his evolution into a full-fledged muckraker, prolific author and magazine writer, reformer, poet, music aficionado, orator, Shakespeare scholar, and political candidate for the Socialist Party in its heyday."--BOOK JACKET.