Ernest Poole, muckraking journalist of New York's lower East Side and novelist of socialist ideology was born in Chicago, the son of well-to-do parents. He attended private schools there, and engaged in serious study of the violin before continuing his education at Princeton University. After graduating, with honors, in 1902, he went to live in New York City at the University Settlement House--not to do settlement work, but to write fiction. After several unsuccessful short stories, however, Poole turned to journalism. His first article, on Chinatown, won him a job with McClure's magazine. During the three years that he lived at the settlement house, Poole's muckraking articles were instrumental in bringing about reductions in the high rate of tuberculosis and reforms in tenement conditions and the laws governing child labor, specifically that of the newsboys and bootblacks, among whom he lived. His intimate acquaintance with the poor of New...