author
Charles Edward Russell
1860–1941
A fearless journalist of the Progressive Era, he helped define muckraking with sharp investigations into corruption, poverty, and racial injustice. He later turned that same energy to political activism and won a Pulitzer Prize for biography.
1 Audiobook
The hero of the Filipinos : The story of José Rizal, poet, patriot and martyr
by Charles Edward Russell, Eulogio Balan Rodriguez
About the author
Born in Davenport, Iowa, in 1860, Charles Edward Russell grew up in newspapers and became a prominent American journalist, editor, and author. He built his reputation as a muckraker in the early 1900s, writing hard-hitting pieces and books that exposed corporate power, urban poverty, and abusive social conditions.
Russell was also deeply involved in public life. He was active in socialist politics, campaigned for reform, and is remembered as one of the founders of the NAACP. His career combined reporting with advocacy, and his writing often pushed readers to look directly at problems many preferred to ignore.
Though best known for investigative journalism, he wrote widely across biography and social commentary. In 1928, he won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography for The American Orchestra and Theodore Thomas. He died in 1941, leaving behind the record of a writer who treated journalism as a tool for public change.