author
Robert O. Harland
Best known for a sensational 1912 exposé of urban vice and political corruption, this early-20th-century American writer remains a surprisingly elusive figure. The mystery around his life only adds to the grim, journalistic force of his surviving work.
1 Audiobook
The Vice Bondage of a Great City; or, the Wickedest City in the World
by Robert O. Harland
About the author
Very little biographical information about Robert O. Harland appears to be firmly documented in widely available sources. He is primarily known as the author of The Vice Bondage of a Great City; or, the Wickedest City in the World, published in 1912 and now preserved by Project Gutenberg and library catalogs.
His book is a muckraking work focused on vice, graft, corruption, and sexual exploitation in a big American city, with Chicago strongly associated with the book's subject and historical context. That gives Harland a place among writers of the Progressive Era who used vivid, urgent prose to expose social abuses.
Because so little dependable personal detail is easy to confirm, Harland is best approached through his writing rather than through a well-recorded life story. No suitable verified portrait was found from the sources checked.