Baker, Ray Stannard
April 17, 1870 - July 12, 1946
Place of Birth: Lansing, MI
Biography:
Ray Stannard Baker was born to Joseph Stannard and Alice Baker in 1870. He achieved a B.S. at Michigan State University in 1889 and briefly studied Law and Literature at the University of Michigan. From 1892 to 1897 Baker was a reporter for the Chicago Daily Record, and then moved on to McClure Syndicate as manager in 1898. It was at this publication that Baker earned the reputation of being a prominent “muckraker” along with Ida Tarbell and Lincoln Steffens. During this time Baker also published children stories for Youth’s Companion along with a nine volume series of stories about rural living in America under the pen name of David Grayson. Troubled with the hard-hitting journalism in McClure, Baker left the magazine in 1906 to start his own publication called American Magazine. In 1908 Baker became the first well-known journalist to examine America’s social divide by writing the book Following the Color Line, which enjoyed great success. After supporting President Theodore Roosevelt, Baker experimented with socialism before supporting the candidacy of Woodrow Wilson in 1912. The two men struck a close friendship and in 1918 Wilson sent Baker to Europe to study the war situation. When it came to peace negotiations, Wilson appointed Baker as his press secretary at Versailles. Baker published fifteen volumes about Wilson and internationalism, including an eight-volume biography on Wilson, the last two of which won the Pulitzer Prize for biography in 1940. Baker died of heard attack in 1946 in Amherst, Massachusetts.
Selected Works:
- Seen in Germany (1901)
- Following the Color Line; an Account of Negro Citizenship in the American Democracy (1908)
- Adventures in Friendship (1910)
- Woodrow Wilson and World Settlement (1922)
- American Chronicle (1945)
Awards:
- Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography
- Contemporary American Literature
- Pulitzer Prize for Biography, for Woodrow Wilson: Life and Letters
Critical Reception:
Starting with his years as a muckraker, Baker became well known for his journalism and stories. After working closely with Woodrow Wilson, Baker was placed in a position of trust and took over important responsibilities such as being press secretary at Versailles and editing the President’s papers. Wilson once said, “I would rather have your [Baker’s] interpretation than that of anyone else I know.”
Relevance of Place to Author’s Work:
Baker received his education in Michigan,