Author: Jacob Riis

<i>How the Other Half Lives: Studies Among the Tenements of New York</i> (1890) was a pioneering work of photojournalism by Jacob Riis, documenting the squalid living conditions in New York City slums in the 1880s. It served as a basis for future muckraking journalism by exposing the slums to New York City’s upper and middle class. The title of the book is a reference to a phrase of François Rabelais, who wrote in <i>Pantagruel</i>: "one half of the world does not know how the other half lives". (Summary by Wikipedia)

2Neighbors - Life Stories of the Other Half

By Jacob A. Riis

These stories have come to me from many sources—some from my own experience, others from settlement workers, still others from the records of organized charity, that are never dry, as some think, but alive with vital human interest and with the faithful striving to help the brother so that it counts. They have this in common, that they are true. For good reasons, names and places are changed, but they all happened as told here. I could not have invented them had I tried; I should not have tried if I could. For it is as pictures from the life in which they and we, you and I, are partners, that I wish them to make their appeal to the neighbor who lives but around the corner and does not know it.(Summary from the Preface by Jacob A. Riis)

3Making of an American

By Jacob A. Riis

Jacob Riis was an esteemed reporter and documentary photographer in New York City. In his autobiography he movingly recounts his early life and unrelenting attempts at courtship in Denmark followed by his later experiences in the United States, first as a struggling itinerant immigrant and later as a journalist. He describes how he became a reporter and how his work in lower Manhattan’s teeming, squalid immigrant communities sparked his passion and activism for social reform. In his opening note he writes: “To those who have been asking if they are made-up stories, let me say here that they are not.” NOTE: Elizabeth's letter (In Chapter 7) is read by Ann Boulais. – Lee Smalley

4Out of Mulberry Street

By Jacob A. Riis

These riveting accounts by Jacob A. Riis are from the late 19th century, when lower Manhattan was teeming with struggling, near-starving immigrants crammed into wretched fire-prone tenements. Riis writes compassionately of these people who were nevertheless incredibly resilient and ever aspiring to a better life; of children, lovers, parents, policemen and firemen; of moments of joy, holidays, tragedies, and much more. –Lee Smalley “Since I wrote ‘How the Other Half Lives’ I have been asked many times upon what basis of experience, of fact, I built that account of life in New York tenements. These stories contain the answer. They are from the daily grist of the police hopper in Mulberry Street…. They are reprinted from the columns of my newspaper and from the magazines as a contribution to the discussion of the lives and homes of the poor…. In this discussion only facts are of value, and these stories are true….” J.A.R. –From the Preface

5Children of the Tenements

By Jacob A. Riis

This is a collection of vignettes about poverty in New York City in the early 1900s. Jacob Riis was a police reporter and a sociologist. He made human the faces of extreme poverty and did not limit his often-wrenching prose to children. He included old people and animals, and described diverse cultures. These stories evoke both laughter and tears.