Ray Stannard Baker | |
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| Born | April 17, 1870 Lansing, Michigan, U.S. |
| Died | July 12, 1946(1946-07-12) (aged 76) Amherst, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Other names | "David Grayson" |
| Alma mater | |
| Relatives | Hugh P. Baker (brother) |
| Awards | Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography |
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Ray Stannard Baker (April 17, 1870 – July 12, 1946)[1][2] (also known by his pen nameDavid Grayson) was an Americanjournalist,historian,biographer, and writer.
Baker was born inLansing, Michigan. After graduating from theMichigan State Agricultural College (nowMichigan State University), he attended law school at theUniversity of Michigan in 1891 before launching his career as a journalist in 1892 with theChicago News-Record, where he covered thePullman Strike andCoxey's Army in 1894.
In 1898,[3] Baker joined the staff ofMcClure's, a pioneermuckraking magazine, and quickly rose to prominence along withLincoln Steffens andIda Tarbell. He also dabbled in fiction, writing children's stories for the magazineYouth's Companion and a nine-volume series of stories about rural living in America, the first of which was titledAdventures in Contentment (1907) under his pseudonym David Grayson, which reached millions of readers worldwide.
In 1907, dissatisfied with the muckraker label, Baker, Steffens, and Tarbell leftMcClure's and foundedThe American Magazine. In 1908, after the1906 Atlanta Race Riot got him involved, Baker published the bookFollowing the Color Line: An Account of Negro Citizenship in the American Democracy, becoming the first prominent journalist to examine America's racial divide; it was extremely successful. Sociologist Rupert Vance says it is:
... the best account of race relations in the South during the period–one that reads like field notes for the future historian. This account was written during the zenith of Washingtonian movement and shows the optimism that it inspired among both liberals and moderates. The book is also notable for its realistic accounts of Negro town life.[4]
He followed up that work with numerous articles in the following decade.
In 1910, he moved to the town ofAmherst, Massachusetts.
In 1912, Baker publishedThe Friendly Road, an account of the places he visited and people he met while on awalking tour of the United States.[5] Inthat year's presidential election Baker supported the presidential candidacy ofWoodrow Wilson, which led to a close relationship between the two men, and in 1918 Wilson sent Baker to Europe to study thewar situation. He was in connection with the future president of Czechoslovak RepublicThomas Garrigue Masaryk in America yet, from May 1918.[6] During peace negotiations, Baker served as Wilson's press secretary atVersailles. He eventually published 15 volumes about Wilson and internationalism, including the six-volumeThe Public Papers of Woodrow Wilson (1925–1927) withWilliam Edward Dodd,[7] and the 8-volumeWoodrow Wilson: Life and Letters (1927–1939), the last two volumes of which won thePulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography in 1940. He served as an adviser on Darryl F. Zanuck's 1944 filmWilson.
Baker wrote two autobiographies,Native American (1941) andAmerican Chronicle (1945).
Baker died of a heart attack in Amherst, Massachusetts, and is buried inAmherst's Wildwood Cemetery. Buildings have been named in honor of both Ray Stannard Baker and David Grayson (his pen name). A dormitory, Grayson Hall, is at theUniversity of Massachusetts Amherst. The David Grayson Elementary School is inWaterford, Michigan. An academic building, Baker Hall, is atMichigan State University. A trail in Amherst has also been named for Baker.[8]
In 1896, Baker married Jessie Beal. They had four children: Alice Beal (1897), James Stannard (1899), Roger Denio (1902), and Rachel Moore (1906). Baker's brotherHugh Potter Baker was the president of Massachusetts State College, which later became theUniversity of Massachusetts.
Previously the Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography from 1917–2022 | ||
| 1917–1925 |
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| 1926–1950 |
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| 1951–1975 |
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| 1976–2000 |
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| 2001–2025 |
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