Alfred Henry Lewis

Who was Alfred Henry Lewis?

Alfred Henry Lewis was an American investigative journalist, lawyer, novelist, editor, and short story writer.

He began his career as a staff writer at the Chicago Times, and eventually became editor of the Chicago Times-Herald. During the late 19th century, he wrote muckraker articles for Cosmopolitan. As an investigative journalist, Lewis wrote extensively about corruption in New York politics. This was the subject of his book The Boss, and How He Came to Rule New York, which focused on the Tammany Hall society of the 18th century. He also wrote biographies of Irish-American politician Richard Croker, and of Andrew Jackson, seventh President of the United States.

As a writer of genre fiction, his most successful works were in his Wolfville series of Western fiction, which he continued writing until he died of gastrointestinal disease in 1914.