SOURCE: A review of The Making of an American, in The Dial, Vol. 32, January 1, 1902, pp. 8-10.

In the following essay, Dunton presents a review of Riis's autobiography.

Jacob Riis, reporter, philanthropist, reformer, author of How the Other Half Lives, needs no introduction to the nation whose ideals he could scarce honor more highly than he has done in calling his autobiography The Making of an American.

The most striking quality of his book is undoubtedly its artless frankness, which is at first in equal measure appalling and delightful. But before one has read far, he agrees unqualifiedly with that wise friend of Mr. Riis's who told him, when he was hesitating over the first chapters of his reminiscences, "to take the short cut and put it all in." She evidently knew her man, understood the absolute unity of purpose that ran through every act of his life, and...