Gustavus Myers, March 20, 1872 — December 7, 1942.

Gustavus Myers was born March 20, 1872, in Trenton, New Jersey.  His parents were Julia (Hillman) and Abram Myers, the latter being of Dutch descent, the son of a major who had served in Napoleon's Old Guard at Waterloo, emigrated to England and then (in 1817) to Norfolk, Virginia.  Abram Myers had gone to California in the 1849 gold rush, returning thereafter to Philadelphia.  Here Gustavus attended private school, worked first as a reporter (1890) on the Philadelphia Record, then as a feature writer in New York, contributing to a wide range of newspapers, magazines and, on occasion, learned publications.  He died in New York City on December 7, 1942. He was brought up in poverty, and with little formal education, but succeeded in gaining a foothold as newspaper man in his early twenties . Mr. Myers’ books are recommended only to admirers of the muck-raking school, because only they believe that the masses are poor because of unwillingness to imitate the vices attributed to the rich.  That doctrine is the root of much envy, hatred, and uncharitableness, and it is noxious rather than meritorious in its effects.  This is said without disparagement of the apparent effort of Mr. Myers to be accurate.  His facts are not denied, but his inferences from them will not be admitted generally.  All he says may be true, and yet there are other offsetting facts which compensate for the blemishes disclosed. New York Times, 5 July 1914.

History of Public Franchises in New York City.  New York, 1900.
The History of Tammany Hall.  New York, 1901;  with additions, 1917.
History of the Great American Fortunes.  3 vols., Chicago, 1909-1910 ;  1 vol., New York, 1936 ;
      in German, Geschichte der grossen Vermogen in Amerika.  2 vols., Berlin, 1923.
Beyond the Borderline of Life.  Boston, 1910.  A summing up of results of investigation of psychic phenomena.
History of The Supreme Court of the United States.  Chicago, 1912.
A History of Canadian Wealth, 1914.
“A Study of the Causes of Industrial Accidents,” in Journal of the American Statistical Association 14 (Sept. 1915): 672-694.
The German Myth.  New York, 1918.
Ye Olden Blue Laws.  New York, 1921.  In Encyclopedia of Social Sciences.
The History of American Idealism.  New York, 1925.
America Strikes Back.  New York, 1935.
The Ending of Hereditary American Fortunes.  New York, 1939.
History of Bigotry in the United States.  New York, 1943.  Published posthumously.