Abstract: Labor historians have documented the extraordinary growth of unionism in 1880s San Francisco and its lasting impact on the city's political and industrial landscape, emphasizing the San Francisco labor movement's impressive organizational and political accomplishments. Little attention has been paid, however, to the blossoming of radical print culture that accompanied and inspired the organizational campaigns of the 1880s. Informed by developments in the fields of labor and book history that emphasize the cultural agency of workers and working-class readers, this study addresses this gap in the historical record, reconstructing the history of radical print culture in 1880s San Francisco through a close reading of two San Francisco labor newspapers, Truth and the Coast Seamen's Journal, as well as other primary sources.