Modest Stein was born Modest Aronstam in Russia and moved to America at the age of 17. He was cousins with the anarchist Alexander Berkman and spent the next five years living with Berkman and his lover and fellow anarchist Emma Goldman. Stein appears in both Berkman's and Goldman's biographies as the character "Fedya." Stein was working at this time as an artist and illustrator, but mostly unsuccessfully.
In 1892 Stein, along with Berkman and Goldman, was part of the anarchist propoganda campaign in support of the strike at Homestead Steel Works near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, as well as the assassination attempt on Henry Clay Frick, the company's main representative. Berkman's attack on Frick, while wounding him, was unsuccessful and Berkman was arrested. Stein, then still going by the name Aronstam, was tasked with finishing the job by blowing Frick up with dynamite. Yet, upon arriving in Pittsburgh, Stein saw newspaper reports naming "Aaron Stamm" as Berkman's conspirator. As a result, Stein ditched the explosives and left Pittsburgh. He hid out for a time in Detroit but was ultimately never captured or charged.
Stein subsequently turned away from anarchism and gained more success as an artist. He married Marcia Mishkin who, along with her brother, was an art photographer. Stein's greatest success as an illustrator came in the 1910s when he drew covers for periodicals such as Argosy, The Cavalier, All-Story Weekly, and People's Favorite Magazine. Stein continued to remain friends with, and eventually financially support, Goldman and Berkman until their deaths.
