Adams, Samuel Hopkins

Related Category: American Literature: Biographies

1871–1958, American author, b. Dunkirk, N.Y., grad. Hamilton College, 1891. He was a reporter for the New York Sun (1891–1900) and then joined McClure's Magazine, where he gained a reputation as a muckraker for his articles on the conditions of public health in the United States. Adams also wrote a series of articles for Collier's Weekly, in which he exposed patent medicines; these pieces were credited with influencing the passage of the first Pure Food and Drugs Act. Adams was a prolific writer, producing both fiction and nonfiction. His best-known novel, Revelry (1926), based on the scandals of the Harding administration, was later followed by Incredible Era (1939), a biography of Harding and his times. Among his other works are The Great American Fraud (1906), The Harvey Girls (1942), Grandfather Stories (1955), and Tenderloin (1959).