Journalist, author, biographer and historian Samuel Hopkins Adams was
born along the banks of Lake Erie at Dunkirk, NY, on 26 January 1871.
His parents were Myron, a ministe3r, and Hester Rose Hopkins Adams, the
daughter of a theologian. Adams attended Hamilton College in Clinton,
NY, and upon graduation began working as a newspaper reporter and later
editor.
In the early years of the 20th century Adams became one of the pioneers
in "muckraking journalism" with his exposes on the patent-medicine
industry published in Collier's Magazine. He would later write a number
of informational articles on health and medicine and become an
associate member of the American Medical Association, even though he
lacked a background in medicine. Adams was probably the first
journalist to write articles on health that could be understood by the
average reader
Adams' first novel, "The Clarion", was published in 1914 and told the
story of an idealistic editor trying to run an honest newspaper amid
unscrupulous advertisers and corrupt politicians. A reoccurring theme
throughout Adams' novels was the triumph of idealism over corruption.
He wrote biographies on writer
Alexander Woollcott, American
politician Daniel Webster and President
Warren G. Harding. Earlier supporters
of Harding tried to suppress Adams' novel "Revelry" (1926) for its
portrayal of the various scandals that had plagued the Harding
administration. Adams wrote a number of "detective Average Jones"
mystery stories that would later be adapted to radio. Under the
pseudonym Warner Fabian he wrote several novels about the "Lost
Generation" in the years following World War I, of which "Flaming
Youth" (1923) was probably his best known.
An expert on the history of New York state, Adams wrote a series of
articles for "The New Yorker" on the Erie Canal that were gathered
together in 1955 and published under the title "Godfather Stories". He
also authored "Canal Town" (1944) that told the story of the canal's
construction, "Banner by the Wayside" about a 19th-century troupe of
traveling New York actors and "Sunrise to Sunset", which chronicled the
rise of the union movement in New York's garment district.
Adams married Elizabeth R. Noyes (1877-1957) of Charleston, WV, in
1898. The couple had two daughters before their divorce in 1915. Later
that year he married former stage actress Jane Peyton Van Norman
(1880-1946).
Adams died on 15 November 1958, while at his winter residence in
Beaufort, SC. He was survived by his daughters, Hester and Katherine.
