Samuel Hopkins Adams (1871–1958) was an American writer, best known for his investigative journalism.
Adams was born in Dunkirk, New York. In 1891, he graduated from Hamilton College.
From 1891 to 1900, he was a reporter for the New York Sun 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.
In a series of eleven articles he wrote for Collier's Weekly in 1905, "The Great American Fraud", Adams exposed many of the false claims made about patent medicines, pointing out that is some cases these medicines were damaging the health of the people using them. The series had a huge impact and lead to the passage of the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act.
In 1911 the Supreme Court ruled that the prohibition of falsifications referred only to the ingredients of the medicine. This meant that companies were again free to make false claims about their products. Adams returned to the attack and another series of articles in Collier's Weekly, Adams exposed the misleading advertising that companies were using to sell their products.
Adams was a prolific writer, who wrote fiction as well. 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. Among his other works are The Great American Fraud (1906), The Harvey Girls (1942), Grandfather Stories (1955), and Tenderloin (1959).
Adams was a close friend of the investigative reporter Ray Stannard Baker.
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Last updated: 08-20-2005 13:14:20
