Franklin Pierce Adams

Franklin Pierce Adams pseud. F. P. A., 1881-1960, American columnist and author, b. Chicago. He began (1903) work as a columnist on the Chicago Journal and continued it on the New York Evening Mail, the Tribune, the World, the Herald Tribune, and the Post. His column, "The Conning Tower," consisted of verse and humor by F. P. A. and his contributors, who included Ring Lardner and Dorothy Parker . On Saturdays his columns were accounts of his week's activities that imitated the style of Samuel Pepys . They were republished as The Diary of Our Own Samuel Pepys: 1911-1934 (1935). Adams's other works included So There! (1923), Christopher Columbus (1931), and Nods and Becks (1944).

Adams, Franklin P[ierce] (1881–1960), columnist, radio performer, and humorist, began his journalistic career in Chicago (1903). He worked on various New York papers and was best known for his column, “The Conning Tower”, which featured satirical verse and a personal diary in the manner of Pepys. Among his books are Tobogganing on Parnassus (1911), Christopher Columbus (1931), and other collections of verse, from which The Melancholy Lute (1936) is a selection; and The Diary of Our Own Samuel Pepys (2 vols., 1935), edited from his newspaper column, Nods and Becks (1944) collects newspaper pieces and poems. He usually signed his work with his initials.