Tuesday, January 21, 2014

David Graham Phillips

            David Graham Philips ,a brilliant author, was born on October 8, 1867. He was the son of a politician David Graham Phillips Senor and his mother Margret Lee. His family was not rich, he was categorized as middle class;however, even if he did not an ample amount of money he still acquired a higher level of education. He attended two colleges Indiana Abury College which in modern times is called DePauw University and then he transferred to the College of New Jersey which is recognized now as Princeton. He was finished with ll his education by the year 1887. After he graduated he immediately stated to work at a newspaper as a reporter which was in Cincinnati with the Cincinnati Times Star. Then he moved to New York to widen his experience as a writer/ reporter in the year of 1890. 
          Once he moved to New York he had a reputation for writing, he had a gift and by 1902 he was rising to the editorial rank of the New York World. However, that was his last year writing on that newspaper because he started to write novels but his first one was The Great God Success published 1902. In his later years Philips was considered a muckraker which is either a journalist, novelist, and/or critic who were trying to expose the abuse of business and the corruption in politics through their writing. He was well known for his scandalous articles about the corrupt government in the U.S. Senate which was published in the Cosmopolitan magazine in 1906. Philips was also a writer for the Saturday Evening post and other journals that were popular during his time.
         Philips articles and novels always engendered controversy throughout the city because he was one of the first to state the corruption of the government. His novels were potent but at the same time they were unrefined or very blunt, there was no such type fluff that made the government look "good". The main ideas of his novels considered of corrupt influences in society and general social problems. He had published many books before his death. He did not die of old age, he died because he was brutishly murdered by a musician. The musicians motives were that he thought that Philips had wrote and stated allegations about his family.

4 comments:

  1. I think it is pretty interesting that out of all things, he died because he was murdered by a musician.

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  2. I like how he was a politicians son but he was not drawn into that life.

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  3. Its interesting to know that despite his family's economic status, he went to a now prestigious school, Princeton.

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  4. I agree with Brina. I find it funny that although he was born into that life, he was working to help expose it.

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