George Matthew Adams (1878-1962)
George Matthew Adams was a newspaper columnist, author, and publisher. He founded the Adams Newspaper Service in 1907 and The Adams Feature Magazine in 1916.
Mr. Adams was born 1878 August 23 in Saline, Michigan and graduated from Ottawa University in Kansas. He received a Ph.B. from Ottawa University in 1901, and was an advertising salesman in turn-of-the-century Chicago.
He organized his own newspaper syndicate in 1907 and borrowed money to rent and equip an office and started the syndicate to provide copy for newspapers. His group of writers would include poet Edgar Guest and Robert Ripley.
In 1908, George Matthew Adams had hired William Allen White to write about political issues. Both met in Chicago. While talking, George showed William clippings of Walt Mason's daily shorts essays which George had been cutting from copies of a Gazette he encountered. Adams stated he liked those works and meant he'd like to syndicate them to other papers. White's remark was that that was possible. He hinted Adams to give about $18 a week to Walt Mason so the latter would be willing to work on such a project.
About that time, George Matthew Adams was selling Dr. Frank Crane's Four Minute Essays. Then, he lost Crane to a competitor. However, George didn't throw in the towel. As a matter of fact, a marvelous career as a writer started. George set to write short essays himself when he traveled from city to city selling his wares. In the 50s, Crane was all but forgotten, but George Matthew Adams' short inspirational columns appeared in about 100 newspapers.
Mr. Adams passed away on October 28, 1962 in his home at 4550 Livingstop Avenue, Riverdale, the Bronx. His age was 84. The syndicate, which Adams owned at the time of his death, served more than 100 newspapers all over the United States and Canada.
REFERENCES:
* The Palm Beach Post - Jul 16, 1939
* The Star and Sentinel - Aug 27, 1949
* The Day - May 17, 1954
* New York Times - Oct 29, 1962
* Ocala Star-Banner - Oct 29, 1962
* mondusaif.com/mondus/s09/guides/adams-george.html
* aaobserver.aadl.org/aaobserver/18633
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