During the last few months I have been processing the papers from the estate of Franklin P. Adams. He is someone I have written a lot about over the last 20 years; he was the dean of the Algonquin Round Table and one of the most famous columnists of the pre-Jazz Age era. Adams was extremely influential on the careers of such notables as Robert Benchley, Dorothy Parker, and Edna Ferber. This fall I was given his archives from his family. It is thousands of pages of letters, documents, scrapbooks, and photos.

When you look at the entire life of a person such as F.P.A. it is kind of a shock. Because not only are his Army papers from WWI included, but so is his commission, records, and all of the documents from his time as a staffer on Stars and Stripes in Paris. There are numerous “oh wow” papers from notables from the early 20th Century. His second wife, the former Esther Sayles Root, was also a formidable person. She too went to France in WWI and write a book about her experiences. All of her papers are included.

These boxes can be turned into my next book project, podcasts, and more. I am truly grateful to the family of F.P.A. for entrusting this to me. And the public can look forward to learning more about Franklin P. Adams.