Who said: "I find that a great part of the information I have was acquired by looking something up and finding something else on the way."

BookBrowse's Favorite Quotes

"I find that a great part of the information I have was acquired by looking something up and finding something else on the way." - Franklin P. Adams

Franklin Pierce AdamsFranklin Pierce Adams (1881–1960), was an American columnist who wrote under the pen name F.P.A. He was also part of the Algonquin Round Table of the 1920s and 1930s (a group of New York City writers, critics, actors and wits that met for lunch every day at a round table at the Algonquin Hotel).

He was born in Chicago, Illinois and graduated from the Armour Scientific Academy in 1899, after which he attended the University of Michigan for one year. After a brief time with the Chicago Journal he wrote for the New York Evening Mail from 1904 to 1913, where he started his column, that became known as "The Conning Tower"*, which consisted of verse and humor during the week and, on Saturdays, an account of his week's activities that imitated the style of Samuel Pepys.

He and his column moved to the New York Herald Tribune in 1913. During World War I he worked on the Army's newspaper, the Stars and Stripes. After the war he returned to New York to work at the New York World which closed in 1931. He returned to the Herald Tribune for a few years, then moved to the New York Post before ending his column in 1941. He died in 1960.

*A conning tower is a raised, enclosed observation post in a submarine or the armored pilothouse of a warship.

More Quotes

This quote & biography originally ran in an issue of BookBrowse's membership magazine. Full Membership Features & Benefits.

Become a Member

Join BookBrowse today to start discovering exceptional books!

Find out more


Top Picks

  • Book Jacket: After the Miracle
    After the Miracle
    by Max Wallace
    Many people have heard one particular story about Helen Keller—how the saintly teacher, Annie ...
  • Book Jacket: The Lost Wife
    The Lost Wife
    by Susanna Moore
    The Lost Wife is a hard-hitting novella based in part on a white settler named Sarah Wakefield's ...
  • Book Jacket
    Firekeeper's Daughter
    by Angeline Boulley
    Voted 2021 Best Young Adult Award Winner by BookBrowse Subscribers

    Angeline Boulley's young adult ...
  • Book Jacket: Hello Beautiful
    Hello Beautiful
    by Ann Napolitano
    Ann Napolitano's much-anticipated Hello Beautiful pulls the reader into a warm, loving familial ...

Book Club Discussion

Book Jacket
The First Conspiracy
by Brad Meltzer & Josh Mensch
A remarkable and previously untold piece of American history—the secret plot to kill George Washington

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket

    Pieces of Blue
    by Holly Goldberg Sloan

    A hilarious and heartfelt novel for fans of Maria Semple and Emma Straub.

Win This Book
Win Girlfriend on Mars

30 Copies to Give Away!

A funny and poignant debut novel that skewers billionaire-funded space travel in a love story of interplanetary proportions.

Enter

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

S I F A R Day

and be entered to win..

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.