The Fortune Hunter

David Graham Phillips (1867-1911), was an American journalist and novelist. After completing his education, Phillips worked as a newspaper reporter in Cincinnati, Ohio before moving on to New York City where he was employed as a columnist and editor with the New York World until 1902. In his spare time, he wrote a novel, The Great God Success that was published in 1901. The book sold well enough that his royalty income allowed him to work as a freelance journalist while dedicating himself to writing fiction. Considered a progressive, Phillips' novels often commented on social issues of the day and frequently chronicled events based on his real-life journalistic experiences. Phillips' reputation as a muckraker cost him his life when, in January 1911, he was shot and killed in New York City. His assassin was a deranged musician who believed that Phillips' novel, The Fashionable Adventures of Joshua Craig (1909), had cast literary aspersions on his family. Following Phillips' death, his sister Carolyn organized his final manuscript for posthumous publication as Susan Lenox: Her Fall and Rise (1917), which was later made into a popular film.