Something Else Again

Franklin Pierce Adams (1881-1960) under the pen name FPA, was an American columnist, and wit, best known for his newspaper column, The Conning Tower, and his appearances as a regular panelist on radio's Information Please. He was a member of the Algonquin Round Table of the 1920s and 1930s. He first worked for the Chicago Journal in 1903. The following year he moved to the New York Evening Mail, where he worked from 1904 to 1913 and began his famed column. In 1913 he moved his column to the New York Tribune, where it was given the title, The Conning Tower. During his time on the Evening Mail he wrote what remains his best known work, Baseball's Sad Lexicon, a tribute to the Chicago Cubs double play combination of "Tinker to Evers to Chance." He went to the New York World, in 1921, writing there until that paper closed in 1931. He returned to his old paper, renamed the New York Herald Tribune, staying until 1937 when he went to the New York Post. He ended his column in September 1941.