David Graham Phillips

Born in Madison, Indiana, in 1867, David Graham Phillips studied at Princeton and began his career in journalism before turning to novels and magazine work. He wrote for major newspapers and became known for clear, energetic prose that reached a wide popular audience.

Phillips is especially remembered for The Treason of the Senate, a 1906 series in Cosmopolitan that exposed corruption and the influence of powerful interests in American politics. Alongside his journalism, he published many novels, often drawing on politics, ambition, class, and social change in the United States.

His life ended violently in New York City in 1911, when he was shot outside the Princeton Club. Even so, his reputation has lasted because he helped define the muckraking tradition and showed how vivid storytelling could be used to challenge public abuses.