Samuel Adams Drake

Samuel Adams Drake was an American journalist and writer born in Boston in 1833, the son of historian Samuel Gardner Drake. He spent part of his early career in Kansas as a journalist, and during the Civil War served with the Kansas militia before returning to literary work.

He became especially associated with New England, writing popular books on its history, coastlines, towns, and traditions. Titles linked to his name include Nooks and Corners of the New England Coast and A Book of New England Legends and Folk-Lore in Prose and Poetry, works that helped preserve regional stories for later readers.

Drake died in 1905. He is often remembered less as an academic historian than as an engaging interpreter of New England's past—someone who made old places, battles, and legends feel vivid and approachable.