The social secretary

by David Graham Phillips

This scarce antiquarian book is included in our special Legacy Reprint Series. In the interest of creating a more extensive selection of rare historical book reprints, we have chosen to reproduce this title even though it may possibly have occasional imperfections such as missing and blurred pages, missing text, poor pictures, markings, dark backgrounds and other reproduction issues beyond our control. Because this work is culturally important, we have made it available as a part of our commitment to protecting, preserving and promoting the world's literature.

197 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1905

About the author

David Graham Phillips was an American novelist and journalist of the muckraker tradition.Phillips was born in Madison, Indiana. After graduating from high school, Phillips entered Asbury College (now DePauw University) - following which he received a degree from Princeton University in 1887.

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 reporter for The Sun from 1890 to 1893, then 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 royalty income enabled him to work as a freelance journalist while continuing to write fiction. Writing articles for various prominent magazines, he began to develop a reputation as a competent investigative journalist. Phillips' novels often commented on social issues of the day and frequently chronicled events based on his real-life journalistic experiences.

He was considered a Progressive and for exposing corruption in the Senate he was labelled a muckraker. Phillips wrote an article in Cosmopolitan in March 1906, called "The Treason of the Senate," exposing campaign contributors being rewarded by certain members of the U. S. Senate. The story launched a scathing attack on Rhode Island senator Nelson W. Aldrich, and brought Phillips a great deal of national exposure. This and other similar articles helped lead to the passage of the Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, initiating popular instead of state-legislature election of U. S. senators.

Reviews

[Alisha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really cute, quick read. Set a hundred years ago or so. Young lady decides to seek employment in Washington, DC, as a social secretary to a newly arrived senator's family. The family are all rather fish out of water but she sorts them out, becomes best friends with the mother, and reluctantly falls in love in the meantime. I enjoyed this a lot!

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fast, cute and pretty funny at times.

[Larry Piper · Rating 3 out of 5]

My spouse found an old newspaper from 1906 that listed books one might choose to give as Christmas gifts. This book was one of them, and eventually I found a copy of it. I believe I got this book from the Internet Archive. The kindle book comes from OCR on the book scan with little or no subsequent editing. Thus, there are lots of errors in the formatting. Still, the book was easily readable.

The book is essentially the diary of a young woman who was well connected with Washington, D.C. society, but who had fallen on hard times and who had to take a job (in preference to marrying an ass). A couple of her influential friends hooked her up with a new senator from the sticks and his wife. She set about a campaign to make the two of them "factors" in the Washington social scene. As is the case today, Washington is pretty much ruled by wealth and influence. It's about as corrupt a place as you can find.

I'm not sure if people were quite as stupid back then as what we have in today's Congress (Rand Paul is dumb as shit, and is considered a possible future President), but that part isn't really dealt with in this book. Whatever, it was an OK read, albeit not one I'd have missed not ever having read.

[Samantha Glasser · Rating 3 out of 5]

A young lady becomes the social secretary to an up-and-coming political family who wants to fit in with the social set in Washington D.C. Although her intentions are pure, her friends hope she will meet and marry a nice young man from a good family. This is a satisfying read written in a slower style ala Jane Austen. It is written from the perspective of the social secretary in diary entries which makes it easy to consume.

The son's name is Bucyrus after the town in Ohio (my home state).

"His pa has always said I'd spoil him... but I don't think love ever spoiled anybody."

"You'd think American women, at the capital, at least, would be interested in politics. But they're not. They say it's the vulgarity of the intriguing and of most of the best intriguers that makes them dislike politics, even here. I suspect there's another reason. We women are so petted by the men that we don't have to know anything to make ourselves agreeable. If we're pretty and listen well that's all that's necessary. So, why get headaches learning things?"

Read this book for free through Project Gutenberg:
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/55719/...

[Arthur Pierce · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked the other David Graham Phillips book that I've read (OLD WIVES FOR NEW), but found this one to be as inconsequential as possible. Far too much of its short length is wasted on a romance between the brother-in-law of the heroine's employer and an exotic foreign lady he has become smitten with, but those characters are not at all developed and I'm at a loss as to why the author would think his readers would be even moderately interested. I found the earliest chapters held my interest fairly well, but the later part of the book really had very little that I found to be even moderately compelling.

[Alana Reid · Rating 3 out of 5]

Historically interesting. Not deep or spectacularly written, but quick, mildly engaging read. Abrupt ending.