Francis Adams (writer)
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Francis William Lauderdale Adams (27 September 1862 – 4 September 1893) was an essayist, poet, dramatist, novelist and journalist who produced a large volume of work in his short life.
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[edit] Early life
Adams was the son of Andrew Leith Adams F.R.S., F.G.S.,, an army surgeon, who became afterwards well known as a scientist, a fellow of the Royal Society, and an author of travel books. Francis' mother, Bertha Leith-Adams, was a novelist. Francis was born at Malta, and educated at Shrewsbury School and in Paris. He took up a teaching position as an assistant master at Ventnor on the Isle of Wight, for two years. He married Helen Uttley and they migrated to Australia during 1882 where he soon dedicated himself to writing. He joined the Social Democratic Federation in 1883.
[edit] Australia
He published a volume of poems, Henry and Other Poems (1884, London), his autobiographical novel, Leicester, an Autobiography' (1885); and in 1886 a collection of works entitled Australian Essays. During the time of his residence in Sydney he was regularly employed writing for numerous Australian publications, including The Bulletin; 'Australian Essays' (1886, Melbourne).
He then went to Brisbane published 'Poetical Works' (1886, Brisbane) which is a quarto volume of over 150 pages printed in double columns. His wife died and Francis remained in Brisbane until the early part of 1887. He then published a novel, Madeline Brown's Murderer, (1887, Sydney).
In 1888 Adams published his best known piece Songs of the Army of the Night, which created a sensation in Sydney going through three editions in London. After a short stay at Sydney Adams married again, returned to Brisbane, and remained there until about the end of 1889 writing leaders for the Brisbane Courier. He returned to England during 1889 and published two novels, John Webb's End, a Story of Bush Life (1891, London), and he published The Melbournians (1892). A volume of short stories, Australian Life, came out 1892 and 'The New Egypt' was released after his death in 1893. Other posthumous publications were 'Tiberius' (a drama) and 'A child of the Age' in 1894 and 'Essays in Modernity' in 1899
His health was failing rapidly from an incurable lung-disease and he spent the winter of December 1892-February 1893 in Alexandria to finish his book attacking the British occupation of Egypt. During the summer of 1893 he lived at Margate, England.
[edit] Suicide
During a fit of depression caused by his hopeless illness he died by his own hand at Margate. He was survived by his second wife, Edith (nee Goldstone), who assisted his suicide but was not convicted of any crime. A self-professed 'Child of his Age', Adams combined in his life and work many distinctive features of both fin de siècle British culture and the Australian radical nationalism of the 1890s, including a strong sympathy with socialist and feminist movements. An important work later published with an introduction by W.M. Rossetti is Tiberius (1894), a striking drama in which a new view of the character of the Emperor is presented.
[edit] Summary
Adams crammed an immense amount of work into a short life. He often wrote quickly and he revised little. Though most of his prose work is interesting, not much of it is of outstanding merit. Some of his short poems of about 12 lines have a certain Heine-like simplicity which is pleasing, and the blank verse of some of his longer poems is graceful if a little too facile. His Songs of the Army of the Night has often been reprinted, but the reputation of these poems arises from their sentiments rather than their value as pure poetry. Adams felt passionately about all downtrodden races and men. At a time when London Dock labourers worked for four-pence an hour he could not help but raise his voice, and the rhetoric of his "At the West India Docks" echoed throughout the world of labour. Some of his verses caused resentment in Conservative circles, but Adams realized, as few did in those times, how deep was the poverty and misery of a large part of the British nation. It was a time when even such ameliorations as unemployment insurance and old-age pensions were scarcely thought of, and the change that has come about is largely due to men like Adams who were not afraid to express what they so passionately felt.
[edit] Works
- Songs of the Army of the Night (1888) from the University of Sydney Library
[edit] References
- Serle, Percival (1949). "Adams, Francis William Lauderdale". Dictionary of Australian Biography. Sydney: Angus and Robertson.
- This article incorporates public domain text from: Cousin, John William (1910). A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature. London, J.M. Dent & sons; New York, E.P. Dutton.
- This article incorporates text from the public domain 1949 edition of Dictionary of Australian Biography from
Project Gutenberg of Australia, which is in the public domain in Australia and the United States of America.
