William Taylor Adams (July 30, 1822 – March 27, 1897), pseudonym Oliver Optic, was an academic, author, and a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives.

Early life and education

Adams was born in Medway, Massachusetts, on July 30, 1822, to tavern keeper Captain Laban Adams and Catherine Johnson Adams. Adams was an honors student at schools in Boston and West Roxbury. After finishing public school, he attended Abel Whitney's private academy for a year.

Teaching career

Adams became a teacher in the Lower Road School in Dorchester, Massachusetts, in 1843. He resigned from his position as master of the school in 1846 in order to assist his father and brother in the management of their new hotel in Boston, the Adams House hotel. Adams decided that he preferred teaching so in 1848 he returned to teaching, this time at the Boylston School in Boston. In 1860, Adams was promoted to the position of master of the Boylston School. When the Bowditch School was founded, Adams transferred to that school as its master, a position he held until he resigned from teaching in 1865. This experience naturally brought him closely into contact with boys, and he learned much of what interested them, which had a good deal to do with his eventual success as an author. Extensive travel abroad and a deep knowledge of boats, farming, and practical mechanics were other factors that gave his works reality.

Family life

Adams visited Europe more than twenty times and traveled in Asia and Africa. In 1846, he married Sarah Jenkins, with whom he had two daughters, Alice Maria Adams and Emma Louisa Adams.

School committee service

Adams served as a member of the Harris school board of the town of Dorchester, Massachusetts, and later of the Dwight, Boylston, and Bowditch schools in the city of Boston, for 14 years.

Member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives

Adams served as a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, for the 5th Norfolk District, from January 6, 1869, to January 5, 1870.

Career as an author

Adams first began to write at the age of 28, and his first book, Hatchie, the Guardian Slave (1853), was published under the pseudonym of Warren T. Ashton. It was only a modest success, but Adams was undaunted. In 1854 Adams produced his first real hit, the initial volume in the Boat Club series. Adams continued to write until he died in Dorchester, March 27, 1897. Among his best-known works were the two "Blue & Gray" series, which were set during the Civil War. Adams wrote well over 100 books in total, most of them for a boy audience, and the majority of these in series of four to six volumes published under a pseudonym. Two novels published in his own name, The Way of the World and Living Too Fast, were aimed at adult readers but fell flat. Though "Oliver Optic" was the pseudonym he used most, his work also appeared under the bylines "Irving Brown," "Clingham Hunter, M.D.," and "Old Stager." Like many children's authors of his day, he was additionally an editor, and many of his works first appeared in Oliver Optic's Magazine. Adams' writing was criticized by Louisa May Alcott, among others. Alcott used her story Eight Cousins to deplore Adams' use of slang, his cast of bootblacks and newsboys, and his stories of police courts and saloons. Adams responded in kind, pointing out Alcott's own use of slang and improbable plot twists.

List of works

Books for both boys and girls

Riverdale Stories (subtitled : A Story for Little Folks, all 1862)

(Around 1864 this series was reprinted in a uniform edition of two series, the "Riverdale Story Books" and "Flora Lee Stories", each of six volumes)

Woodville

Series for boys

Boat Club

Army and Navy

(#1, 3, 5 were later republished as the Soldier Boy Series; #2, 4, 6, as the Sailor Boy series.)

Young America Abroad - first series

Young America Abroad - second series

Starry Flag

Upward and Onward

Yacht Club

Lake Shore

Great Western

Boat-Builder

Blue and the Gray Afloat

Blue and the Gray on Land

All Over the World - first series

All Over the World - second series

All Over the World - third series

Non-series titles

Books for adults

Citations

Sources