James Truslow Adams

James Truslow Adams (October 18, 1878 in Brooklyn, N.Y. - May 18, 1949 in Southport, Conn.) was an American historian. He was not related to the famous Adams family (though he wrote a book about the family in 1930). He was not an academic, but a freelance author, and his three volume history of New England is well regarded by scholars.

Life and work

James Truslow Adams started an international living career, so to speak, shortly after his birth, when his parents decided to live for some time in Paris, France. Adams visited different schools in New York and took his bachelor's degree from the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute in 1898, and a M.A. degree from Yale University in 1900, though he was diasappointed from Yale University. Probably around 1898/99, he entered the Wall Street company his father was working for. He changed to a railway company, the Central of Georgia, thereby earning more money and learning much about investment business. In 1900 he undertook a grand tour through Europe, spending three weeks in London and visiting the world's fair in Paris, which left him unimpressed. He lived with his parents and his sister Amy in Summit, New Jersey. Reluctantly, he accepted the offer by a friend and entered again the investment banking firm of Henderson, Lindley and Co., a New York Stock Exchange member, becoming a partner of the company in December 1908. His mother died in 1911.

In 1912, he considered his savings so extensive, that he finally could enter a long thought about career as a writer. In autumn 1912 he purchased a strip of land on the Southern coast of Long Island at Bridgehampton, where he built a house, though he continued living together with his father and his sister. At that time, he developed a strong interest in local history, on which he published some works.

In 1917, he served with Colonel House on the President's commission to prepare data for the Paris Peace Conference. By 1918, he was a Captain in the Military Intelligence Division of the General Staff, US Army. From January to May 1919, he was a member of the US delegation to the Paris Peace Conference, where his main task consisted in the provision of maps and the selection of plans and atlases, which should be acquired by the War College, the American Geographical Society, and the Library of Congress.

In 1923, his father died. After an appendectomy in the same year, he became acquainted with Kathryn Seely, a nurse. In 1926, Adams sold his house in Bridgehampton and lived in an apartment in Brooklyn until 1928. In January 1927 he married Kathryn Seely, honeymooning for five months in Europe. From 1928 to 1936, they lived in London. Because of the war threat in Europe, they returned to the United States, where they lived in Southport, Conn. James Truslow Adams died in spring 1949 after a heart attack.

Aside from his savings, J. T. Adams had to earn his and his wife's livelihod by his writings. Therefore, after his New England trilogy and his Provincial Society, 1690-1763, he wrote mainly 'popular' accounts. His Epic of America was an international bestseller. He was also the editor of a still interesting, multi-volume Dictionary of American History.<ref> James Truslow Adams, ed., and R. V. Coleman, managing ed., Dictionary of American History, 5 vols. (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1940); 2nd, revised edition in 6 vols. (1942). According to Nevins, James Truslow Adams, 100 and 306, there was a Supplement 1940-1960, ed. by J. G. E. Hopkins and Wayne Andrews (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1961) as well a compliation in one volume, Concise Dictionary of American History, ed. by Wayne Andrews and Thomas C. Cochran (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1962). J. T. Adams was also the editor, again together with R. V. Coleman as managing editor, of the two following: The Atlas of American History, (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1943), and The Album of American History, 4 vols. (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1944), with a fifth vol., Index, ed. by J. G. E. Hopkins (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1949); revised edition in 5 vols. (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1961).<ref>

In 1930, Adams was elected a member of the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Letters serving, since 1941, as both chancellor and treasurer of that organization. He was also a member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters, the Massachusetts Historical Society, American Antiquarian Society, American Historical Association, and the American Philosophical Society. Among British societies he was honored as a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

Bibliography

Chronological list of all the monographic works by J. T. Adams

• Some Notes on the Currency Problem. New York: Press of the Broun-Green Comp., 1908. (Written when he was a manager at Lindley & Co., N.Y. City; it is about the origin of the Aldrich-Vreeland Act, 1908.)
• Speculation and the Reform of the New York Stock Exchange. Summit, N.J.: The Summit Herald Press, 1913. [Written when he was a manager at Lindley & Co., N.Y. City; he supported a more efficient control of the New York Stock Exchange, of the books and practices of its members.)
• Memorials of Old Bridgehampton. Bridgehampton, N.Y.: Printed Privately at the Press of the Bridgehampton News, 1916. (Reprint: Port Washington, N.Y.: Ira J. Friedman, 1962.)
• An Address Delivered upon Founder's Day before the Colonial Society of Southampton, Long Island, June 12, 1917. [N.p.] Printed privately.
• History of the Town of Southampton, East of Canoe Place. Bridgehampton, N.Y.: Hampton Press, 1918. (Reprint: Port Washington, N.Y.: Ira J. Friedman, 1962.)
• Notes on the Families of Truslow, Horler, and Horley from English Records. Bridgehampton, N.Y.: Privately Printed, 1920. (Only forty copies were printed.)
• The Founding of New England. Boston: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1921. Online edition (Reprint: Gloucester, Mass.: Peter Smith, 1963.)
• Revolutionary New England, 1691-1776. Boston: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1923. Online edition
• Rhode Island's Part in Making America: An Address Delivered at Rhode Island College of Education. State of Rhode Island. Public Education Service, Providence, 1923.
• New England in the Republic, 1776-1850. Boston: Little, Brown, 1926. Online edition (Reprint: Gloucester, Mass.: Peter Smith, 1960.)
• Provincial Society, 1690-1763. History of American Life, ed. by Dixon R. Fox and Arthur M. Schlesinger, vol. 3. New York: Macmillan, 1927.
• Our Business Civilization: Some Aspects of American Culture. New York: A. and C. Boni, 1929. [Collected essays; the British edition was published with the title A Searchlight on America. With an Introduction by Douglas Woodruff. London: G. Routledge and Sons, 1930.)
• The Adams Family. Boston: Little, Brown, 1930. (Reprints: Oxford University Press, 1932; Blue Ribbon Books, 1933; Hillary House, 1957.)
• The Epic of America. Illustrated by M. J.Gallagher. Boston: Little. Brown, 1931. New edition, 1933. (There were several translations: German (1933), French (1933), Danish (1935), Italian (1937), Swedish (1939), Portuguese (Brazil) (1940), Spanish (Argentina) (1942), Netherlandish (1946), Hebrew (1947), and Hungarian (in the 1940s). Many reprints.)
• The Tempo of Modern Life. New York: Albert and Charles Boni, 1931. (Collected essays.)
• The March of Democracy: A History of the United States. 2 vols. Vol. 1: The Rise of the Union; vol. 2: From Civil War to World Power. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1932-33. (There are some textual differences between two-volume edition and the four-volume subscriber's edition, which contains the same illustrations, but also an appendix with additional illustrations with comments [by an unknown author?]; this edition was completed by Jacob E. Cooke, et al., in three more volumes, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1966. The British edition appeared with the title History of the American People, London: G. Routledge, 1933.)
• America's Opportunity, How We Lost It and How We May Regain It. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1932.
• Henry Adams. New York: Albert and Charles Boni, 1933. (The "Bibliography of the Writings of Henry Adams", 213-29, was compiled by the former head of the Houghton Library, William A. Jackson.)
• America's Tragedy. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1934. (A history of slavery and the South's secession.)
• With Charles G. Vannest. The Record of America. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1935. (A textbook; there were later expanded editions.)
• The Living Jefferson. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1936.
• With Charles G. Vannest. Workbook for "The Record of America". New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1936.
• An Historian Looks at the Supreme Court [...] Over Mutual Broadcasting System from Station WOR, New York, March 8th, 1937 [...]. Rochester, N.Y.: National Committee to Uphold Constitutional Government, 1937.
• Building the British Empire: To the End of the First Empire. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1938.
• America Looks at the British Empire. New York: Farrar and Rhinehart, 1940. (British edition entitled An American Looks at the British Empire. London: Oxford University Press, 1941.)
• Empire on the Seven Seas: The British Empire, 1784-1939. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1940.
• The American: The Making of a New Man. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1943.
• Frontiers of American Culture: A Study of Adult Education in a Democracy. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1944.
• Big Business in a Democracy. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1945.

Secondary sources

• McCracken, M. J., comp. "Another Bibliography of James Truslow Adams." Bulletin of Bibliography 15 (May 1934):65-68.
• Nevins, Allan. James Truslow Adams: Historian of the American Dream. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1968. (On pages 1 to 102, Allan Nevins gave a sometimes superficial and not very accurate biography of his late friend with the title "The Busy Career of James Truslow Adams: A Personal Memoir"; the second and more extensive part of the book presents the "Selected Correspondence of James Truslow Adams".)
• Porter, K. W. "Negro in American Life: A Reply to J.T. Adams' Interpretation in His Book The American." Journal of Negro History 29 (April 1944):209-20.
• Taylor, C. James. "James Truslow Adams." In Dictionary of Literary Biography, vol. 17: Twentieth-Century American Historians, 3-8. Ed. by Clyde N. Wilson. Detroit, Mich.: Gale Research Company, 1983.