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.

The son of Andrew Leith Adams, an army surgeon, and Bertha Leith-Adams, a novelist, Francis was born at Malta, and educated at Shrewsbury School and in Paris. He took up a teaching position at Ventnor on the Isle of Wight, but soon dedicated himself to writing. He joined the Social Democratic Federation in 1883, married Helen Uttley in 1884, and moved to Australia.

In 1884 he published his autobiographical novel, Leicester, and in 1886 a collection of works entitled Australian Essays. During this time he wrote for numerous Australian publications, including The Bulletin. In 1888 Adams published his best known piece Songs of the Army of the Night, which created a sensation in Sydney. 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. He died by his own hand at Margate in a fit of depression caused by hopeless illness. 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.