William Taylor Adams (July 30, 1822 – March 27, 1897), pseudonym Oliver Optic, was a noted academic, author, and Massachusetts state legislator. He was born in Medway, Massachusetts in 1822 to Captain Laban Adams and Catherine Johnson Adams. He became a teacher in the Boston, Massachusetts public schools in 1845, and remained in that capacity through 1865. In 1846, he married Sarah Jenkins, with whom he had two children. He served as a member of the School Board of Dorchester, Massachusetts, for 14 years. In 1869, he became a member of the Massachusetts General Court. He died in Dorchester in 1897.
His first book, Hatchie, the Guardian Slave (1853), was published under the pseudonym of Warren T. Ashton[1]
He wrote more than 100 books of fiction for boys under the pseudonym "Oliver Optic," published in large part as series in Oliver Optic's Magazine, of which he was the editor.[2] Among the more popular titles were:
Other titles included stories about the Civil War.[3] He also wrote two novels, The Way of the World and Living Too Fast.[2]
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. [4]
| Wikisource has the text of a 1921 Collier's Encyclopedia article about William Taylor Adams. |