James Truslow Adams (1878 - 1949)

Born 18 Oct 1878 in Brooklyn, Kings County, New York, United States

Husband of Kathryn S. (Seely) Adams — married 18 Jan 1927 in New York, New York, United States

Died 18 May 1949 at age 70 in Southport, Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States

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Biography

James Truslow Adams is Notable.

James was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1878. ^[1] He passed away in 1949 from a heart attack at his home in Southport, Connecticut. ^[2] According to his death record, he never married. ^[3] However, in the 1940 US Federal Census, he has a wife, Kathryn. ^[4] He was a Pulitzer Prize winning American writer who helped popularize scholarship about American history. He also coined the term "American Dream."

Early Life

James was born into a wealthy family in Brooklyn, New York. His father was William Newton Adams, Jr. and his mother was Elizabeth Truslow. ^[5] His father was born in Venezuela to an American father from Virginia and a Venezuelan mother of Spanish Basque descent. ^[6]

He was a graduate of New York University Tandon School of Engineering (then called Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn) in 1898, and earned an Masters degree from Yale University in 1900. To earn money, he entered the field of investment banking, even rising to partner in a New York Stock Exchange member firm. But, by 1912 he felt he had earned enough savings to switch to writing. ^[7]

In 1917 he served with Colonel Edward M. House on President Wilson's commission, "The Inquiry," to prepare for the Parish Peace Conference. ^[8] In 1918, James was a captain in the Military Intelligence Division of the General Staff of the U. S. Army. Late in 1918, he was a member of the delegation selected to the Paris Peace Conference. ^[9] He was tasked with providing maps, plans, and atlases that should be acquired by the War College, the American Geographical Society, and the Library of Congress. ^[10]

Writing

James gained national attention with his trilogy on the history of New England. He won the Pulitzer Prize for the first volume. He wrote popular books and magazine articles and his "Epic of America" was included in Life Magazine's list of the 100 outstanding books of 1924-1944. James was the editor of the multi-volume Dictionary of American History, The Atlas of American History, and The Album of American History. James is the one who coined the term, "American Dream" when it appeared in his book, The Epic of America, in 1931. He described it as "that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement. It is a difficult dream for the European upper classes to interpret adequately, and too many of us ourselves have grown weary and mistrustful of it. It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position." ^[11]

Honors

• Chancellor and treasurer of the American Academy of Arts and Letters
• National Institute of Arts and Letters member
• Massachusetts Historical Society member
• American Antiquarian Society member
• American Historical Association member
• American Philosophical Society member
• Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature (British)

Wikidata: Item Q1681213

Sources

1. ↑ Wikipedia Contributors
2. ↑ Wikipedia Contributors
3. ↑ Death Record
4. ↑ 1940 US Federal Census
5. ↑ Wikipedia Contributors
6. ↑ Wikipedia Contributors
7. ↑ Wikipedia Contributors
8. ↑ Wikipedia Contributors
9. ↑ Wikipedia Contributors
10. ↑ Wikipedia Contributors
11. ↑ Wikipedia Contributors

• Wikipedia contributors, "James Truslow Adams," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=James_Truslow_Adams&oldid=869922747 (accessed January 1, 2019).
• Connecticut Department of Health. Connecticut Death Index, 1949-2001. Hartford, Connecticut: Connecticut Department of Health; database, " Connecticut Department of Health. Connecticut Death Index, 1949-2012," Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2003 Ancestry Record 4124 #72: accessed 31 December 2018; state file number 06752.
• Tenth Census of the United States, 1880. (NARA microfilm publication T9, 1,454 rolls). Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C.; database and digital images, "1880 United States Federal Census," Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010 Ancestry Record 6742 #2349215: accessed 31 December 2018; citing Year: 1880; Census Place: Brooklyn, Kings, New York; Roll: 856; Page: 441B; Enumeration District: 239.
• United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Twelfth Census of the United States, 1900. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1900. T623, 1854 rolls; database and digital images, "1900 United States Federal Census," Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2004 Ancestry Record 7602 #55545914: accessed 31 December 2018; citing Year: 1900; Census Place: Brooklyn Ward 24, Kings, New York; Page: 9; Enumeration District: 0417; FHL microfilm: 1241062.
• Thirteenth Census of the United States, 1910 (NARA microfilm publication T624, 1,178 rolls). Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C.; database and digital images, "1910 United States Federal Census," Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006 Ancestry Record 7884 #161688860: accessed 31 December 2018; citing Year: 1910; Census Place: Summit Ward 1, Union, New Jersey; Roll: T624_911; Page: 14B; Enumeration District: 0111; FHL microfilm: 1374924.
• United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1940. T627, 4,643 rolls; database and digital images, "1940 United States Federal Census," Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012 Ancestry Record 2442 #132246793: accessed 31 December 2018; citing Year: 1940; Census Place: Fairfield, Fairfield, Connecticut; Roll: m-t0627-00495; Page: 3A; Enumeration District: 1-38.
• Find A Grave, database and images (accessed 31 December 2018), memorial page for James Truslow Adams (18 Oct 1878–18 May 1949), Find A Grave: Memorial #7704520, citing Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn, Kings County (Brooklyn), New York, USA ; Maintained by Find A Grave.

• Ernst Breisach, Historiography: Ancient, Medieval, & Modern, 3rd ed. (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2007), 341.

See also:

• James Truslow Adams papers, 1918-1949