Born in on 28 December 1851 at Park Terrace, New Park Road, Brixton, London.[1][note 1] the son of William Henry Davenport Adams, also a journalist and author, and Sarah Esther Morgan[note 2] (13 August 1835 – 1908)[4][5], the daughter of shoemaker Timothy Morgan. The couple had married at St. Mary's Church in the Parish of Paddington, London on 26 December 1850.
The family were quite involved in literature and drama. Not only did he have the example of his father, who was a prolific author with over 100 books to his credit,[6] but his two sisters, Florence Mary Susan Ballingall (4th quarter 1855 – 4th quarter 1943)[7][8] and Ellinor Lily Davenport Adams[note 3] (4th quarter 1858 – 11 April 1913)[9][10] were also writers and gave their occupation as "journalist" and "author" respectively, in the 1901 census and both gave it as journalism and literature" in the 1911 census. Florence seems to have written mainly children's one-act plays, mainly about fairies.[11][12][note 4] Ellinor wrote girls' stories mostly.[16] Most of her later stories were published by Blackie and Son for whom she acted as a publisher's reader.[10] His brother Alfred Elliot (later Davenport) Adams (1st quarter 1861 – 1947)[17][18] became an actor,[19], and married an actress.[20][21]
Adams married Caroline Estelle Körner (c. 1855 – 1st quarter of 1928),[22] the daughter of the late John Körner, a Polish exile from a noble family[1] who had been earning his living as a teacher. The marriage was celebrated at St Mary's Episcopal Church in Glasgow.[23] The 1911 census shows that Caroline had no children. Caroline was also a writer, and wrote a number of compilations as Estelle Davenport Adams.[24][note 5] However, her health was not good and she was an invalid at the time of his death.[26]
Adams died suddenly at his home, 17 Burstock Road, Putney, on 26 July 1904.[note 6] His death was credited to overwork and worry about the illness of two members of his family.[note 7] The overwork was ascribed to considerable pressure he was under to complete the first volume of A Dictionary of the Drama, which was then in the hands of the binders.[30] He lost consciousness after an illness of a few hours and never recovered.[28]
Work
Journalism
As a youth he contributed to boys' magazines,[30] and became a journalist at 20 (i.e. in 1871)[24]. In 1873 he first began to do reviews of theatrical performances in a serious way.[32] In 1875, the year of his marriage, he was appointed as leader writer and the literary and drama critic for the Glasgow Daily News. He then served as the editor of the Greenock Advertiser form 1878 to 1880. From 1880 to 1882 he was the acting editor of the Nottingham Daily Guardian,[note 8] and from 1882 to 1885 he was editor of the Derby Mercury.[1]
Adams moved to London in 1885 where he joined the editorial staff of The Globe. He was the writer of many of the "turnover articles"[note 9] for The Globe.[30][28][24] These articles were essays and sketches of social, descriptive, or a humorous kind, and appeared on the first page of the newspaper.[34][35] These articles were a famous feature of The Globe,[36] demanded a "facile pen" to produce them on such a wide range of topics.[30]
With time, Adams became more and more involved with reviewing, and he serves as the head of the reviewing department at The Globe until his death.[note 10] His wrote a column on Plays and Players not only for The Globe but also for The People.[26]
Books
Most of Adams books were compilations of the work of others, selected by Adams and with notes and annotations by him. He also wrote a few compilations of his own essays, as well as his two major reference works: A Dictionary of English Literature (1877) and the first volume of a planned two volumes of A Dictionary of the Drama (1904). The first of these was a dictionary with the names of authors, the titles of novels, poems, and plays, famous characters, familiar phrases and first striking words, as well as reference articles on the novel, the sonnet, etc. The Graphic described the work as "a book of reference of a most agreeable, and in many respects a novel class."[37] More than forty years after publication the Westminster Gazette called it "an extremely useful work", although in need of bringing up to date.[6][28][24][31]
Adams was working on the Dictionary of the Drama when he died, and the effort to complete it was cited in at least one obituaries as being a contributory factor to his death,[30] while other referred more generally to overwork and worry about ill family members as being the two contributing factors.[26] Only the first volume (A-G) was published.[note 11] The work had been over twenty years in preparation, with the first notice of the work was in November 1881. It was said to have been in preparation by Adams for a considerable time and would be published in 1882.[39] In December 1881, it was announced that the book would soon be published by Chatto and Windus[40] In December 1882, it was stated that the book would be published in a day or two.[41] In April 1885, the book was "nearly finished" and was to be published on an "early day".[42] In November 1893, the book was expected to be published in the spring of 1894.[43] The first volume was eventually published on 8 September 1904.[44]The Bystander noted that Adams had a unique claim to fame in that the book had been advertised at the top of Chatto and Windus's list for a quarter of a century.[45]
When published, the first volume was said to be "astonishing in its variety and completeness."[46] There was some confusion about the second volume as some sources said that the second volume was passing through the press at the time of his death, [47][48] but other sources make clear that it was the first volume that was in press at the time of his death.[31] Fourteen years after publication, no second volume had been published, and the Westminster Gazette reported that John Parker, the compiler of Who's Who in the Theatre was to complete the dictionary as well as revising the first volume.[6] However, the work seems not to have gone ahead, and no publication record could be found.
Dictionary of English literature : being a comprehensive guide to English authors and their works
Cassell, Petter & Galpin, London
iv, 708 p, 8º
6
Compilation
1878
English epigrams, selected and arranged with introduction, notes, and notices of the epigrammatists
Chatto & Windus, London
vii, 272 p., 8º
7
Compilation
1878
Latter-Day Lyrics, being poems of sentiment and reflection by living writers. Selected and arranged with notes by W. D. Adams. With a note on some foreign forms of verse, by A. Dobson
Edinburgh Publishing Company, Edinburgh
iv, 276 p., 8º
8
Compilation
1880
Songs of Society, from Anne to Victoria. Edited, with notes and introduction, by W. D. Adams
Ward and Downey, London
xxviii, 156 p., 4º
9
Compilation
1880
The witty and humorous side of the English poets : with a variety of specimens arranged in periods
Hamilton, Adams Thomas D. Morison, London Glasgow
vi, 276 p., 8º
10
Compilation
1881
Quips and Quiddities ... [In prose and verse.] Selected and edited by W. D. Adams
The Treasury of Modern Anecdote, being a selection from the witty and humorous sayings of the last hundred years. Edited, with notes and introduction, by W. D. Adams
Routledge, London
495 p., 8º
12
Compilation
1885
Songs from the novelists : from Elizabeth to Victoria
London, Hurst & Blackett
xiii, 240 p., 8º
13
Author of Appendix
1887
Dictionary of phrase and fable : giving the derivation, source, or origin of common phrases, allusions, and words that have a tale to tell. To which is added a concise bibliography of English literature, based upon the larger work ... by W. Davenport Adams.
T.Nelson, London
xxx,512 p., ill., 8º
14
Own writing
1888
By-ways in book-land : short essays on literary subjects
A Dictionary of the Drama. A guide to the plays, playwrights, players, and playhouses of the United Kingdom and America, from the earliest times to the present. Volume 1. A-G
The revolutionary epick, and other poems by Benjamin Disraeli... Reprinted from the original edition, and edited by W. Davenport Adams
Hurst and Blackett, London
xiii, 240 p., 8º
Notes
^A register of the scholars admitted into Merchant Taylors’ School gives his date of birth as 25 December 1851.[2] His baptismal record gives his date of birth as 28 December 1852.[3] However, the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, which cites his birth certificate, gives it as 28 December 1851.[1]
^Her name is sometimes spelled as Elinor Lily Davenport Adams, and was even spelled Eleanor in the 1861 census
^She married Charles Campbell Ballingall (1849–1896),[13][14] the secretary of Lancashire Insurance Company, in Edinburgh on 31 March 1877,[15] and the 1911 census shows that she bore no children.
^These included The Poets’ Praise of Poets (1894), Sea-Song and River Rhyme (1887), Flower and Leaf (1884) among others.[25]
^The Times gives his death as happening on the evening of 27 July,[24] as does Who Was Who,[25] the Press Association,[27] and The Mail[28] but the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography[1] and other sources[26][29][30][31][29] give his date of death as Tuesday 26 July. This date (26th) is convincing not only because the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography cites his death certificate as a source, but also because some of the account of his death on Tuesday evening were published on the morning of Wednesday 27th.[30][29] The error may spring from The Times which did not give the date, but simply said "yesterday" in its obituary of 28 July.
^One of these was his wife, who had "long suffered in health"[30], and was described as an invalid.[26] The second was presumably his 69 year old mother, who died four years later.[5]
^Turnover articles are articles which are continued on the following page. In the case of the Globe they appeared in the last column on the first page, and were intended to entice readers to move beyond the front page.
^After his death, his sister Ellinor, who had assisted him in his work, took over as the chief reviewer, at least of books.[10]
^As the first volume only covered A-G, it seems likely that three or four volumes would be needed rather than the projected two volumes. The Pall Mall Gazette noted that the first volume only went one quarter way through the alphabet.[38]
^The Jisc Library Hub Discover brings together the catalogues of 168 major UK and Irish libraries. Additional libraries are being added all the time, and the catalogue collates national, university, and research libraries.[49][50]
^A complication in searching for books by Adams in the Library Hub Discover database is that the searches also return books by his father William Henry Davenport Adams, and not all books include this father's full name. However, the British Library distinguishes between books by father and son.
^Many of the poems were written specially for the compilation.[51]
^Volume 5 of the Whitefriars library of wit and humour.
^Entitled A Handbook for Visitors on the front cover with 44 pages of advertisements in addition to the text. Illustrated by the noted architectural artists Herbert Railton, Henry William Brewer, Henry Phillip Burke -Downing and others.
^No second volume was ever produced as Adams died while the first volume was in press.
^City of Westminster Archives Centre (2020). "Reference Number: STA/PR/4/10: Baptisms administered at the Church of St. Barnabas, in the Parish of St. George, Hannover Square, Diocese of London, in the County of Middlesex in the year 1854: 16 April 1854: William Davenport Adams". Westminster Church of England Parish Registers: 1850-1858. Lehi, Utah: Ancestry.com. p. 85.
^London Metropolitan Archives (2010). "Reference Number: p89/tri/008: Year 1828-1850: Baptisms solemnized in Trinity Church, in the Parish of St. Mary-le-bone, in the county of Middlesex, in the Year One Thousand Eight Hundred and Thirty Five: No 424: 22 November: Sarah Esther Morgan". London, England, Church of England Births and Baptisms, 1813-1917. Provo, Utah: Ancestry.com. p. 52.
^Ancestry.com (2014). "Charles Campbell Ballingal, in Govan, Lanark, Scotland, Son of David Ballingall and Eliza Stevenson Snodgrass, 23 Dec 1849". Scotland, Select Births and Baptisms, 1564-1950. Provo, Utah: Ancestry.com.
^Sims, Sue; Clare, Hilary (2020). The Encyclopaedia of Girls' School Stories. Coleford, Radstock: Girls Gone By Publishers. pp. 67–68. ISBN978-1-84745-257-3.
^"Index entry". FreeBMD. ONS. Retrieved 7 November 2020.
^Staffordshire County Council (2019). "Reference Number: KNV/5A/170: Alfrid (sic.) Davenport Adams". Indexes of Births, Marriages and Deaths for the County of Staffordshire;. Lehi, Utah: Ancestry.com.
^Adams, William Davenport (1 February 1894). "Apologia pro Vita Mea". The Theatre. XXIII (New Series): 70–75. hdl:2027/chi.096267755. Retrieved 4 November 2020 – via The Hathi Trust (access may be limited outside the United States).
_by_Alfred_Ellis,_20_Upper_Baker_Street,_London.jpg)
