Arthur H. Adams, 1872–1935

Abstract

Arthur H. Adams occupies an important place in New Zealand’s literary history as a pioneer of a diverse range of literary forms. Starting his literary life as a lyricist for light opera, Adams published four volumes of poetry, one collection of short stories, one collection of plays and eleven novels in his lifetime. He was also a journalist and used his position as literary editor to the Bulletin and the Lone Hand to advance the careers of Australasian writers and promote a literary culture in Australian and New Zealand society. At their best, Adams’ poems and novels display a distinctively New Zealand sensibility and an unsentimental pride in the nation’s cultural identity. He is capable of evoking landscape, character and mood with spare lyricism and rhythmic force and delights in the original and unorthodox. Adams’ early promise was never fully realised, perhaps because of his tendency to experiment with a succession of new styles and genres. A sense of disillusionment and wasted talent pervades his later work. A three week snowstorm coincided with the birth of Arthur Henry Adams on 6 June 1872 in the Central Otago town of Lawrence. He was the second son in a family of six born to Charles William Adams and Eleanor (Ellen) Sarah Adams, nee Gillon. Born in Tasmania in 1840, Charles Adams’ family background was English. Family legend held that one of his ancestors was the head of Wadham College and another the tutor of Dr Johnson. A surveyor by profession, he arrived in New Zealand in 1862 and married Ellen Gillon in 1870. Ellen was of Irish descent, but was born in Douglas, the Isle of Man, where she lived until her family immigrated to Dunedin in 1851. Her mother, Sarah Gillon (nee Heron) was well educated and widely read and tutored Ellen and her brother Edward at home. Charles Adams was the geodesic surveyor for the South Island in the Survey Department at the time of Arthur’s birth. Arthur’s early years were marked by his father’s astronomical and geological findings. In 1877 Charles Adams discovered the accurate position of the star Alpha Centauri and in 1879 re-measured Mt Cook using triangulation observations. In 1882 the family moved to Wellington, where Charles Adams established an observatory at Mt Cook. Arthur attended Wellington Boys’ College for the next three years. While in Wellington, Arthur came into contact with his maternal uncle. Edward Thomas Gillon was the manager of the United Press Association and became the editor of The Evening Post in 1884. He was recognised as one of New