Alice Adams (writer)
Encyclopedia
Alice Adams (August 14, 1926 – May 27, 1999) was an American
novelist, short story writer
, and university professor.
She was born in Fredericksburg, Virginia
, grew up in Chapel Hill, North Carolina
, and attended Radcliffe College
, graduating in 1946. She married Mark Linenthal, and had a child, Peter Linenthal, but her marriage broke up, and she spent several years as a single mother, working as a secretary. Her psychiatrist told her to give up writing and get remarried; instead she published her first short story, Winter Rain, followed by a first novel, Careless Love (1966); in 1969 she began publishing stories in The New Yorker
. She wrote eleven novels, including the bestseller Superior Women, but is best known and admired for her short stories, in collections such as Beautiful Girl(1979),After You've Gone (1989), and The Last Lovely City (1999).
She received numerous awards, including the O. Henry Lifetime Achievement Award and Best American Short Stories
Award.
She has taught sporadically at Stanford University
, the University of California, Davis
, and the University of California at Berkeley.
Adams is also considered a minor literary theorist. Most important may be her observation from her own writing experience of "a formula when writing a short story, which goes ABDCE, for Action, Background, Development, Climax, and Ending. You begin with action that is compelling enough to draw [the reader] in, make us want to know more. Background is where you...see and know who these people are, how they’ve come to be together, what was going on before the opening of the story. Then you develop these people, so that we learn what they care most about. The plot – the drama, the actions, the tension – will grow out of that. You move them along until everything comes together in the climax, after which things are different for the main characters, different in some real way. And then there is the ending: what is our sense of who these people are now, what are they left with, what happened, and what did it mean?”
Adams died at home in San Francisco, California, in 1999.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
novelist, short story writer
Short story
A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...
, and university professor.
She was born in Fredericksburg, Virginia
Fredericksburg, Virginia
Fredericksburg is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia located south of Washington, D.C., and north of Richmond. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 24,286...
, grew up in Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Chapel Hill is a town in Orange County, North Carolina, United States and the home of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and UNC Health Care...
, and attended Radcliffe College
Radcliffe College
Radcliffe College was a women's liberal arts college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and was the coordinate college for Harvard University. It was also one of the Seven Sisters colleges. Radcliffe College conferred joint Harvard-Radcliffe diplomas beginning in 1963 and a formal merger agreement with...
, graduating in 1946. She married Mark Linenthal, and had a child, Peter Linenthal, but her marriage broke up, and she spent several years as a single mother, working as a secretary. Her psychiatrist told her to give up writing and get remarried; instead she published her first short story, Winter Rain, followed by a first novel, Careless Love (1966); in 1969 she began publishing stories in The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
. She wrote eleven novels, including the bestseller Superior Women, but is best known and admired for her short stories, in collections such as Beautiful Girl(1979),After You've Gone (1989), and The Last Lovely City (1999).
She received numerous awards, including the O. Henry Lifetime Achievement Award and Best American Short Stories
Best American Short Stories
The Best American Short Stories yearly anthology is a part of The Best American Series published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Since 1915, the BASS anthology has striven to contain the best short stories by some of the best-known writers in contemporary American literature.-Edward O'Brien:The...
Award.
She has taught sporadically at Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
, the University of California, Davis
University of California, Davis
The University of California, Davis is a public teaching and research university established in 1905 and located in Davis, California, USA. Spanning over , the campus is the largest within the University of California system and third largest by enrollment...
, and the University of California at Berkeley.
Adams is also considered a minor literary theorist. Most important may be her observation from her own writing experience of "a formula when writing a short story, which goes ABDCE, for Action, Background, Development, Climax, and Ending. You begin with action that is compelling enough to draw [the reader] in, make us want to know more. Background is where you...see and know who these people are, how they’ve come to be together, what was going on before the opening of the story. Then you develop these people, so that we learn what they care most about. The plot – the drama, the actions, the tension – will grow out of that. You move them along until everything comes together in the climax, after which things are different for the main characters, different in some real way. And then there is the ending: what is our sense of who these people are now, what are they left with, what happened, and what did it mean?”
Adams died at home in San Francisco, California, in 1999.