Early Life
Adams was born in Brooklyn, New York, to a wealthy family, the son of Elizabeth Harper (née Truslow) and William Newton Adams, Jr. His father had been born in Caracas, Venezuela. His paternal grandfather was American and his paternal grandmother was of Spanish Venezuelan descent. Adams took his bachelor's degree from the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn in 1898, and a MA degree from Yale University in 1900. He entered investment banking, rising to partner in a New York Stock Exchange member firm. In 1912, he considered his savings ample enough to switch his to a career as a writer.
In 1917, he served with Colonel House on President Wilson's commission, "The Inquiry", to prepare data for the Paris Peace Conference. By 1918, he was a Captain in the Military Intelligence division of the General Staff, US Army. By late 1918, he was selected for the US delegation to the Paris Peace Conference. His main task consisted in the provision of maps and the selection of plans and atlases, which should be acquired by the War College, the American Geographical Society, and the Library of Congress.
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