Henry Adams (1838-1918) was born in Boston of a distinguished family. After attending Harvard, he worked as secretary to his father, who had been appointed by President Lincoln in 1861 to be U.S. ambassador to England. Returning from London after the Civil War, Adams turned to journalism and, after appointment as professor of medieval history at Harvard, to the writing of history, including A History of the United States During the Administrations of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, The Degradation of the Democratic Dogma, and biographies of Albert Gallatin and John Randolph. He also traveled widely and wrote two novels, Democracy and Esther. He died in Washington, D.C.
