Literary Birthday – 14 August – Alice Adams

Alice Adams was born on 14 August 1926 and died on 27 May 1999.

Alice Adams Quotes

1. Some smart person once said that what happens is your critical standards rise, and your talent does not necessarily increase in a commensurate way.
2. I have the perception that people talk about old age in two ways. One is to focus on the horrors of it, not that they should be underestimated, and the other is to romanticise it.
3. I think I probably am a good example of life begins at forty – I’m forty-eight – [Those eight years after forty] have all been a vast improvement. I began to come together after a long period of floundering.
4. I really have no imagination at all, just a terrific memory.
5. But, Jack, you know I don’t care for plot at all!

Source for quotes 3-5: Tony’s Book World

Adams sometimes followed a pattern she called ABDCE in outlining a short story, which she described to her friend Anne Lamott. Click here to find out what it is : The ABDCE Pattern for Writing a Short Story

Alice Adams was an American novelist, short story writer, and university professor. Although she wrote 11 novels, she became best known for her short stories, many of which are collected in The Stories of Alice Adams. Adams’s writing often focused on ordinary people and the emotional pressures of everyday life. Her stories were widely anthologised, including in 22 O. Henry Award collections, and she received several Best American Short Stories awards. She was also awarded Guggenheim and NEA fellowships and a literature award from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. Adams taught writing at Stanford University, the University of California, Davis, and the University of California, Berkeley. In 1982, she became the third writer to receive the O. Henry Special Award for Continuing Achievement, following John Updike and Joyce Carol Oates; Alice Munro later received the award as well. Adams was also part of a close literary circle and maintained friendships with writers including Mary Gaitskill, Anne Lamott, Max Steele, Ella Leffland, Diane Johnson, Alison Lurie, and Carolyn See.

Source for Quote / Source for quote /Source
Source for image:  Penguin Random House  Photo: © Sydney Goldstein

by Amanda Patterson
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