Robert P. Adams papers, 1932-1990

Robert P. Adams, PhD, (1910-1994) was born in 1910 in Highland Park, Michigan. He received his PhD in English from the University of Chicago in 1937, then taught as an assistant professor of English at Michigan State University 1938-1947. An offer of tenure brought Adams to the University of Washington, where he taught English Literature at the University of Washington from 1947 to his retirement in 1979. Starting as an Associate Professor, he became a Full Professor in 1962 with the publication of his book, The Better Part of Valor: More, Erasmus, Colet, and Vives on Humanism, War, and Peace, 1496-1535 (University of Washington Press, 1962). After its publication, he was listed for six years in "Who's Who in America." Robert taught Shakespeare courses every year in addition to other English Renaissance authors. He also created a course called Social Ideals in Literature that included a range of authors who wrote on the ideal society, such as Thomas More, Utopia, Samuel Butler, Erewhon and Edward Bellamy, Looking Backward. He also taught correspondence courses through the University of Washington correspondence study program and enjoyed his contacts with students all around the West and some abroad.