Person:Ansel Adams (1)

Biography excerpts (Ansel Adams Gallery source)

"Adams, Ansel (Feb. 20 1902 — Apr. 22, 1984), photographer and environmentalist, was born in San Francisco, California, the son of Charles Hitchcock Adams, a businessman, and Olive Bray. The grandson of a wealthy timber baron, Adams grew up in a house set amid the sand dunes of the Golden Gate. When Adams was only four, an aftershock of the great earthquake and fire of 1906 threw him to the ground and badly broke his nose, distinctly marking him for life. A year later the family fortune collapsed in the financial panic of 1907, and Adams's father spent the rest of his life doggedly but fruitlessly attempting to recoup.

An only child, Adams was born when his mother was nearly forty. His relatively elderly parents, affluent family history, and the live-in presence of his mother's maiden sister and aged father all combined to create an environment that was decidedly Victorian and both socially and emotionally conservative."

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"He was not successful in the various schools to which his parents sent him; consequently, his father and aunt tutored him at home. Ultimately, he managed to earn what he termed a "legitimizing diploma" from the Mrs. Kate M. Wilkins Private School — perhaps equivalent to having completed the eighth grade."

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"When Adams was twelve he taught himself to play the piano and read music."

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"Adams died in Monterey, California."

For more information, see the EN Wikipedia article Ansel Adams.

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} Ansel Adams Biography, in The Ansel Adams Gallery.

   By William Turnage. This biography has been published by Oxford University Press for its American National Biography and is reprinted courtesy OUP and the author.