Francis William Lauderdale Adams (27 September 1862 – 4 September 1893) was an essayist, poet, dramatist, novelist and journalist who produced a large volume of work in his short life. Early years Adams was born in Malta the son of Andrew Leith Adams F. R. S., F. G. S., an army surgeon, who later became well known as a scientist, a fellow of the Royal Society, and an author of natural history books set in different parts of the British Empire. Francis's mother, Bertha Jane Grundy, became a well-known novelist. After his education at Shrewsbury School he served from 1879 as an attaché in Paris, and then took up a teaching position as an assistant master at Ventnor on the Isle of Wight for two years. Adams joined the Social Democratic Federation, the first avowedly Marxist political party in the UK, in London in 1883. Australia In 1884 he married Helen Uttley and migrated to Australia, where he started work as a tutor on a station at Jerilderie, New South Wales, but soon moved on to Sydney and then Queensland, dedicating himself to writing. In 1884 Adams had a volume of poems published, and also Henry and Other Tales (London) and an autobiographical novel Leicester, an Autobiography (1884). These were followed in 1886 by a collection of Australian Essays on topics such as Melbourne, Sydney and the poet Adam Lindsay Gordon. This was published in Melbourne and in London. During the Australian period he also contributed to periodicals, including The Bulletin. Adams then moved to Brisbane and published Poetical Works (1886, Brisbane), a quarto volume of over 150 pages printed in double columns. His wife died giving birth to a baby boy, Leith, who also died. Adams remained in Brisbane until the early part of 1887, and published a further novel, Madeline Brown's Murderer (1887, Sydney). After a short stay in Sydney, Adams married again, returned to Brisbane, and remained there until about the end of 1889 writing leaders for the Brisbane Courier. At the end of 1887, Adams published his best-known collection of verse, Songs of the Army of the Night, which created a sensation in Sydney, and later went through three editions in London. Later years He returned to England in early 1890 and published two more novels: John Webb's End, a Story of Bush Life (1891, London), and The Melbournians (1892). A volume of short stories, Australian