Andy Adams

Who was Andy Adams?

Andy Adams was an American writer of western fiction.

Andy Adams was born in Indiana. His parents, Andrew and Elizabeth Adams, were pioneers. As a boy he helped with the cattle and horses on the family farm. In the early 1880s he went to Texas, where he stayed for 10 years, spending much of that time driving cattle on the western trail. In 1890 he left the trail to try his hand at business, but the venture failed, so he turned his hand to gold-mining in Colorado and Nevada. In 1894, he settled in Colorado Springs, where he lived until his death.

He began writing at the age of 43, publishing his most successful book, The Log of a Cowboy, in 1903. His other works include A Texas Matchmaker, The Outlet, Cattle Brands, Reed Anthony, Cowman: An Autobiography, Wells Brothers, and The Ranch on the Beaver.

The Log of a Cowboy is an account of a five-month drive of 3,000 cattle from Brownsville, Texas, to Montana in 1882 along the Great Western Cattle Trail. Although the book is fiction, it is firmly based on Adams's own experiences on the trail, and it is considered by many to be the best account of cowboy life in literature.