Joseph Quincy Adams

Joseph Quincy Adams (1880–1946) was an American Shakespeare scholar. Born in South Carolina, he was educated at Wake Forest and Cornell, where he taught English from 1904 until 1931. His Shakespearean Playhouses (1917) reconstructed the London theaters of the age from documentary evidence, and his Life of William Shakespeare (1923) was for many years the standard American biography; he also edited Chief Pre-Shakespearean Dramas and the records of the Master of the Revels. In 1931 he was appointed to organize the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, and he served as its first director from its opening in 1932 until his death.