<P> Adams was born in Brooklyn, New York, to a wealthy family, the son of Elizabeth Harper (née Truslow) and William Newton Adams, Jr . </P> <P> His father had been born in Caracas, Venezuela . His paternal grandfather William Newton Adams Sr. was American with roots in Virginia and his paternal grandmother Carmen Michelena de Salias was a Venezuelan of Spanish (Basque) descent . </P> <P> Adams took his bachelor's degree from the New York University Tandon School of Engineering (then Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn) in 1898, and a MA degree from Yale University in 1900 . He entered investment banking, rising to partner in a New York Stock Exchange member firm . In 1912, he considered his savings ample enough to switch to a career as a writer . </P> <P> In 1917, he served with Colonel House on President Wilson's commission, "The Inquiry", to prepare data for the Paris Peace Conference . By 1918, he was a captain in the Military Intelligence Division of the General Staff of the U.S. Army . By late 1918, he was selected for the U.S. delegation to the Paris Peace Conference . His main task consisted in the provision of maps and the selection of plans and atlases that should be acquired by the War College, the American Geographical Society, and the Library of Congress . </P>

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