Joseph Quincy Adams Jr.

degree from Wake Forest College in 1900, and earned an M.A.

He pursued a teaching career at several institutions, notably at Cornell University, where he also edited the journal Cornell Studies in English (1910–31).

Adams married Helen Banks on January 29, 1931, though she died a short four years later, on September 14, 1935.

Adams was actively involved with the Folger Shakespeare Library from its founding in 1931.

In Adams' 1932 inaugural speech at the Folger, he called immigration "a menace to the preservation of our long-established English civilization.