Andy Adams was an American author of western literature who lived from May 3, 1859, to September 26, 1935. The son of Andrew Adams, who was of Irish origin, and Elizabeth Elliott, who was of Scottish descent, Andy Adams was born in Thorncreek Township, Whitley County, Indiana. He assisted with the cattle and horses on the family farm when he was a little boy. He moved to Texas in the early 1880s and lived there for ten years, spending a lot of that time moving cattle over the western routes. He attempted to become a merchant in 1890, but the endeavor was unsuccessful. He next tried his hand at gold mining in Colorado and Nevada. He relocated to Colorado Springs in 1894, where he remained until his death. His most popular work, The Log of a Cowboy, was published in 1903, when he was 43 years old and he starting to write. A Texas Matchmaker (1904), The Outlet (1905), Cattle Brands (1906), Reed Anthony, Cowman: An Autobiography (1907), Wells Brothers (1911), and The Ranch on the Beaver are some of his other books (1927).