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Andy Adams
Pseudonym of Peter J. Harkins. Not to be confused with the author of westerns of the same name. Born in Massachusetts in 1916. He worked variously as a singer, vaudeville performer, scriptwriter, joke writer and radio announcer, as well as author.
Harkins began writing children's books in collaboration with his friend Hal Goodwin, when they penned the first three books of the Rick Grant boy's adventure series under the pseudonym of John Blaine. He also wrote some books in the Biff Brewster adventure series using the Andy Adams pen name. This was an adventure series aimed at boys, although appears to be of more substance than the usual books in the genre, with Biff being less gung-ho and more tolerant of other cultures than a lot of the jingoistic fictional heroes of the time. One book in the series features Arab horses, although is more of a mystery than a horse story.
Harkins was a lover of horse-racing and in the 1970s was secretary of the Arkansas Thoroughbred Breeder's Association.
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