# Wesley Adams — Short Fiction character guide

> Wesley Adams in Short Fiction by Clifford D. Simak.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Wes, Adams, Wes Adams

**First appearance:** 0000-hellhounds-of-the-cosmos

## Snapshot

Wes Adams is the nervous founder of a brand-new nation called Mastodonia, who must convince a skeptical State Department that his country is real, legitimate, and worth recognizing.

## Who they are

Adams arrives in Washington with a portfolio, a constitution, and the weight of a first presidency thrust upon him, facing a secretary of state and a chief of protocol who have never heard of his country. His awkwardness with the wrecked car and the general's shotgun contrasts with the audacity of his diplomatic mission: recognition, Point Four aid, a defense pact. He is the human face of a wild gamble, and his nervous persistence in the early negotiations determines whether Mastodonia becomes a footnote or a nation.

## In the story

### [II](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_10_se/chapters/ii)

President of Mastodonia, waiting anxiously for news from Washington.

### [III](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_10_se/chapters/iii)

Adams is weary from cutting wood and suggests trapping beaver and digging ginseng as potential income sources.

### [IV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_10_se/chapters/iv)

Calibrated the time unit; identifies the mastodon as Buster; shoots the saber-tooth after the attack.

### [V](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_10_se/chapters/v)

Referenced as the brilliant scientist who built a time machine and disappeared with Cooper and Hudson.

### [VI](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_10_se/chapters/vi)

Cradles the time unit and leads the discussion on how to use it without the helicopter.

### [VIII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_10_se/chapters/viii)

Climbs the pyramid with the time unit and presses the button, but nothing happens.

### [The Empty Purpose](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_10_se/chapters/x)

Absent but central; his guilt and obsessive hope to repair the time machine drive the chapter's tension.

### [Chapter XI](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_10_se/chapters/xi)

Returns after twenty-five years, crashing his car into the general's property, and is bewildered by the general's reaction.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_10_se/characters/wesley_adams
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_10_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_10_se/characters