Margaret A. Hogan is Managing Editor and C. James Taylor is Editor in Chief of the Adams Papers, Massachusetts Historical Society.
Their loving partnership in service to our country is a remarkable
story and one that merits retelling over and over again.--Senator
Ted Kennedy, As Quoted In The "boston Globe" (11/19/2007)
In helping to found a country where their children (and ours) could
grow up free, John and Abigail Adams bestowed an extraordinary
blessing on all of us. Yet one of their greatest legacies was an
unintended one, a consequence of their long separation and constant
need for one another. They left behind marvelously detailed,
literate, and loving letters to each other--1,016 survive--that add
immeasurably to our understanding of this remarkable couple and
their tumultuous times. Some 289 of them have been gathered into
this new and fascinating collection, compiled by the editors of the
Adams Papers at the Massachusetts Historical Society...The letters
reveal a man who, for all his flaws, showed stupendous courage,
creativity, stubborn devotion to duty, and keen insight into the
nature of power. As great as he is, Abigail is easily his match. It
is clear from these letters that, in addition to keeping the
family's farm going in his absence (a difficult task calling for
hard-headed business savvy), she often shows shrewder political
instincts. Intensely curious about politics, she clamors for
details and advises her husband about what steps to take. As he put
it himself, she was his ballast, steadying the ship and keeping him
moving forward, and he would not have become the great man he did
without her...The crude stuff of life is here, illuminated with the
lightning flashes of history. The letters remind us that these were
two people who were groping in the darkness, unsure what would
become of their lives and their new country...Their letters open a
window to their age like few other documents. That alone makes them
invaluable. But they are also fun reading, bubbling with the charm,
intelligence, pungency, and passion of these two, who were
compelling and entertaining writers, one as good as the
other.--Edward Achorn"Weekly Standard" (06/02/2008)
"My Dearest Friend: Letters of Abigail and John Adams" is an
extraordinary set of 289 of their personal letters...There are many
books on these two that provide context and background; this one,
in which John and Abigail's voices soar unencumbered over the
pages, is a lovely addition to the Adams shelf. You can't help but
feel a little guilty reading these rich exchanges, since they were
borne of long separations, with mail delivery that was slow at
best, and during wartime, unreliable. Even the act of writing could
be difficult: in one letter, Abigail talks about a winter so cold,
the ink freezes in her pen...While they are apart, they endure the
deaths of parents, friends, and, most heartbreaking, an infant
daughter. Their elegiac letters carry an almost unbearable
beauty.--Carol Iaciofano"Boston Globe" (11/20/2007)
"My Dearest Friend" is a refreshing tribute to a remarkable
marriage and a reminder of the power of, and intimacy in, good
old-fashioned correspondence...As remarkable for its literary
eloquence as for its historical significance, "My Dearest Friend"
provides insight into the complexities America faced during its
founding years and into a marriage which made sacrifices for, and
was sustained by, the commitment to securing a "more perfect
union."--Ashley Brown"Times Literary Supplement" (05/23/2008)
[The letters] provide valuable insights into the early days of
partisan politics...The Adamses' correspondence gives modern
Americans an extraordinarily personal view of our country's
founding. Intermingled with comments on the great events of the
day--the Battle of Bunker Hill, the vote for independence, the
inauguration of Washington as president--are discussions of daily
life, stories of neighbors and relatives, complaints about the high
cost of living and laments over such family tragedies as a
stillborn daughter and the deaths of parents. Their courtship
letters are especially delightful.--Mary Beth Norton"New York Times
Book Review" (11/04/2007)
An extraordinary series of letters...Most 18th Century letters make
for dry reading. Abigail and John's are entirely different. They
pour their hearts onto the page, expressing their raw feelings as
flesh-and-blood humans, not the marble statues we associate with
the Founders...The letters are priceless historic artifacts, not
only for what they say about these two people, and about the
world-changing events in which they played a role, but also because
of the way they transport us back to the time...The letters are
much more than rich veins to be mined with an historian's pickaxe.
They are fun reading, bubbling with the charm, intelligence and
passion of these two, who were both compelling and entertaining
writers.--Edward Achorn"Providence Journal" (03/04/2008)
Because John Adams's work as a critical player in the War of
Independence frequently took him away from home, his correspondence
with Abigail (some 1,160 letters between them have survived)
provides a wonderfully vivid account of the momentous era they
lived through, underscoring the chaotic, often improvisatory
circumstances that attended the birth of the fledgling nation and
the hardships of daily life--from smallpox to wartime shortages--in
that "Age of Tryal."--Michiko Kakutani"New York Times"
(12/11/2007)
Both Abigail and John Adams decried long separations during their
marriage (while acknowledging them as necessary for the greater
public good), but the unintended legacy of such trials were the
thoughtful, loving, and literate letters exchanged by the couple
that open a window on the birth and early years of our republic ...
This is a treasure, for general readers and scholars
alike.--Michele Leber"Booklist" (09/15/2007)
John and Abigail Adams wrote to each other throughout separations
caused by war and presidential duties. This comprehensive
collection of their letters shows them to be affectionate, playful
at times, concerned about both national and personal matters, and
literate...The letters provide a unique perspective on people and
events and allow us to appreciate the great sacrifice they made in
service to the country.--Susan Olasky"World" (02/09/2008)
The letters reveal the making of the American nation, in all its
chaos and passion, from the inside...Both John and Abigail's
letters are packed with evocative details that throw the reader
into the epicenter of American revolutionary life. They recount the
developments that led to the Declaration of Independence and the
emergence of opposing political parties, the Federalists and
Republicans. But, equally fascinating, they open a window on to a
private world..."My Dearest Friend" deserves a special place in the
literary canon of the founding fathers, not only for recording the
amazing relationship between John and Abigail, but also because of
the rarity of the survival of such a correspondence...The Adamses'
letters are so enjoyable because they offer a wonderful breadth of
topics, breathlessly jumping between flirtatious teasing, gossip
about friends and family, and philosophical and political
argument.--Andrea Wulf"The Guardian" (12/08/2007)
This new edition of the John and Abigail Adams letters, including
some never before published, refreshes what many observers consider
the paradigmatic correspondence in American history. It also showed
Abigail Adams as a woman of prodigious talents and shrewd insights
on matters small and large.--Robert Birnbaum"The Morning News"
(12/03/2007)
In "My Dearest Friend," I am on page thirty one, and I have not
cried, but something more powerful has happened. I stop with the
book open in my hands, and just think. There's no way to describe.
Certain lines make my entire body have goose bumps in awe of the
beauty, the awareness of Abigail and John. I just sit on the couch,
for maybe ten, twenty minutes, thinking. The world is somewhere
else, far away, when I read this. I am transported to a land over
two centuries old, but these humans, these revolutionaries, had the
ideas that could change the world today. And these ideas were in
normal, everyday letters. I'm astounded even now, and I've known
this for quite some time. This book makes me want to be a
historian. There's no other way to put it. I want to spend the rest
of my life learning about history, writing about history. I want to
be able to read the real letters, to see the real documents...I
would give this book to nearly anyone. It's a love story,
historical fiction, an adventure, almost anything but fantasy.
Though their lives were fantastical. Please read this book. It is
changing my life. Maybe it will change yours.
Hogan and Taylor, editors of the Adams Papers at the Massachusetts
Historical Society, have given history buffs a treat--the most
comprehensive edition of letters between two extremely lively
writers, America's second president and his wife. This edition
contains 289 letters covering a longer period of time than the two
earlier editions of selected letters. Here are trenchant political
exchanges, such as Abigail's famous plea to her husband and the
Continental Congress to "Remember the Ladies," and Adams's less
famous, revealing reply: he noted that while it was well known that
the Revolution had prompted children, slaves and apprentices to
rebel, "your Letter was the first Intimation that another Tribe
more numerous and powerfull than all the rest were grown
discontented. Many of the letters are personal, from coquettish
courtship epistles to Abigail's moving premonition that the baby
she was carrying would be stillborn. The letters shine a light on
such aspects of daily life as illness, Sunday sermons and cuisine.
Ellis's ... foreword explains the rarity of such intimate
correspondence--Martha Washington, for instance, destroyed most of
the letters she and George wrote. Readers will agree that this book
is a treasure.
Ask a Question About this Product More... |