Description
Book SynopsisWith the summer of 1784, most of the family reunited to spend nearly a year together in Europe. These volumes document John Adams's diplomatic triumphs, his wife and daughter's participation in the cosmopolitan scenes of Paris and London, and his son John Quincy's travels in Europe and America.
Trade ReviewSuperbly edited, beautifully printed and magnificently written, in large part by John and Abigail Adams themselves, this saga of private lives in times of great public peril is as moving and dramatic as anything that has been put between covers in recent years. -- Margaret L. Colt * Saturday Review *
Here even the Revolution is in the background, subordinate to the immediate business of life. There are letters among John and his relatives; there are also many back and forth between Abigail and her cousins. But the heart of this collection—and heart is the only word for it—is the long interchange between John and Abigail. -- Perry Miller * Christian Science Monitor *
Taken together, the four volumes now in print are as full a domestic correspondence as now exists for eighteenth-century America, and the wisdom of bringing them out as a separate series becomes apparent. The value of the correspondence lies accordingly in the opportunity it offers for probing the character of human relations, especially domestic relations during the period… [The editors] supply us with the information for understanding the tone as well as the content of the letters. And the index to the volumes is a work of art in itself. -- Edmund S. Morgan * American Historical Review *
Abigail Adams, as these volumes suggest, was the nation’s ‘First Lady,’ not only of her husband’s ill-starred presidency, but of this epoch of American history… She was, in sum, one of the superb letter writers in our history; her smooth-flowing prose sparkles, revealing repeatedly the high spirits, the wit, the high intelligence of this remarkable woman. -- Jacob F. Cooke * Pennsylvania History *
It is of course a familiar tribute to this enterprise to say that it disinters John Adams the man and gives him a place in history at least equal to that of any other Founding Father. In fact by publishing the family letters as a distinct series the editors enhance still more the vigorous personalities, human reactions, and often vehement opinions of their subjects. -- Esmond Wright * William and Mary Quarterly *
Table of ContentsDescriptive List of Illustrations Family Correspondence, December 1784-December 1785 Appendix: List of Omitted Documents Chronology Index
