New letters of Abigail Adams, 1788-1801

by Abigail Adams

281 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1973

About the author

Abigail Adams was the wife and closest advisor of John Adams, the second president of the United States, and the mother of John Quincy Adams, the sixth president of the United States. She was a founder of the United States, and was both the first second lady and second first lady of the United States, although such titles were not used at the time. She and Barbara Bush are the only two women in American history who were both married to a U.S. president and the mother of a U.S. president.
Adams's life is one of the most documented of the first ladies; many of the letters she wrote to her husband John Adams while he was in Philadelphia as a delegate in the Continental Congress prior and during the American Revolution document the closeness and versatility of their relationship. John Adams frequently sought the advice of Abigail on many matters, and their letters are filled with intellectual discussions on government and politics. Her letters also serve as eyewitness accounts of the American Revolutionary War home front.
Surveys of historians conducted periodically by the Siena College Research Institute since 1982 have consistently found Adams to rank as one of the three most highly regarded first ladies by historians.

Reviews

[Karen Floyd · Rating 4 out of 5]

Abigail Adams' letters to her sister Mary Cranch provide an inside view of the first Adams Vice presidency and Presidency, and life in that era, from the viewpoint of the ultimate insider. Abigail is freest and frankest in these letters to her closest sister. "My letters to you are first thoughts, without correction." Other letters she edited and made fair copies of. Shes discusses every facet of life from the price of wood for fires and the health and difficulties of family members to state dinners, the debates in Congress and the abuses of the press.
My copy of this book dates from 1947. I don't know whether there was ever an updated edition or not. If there isn't, there should be. The editor, Stewart Mitchell, provides four genealogies and some explanatory notes, but more are needed. That the world is very different now is a vast understatement. There are a few terms that the editor confesses he is guessing at, which might be better understood now after all of the research that has been done in the last sixty-plus years. Perhaps even more letters have been found!
A great difficulty is in grasping just whom Abigail was writing about, in spite of the four genealogies provided. The Adams family had a very large connection of relatives, and many of them shared the same names. Which Abigail or Louisa or Nancy are we talking about here? Or John or Charles? This is made more difficult by the manners of the day, which were much more formal than ours. Once children reached adulthood they were no longer referred to by their first names, but by their honorific. Which Mr. Adams was she referring to? Her husband or one of her three sons, or her brother=in-law or a nephew? The editor provides initials to help us but it is still convoluted.
I highly recommend this book, in spite of the difficulties. I am also very glad that Abigail was never my nurse. She was a firm believer in the efficacy of bleeding, blistering and emetics for all kinds of health problems.