Word: abigail
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...John Adams that emerges from The Book of Abigail and John contradicts the staid, dignified New England face he presented to the public. Deeply concerned with the welfare of his family, unsure whether his sacrifices are appreciated by his compatriots at home, the complex Adams unburdens himself to his "Portia." His romantic feelings never fade. Trapped in Boston while recovering from a smallpox innoculation, he complains to Abigail...
...woman he addresses is a remarkable and unique person: Abigail Smith Adams. Her strength pervades the letters--she is left to raise four children, manage a farm, deal with tenants, cope with inflation and keep her husband informed of military and political affairs. She handles these challenges capably. The parson's daughter is also not afraid to advise her husband on politics, constantly drawing on the Classics or English poetry to underscore her points. In one letter she attacks the institution of slavery and then enjoins her husband to "remember the Ladies" when drawing up plans for the new government...
Their marriage is subject to constant strain. John Adams feels bound to comply with the orders of the new government, even though it means putting thousands of miles between him and his beloved Abigail. She complains he doesn't write enough, presses him to return and often seems close to despair. Months pass before letters cross the Atlantic: some are lost and some are destroyed. And there is her husband's constant fear that one will fall into the hands of the British and be used as propaganda, which leads him to caution her to censor what she writes...
...Book of Abigail and John offers an unusual historical perspective: both Adams are canny observers of the society around them. They comment to each other on the events and characters of Revolutionary America. Whether it is Abigail discussing the post-Yorktown morale in Massachusetts, or John recounting the lackadaisical diplomatic adminstration of Franklin in Paris, little misses their critical eyes. Adams is anxious to share his thoughts on politics with his wife. In a passage of overblown prose (often quoted with relish by Harvard colonial historian Bernard Bailyn), Adams salutes the Declaration of Independence...
...awkward passages in The Book of Abigail and John. Butterfield, Friedlander and Kline, with a few exceptions--such as when they excuse an outlandish lie Adams makes to his wife as "an exaggeration made under momentary stress"--edit and introduce the 226 letters with good sense, restoring the parts that Charles Francis Adams bowdlerized in the 19th century, and leaving the grammar and spelling of the originals uncorrected...