LIFE AND WORK OF ABIGAIL ADAMS BASED ON TWO BIOGRAPHY BOOKS: "ABIGAIL ADAMS - WITNESS TO REVOLUTION" AND "MY DEAREST FRIEND".
Abigail Adams was one of the most intriguing historical figures in American history - the wife of John Adams, the second President of the United States, she was witness to the founding of the country itself, as well as the beginnings of its government. Despite being a woman in a new country in the 18th century, she held a remarkable amount of political power, as well as an incredible influence on her husband, John Adams. She is most well known for her correspondence with him during the Continental Congress - their debates on politics and government remain a fantastic eyewitness account of the birth of America. Two biographical books detail her life and her correspondence with her husband John Adams - Abigail Adams: Witness to a Revolution by Natalie Bober and My Dearest Friend by Margaret Hogan and James Taylor, based mainly on the letters John and Abigail Adams wrote to each other. In this essay, the two books are compared based on their overall approach to detailing the life of Abigail Adams, and her correspondence with John.
In Bober's book, the life of Abigail Adams in whole is provided - tales of her childhood, her relationships, and the full context of the letters are interspersed with quotes and passages from the letters themselves. Compared to Hogan and Taylor's book, the story is much more tightly focused on Bober's perspective of Adams' life, as opposed to laying the facts bare and leaving it to the audience. The book begins with her childhood and her relationship with her father - this is mostly done to showcase Abigail's fascination with reading and her desire to learn. "Their father did encourage their love of books, and taught them to read and write"1. This first chapter demonstrates the willingness of the book to look over the entirety of Abigail's life, and not just her life while married to John Adams; as a child, she learned the concepts of kindness and feminism that would carry over into her politics and her relationship with John.
Hogan and Taylor take a much different approach to the letters in My Dearest Friend than in Bober's work - very little contextual evidence is provided, instead showing the letters in full. This provides the book with a clear-cut snapshot of the conversation that took place between them, with very little editorializing. There is little attempt to place the letters into a situation or a context; the letters simply exist, in order to show the audience exactly what it was like to see a country being formed. Before each letter, a short page of context is provided in italics, setting up the scene for the letter in full which follows. This is the means by which the reader is allowed to learn about what the Adamses are discussing.
The initial context of both books is important to understand when entering the world of 18th-century America through either lens. Bober, in her book, prefaces the biographical portion of the text with a chronology, which runs down an overall timeline of the letters and the book itself. This timeline runs from Feburary 8, 1797 - the election of John Adams to the presidency - to October 28, 1818 - the death of Abigail Adams2. This provides the reader with an initial sense of continuity, as well as a reference guide with which to follow the narrative of the letters. The snapshot of the lifetime of Abigail Adams offers a broad view that supplies the major details, before the book itself enters into the intricacies of her life. Following that, there is even a family tree of the Quincy-Smith Family, as well as the John Adams Family, in order to further illustrate the importance of family in their letters to each other. Understanding their relationship in the broader context of the overall family helps somewhat, though it is not a necessary component to comprehending the text.
In Hogan and Taylor's text, after the prerequisite foreword and introduction, the book itself merely begins. There is no real contextualization besides what is provided in the book - the book itself is truly a simple portrayal of the letters John Adams and Abigail Adams wrote to each other during this time. While the tables and timelines were helpful in Hober's text, they were much less necessary there than in here - all the contextualization comes from Hober's prose, whereas this kind of rote, visual representation of their journey could have come in handy in Hogan and Taylor's work.
In both books, we learn more and more about Abigail Adams' life and relationship with John Adams. In addition to being his wife, Abigail was many other things to John: a political advisor, a confidante, the manager of his farm and, most importantly, his 'dearest friend.' In these books, it is quite obvious how well-matched they are; they manage spirited debates on almost every subject, from the conditions and opinions of the places and people John Adams encountered to the nature of the Continental Congress. All the time, however, John refers to Abigail as "Miss Adorable," and Abigail refers to John as "My Dearest Friend," two of many pet names they would share over the course of their correspondence. Over the 1,100 or so letters that the Adamses' wrote to each other, the most important and enjoyable ones are provided in Hogan and Taylor's work in full.
Both books also demonstrate Abigail Adams' strong sense of feminism. According to Abigail, educated women "were not a threat, 'since where there is most Learning, Sence, and knowledge there is always observed to be the most modesty and Rectitude of manners'"3. John also agreed, but felt that she should be spared some of the more intricate matters of politics - "I must not write a Word to you about Politicks, because you are a Woman"4. Abigail Adams was set on proving women's intellectual worth, while at the same time despising women who made no effort to "improve their minds"5. She placed a great emphasis on intellectualism and learning, concepts she felt were important to the human condition. In this way, she was a very headstrong women, a trait that both books adequately measure.
One of the biggest benefits to Hogan and Taylor's work is just how well it humanizes these two political figures - by giving the reader the personal accounts of these two people, they are allowed to learn about the man behind the presidency, and the woman behind that man. John Adams is portrayed as a headstrong, but quietly intelligent figure, while Abigail Adams demonstrates a strength of character and a wisdom that belies her years and education. This is made especially interesting, considering the opportunities for education that were afforded women at the time.
Abigail also proved to be a calming force during John's extended stay in France; even while on a ship, John lamented the time away from Abigail, though he enjoyed France. Even their letters were either destroyed to avoid interception by the British, or were simply lost in the international transit. Bober's work helps to demonstrate just how isolated that section of their lives was for each other - "He went on to tell her that the richness, magnificence, and splendor of the buildings, gardens, art, architecture, and music of Paris were beyond description. But he would gladly trade it all for the company of his dearest friend"9. In this way, Bober's prose helps to highlight the story of the Adamses in a more conventional narrative, as it is easier to understand at face value exactly what is going on. While it is filtered through the perspective of the author, it allows for a romanticism and attention to detail that is not as present in Hogan and Taylor's documentarian account of the letters.
There are unique advantages to both approaches to the letters of John and Abigail Adams. In the case of Bober, the stylized, antiquated language often employed by the Adamses can be hard to follow for some; merely taking the important quotes and passages and interpreting the rest can be advantageous for a light reader who simply wishes to know the facts and conversations that took place, all the while placing it in the context of a growing nation.
However, Hogan and Taylor's work, in preserving as much of the letters as possible and merely doing some contextualizing to form it into a coherent narrative, allows the reader to hear much more from the Adamses themselves. This permits a more personal connection with the couple, and therefore hazards a glimpse into their pure adoration for each other, and their personal relationship. Reading the letters John and Abigail sent back and forth to each other is a much more potent reminder of their happy, amicable and interesting marriage than Bober's description of the same events. It offers a more direct link and greater access to the minds of these two historical figures, with a minimum of interpretation. While this may make it less accessible to a modern audience, it is a more accurate portrayal of their real thoughts and feelings.
In conclusion, the two books describing the lives of Abigail Adams and John Adams, especially their correspondence, provide two unique and interesting portrayals of the events of the world at that time. Bober's text, in contextualizing the events that took place, as well as the letters, provides a more clear-cut, guided narrative that makes the events and personalities of the two easier to understand. Hogan and Taylor, on the other hand, allow the Adamses' correspondence to speak for itself, with the reader peeking in on the home life of the nation's first true 'power couple.' The two being dear friends as well as husband and wife, it provides intriguing information as to the politics of the world, as well as what life is like for a couple at the heart of international politics and power.
Works Cited
Adams, John, Margaret A. Hogan, and C. James Taylor. My dearest friend: letters of Abigail and John Adams. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2007.
Bober, Natalie. Abigail Adams: witness to a revolution. New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 1995.
