Books in Brief: Dearest Friend

Dearest Friend: A Life of Abigail Adams, by Lynne Withey (The Free Press/ Macmillan, 368 pp., $17.95). “I long to hear you have declared an Independancy—and by the way in the new Code of Laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make I desire you would Remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favourable to them than your ancestors,” wrote Abigail Adams to her husband in March 1776. This fragment of one of her most quoted letters gives a glimpse of the concerns and spirit that made Abigail Adams such a remarkable woman. Even if John Adams had not been elected second President of the United States, Abigail Adams’s copious correspondence, with its active commentary on the turbulent politics of the American Revolution and its chronicle of daily life in the nascent nation, would still be of historical significance. These letters are the source for much of Lynne Withey’s new biography, which provides a good, if at times historically slight, introduction to the life of our second First Lady. Abigail Adams’s own animated, feisty prose constitutes the charm and warmth of this biography; her words are more vibrant and engaging than the author’s, so one hungers for more of the letters and less of the simple narrative which connects. And one wants more historical anchoring; pages go by without a specific reference to a date, so that a reader not familiar with the chronology— which this gentle book cannot assume—is at a loss for what happened when. Yet a great mark in the book’s favor is that it introduces one to the world of the Adamses, and gives a straightforward, unromanticized picture of the circumstances and personalities that helped bring our country into being.

EG

About the Author

Elizabeth Grossman

Featured Tags

Dearest Friend: A Life of Abigail Adams, by Lynne Withey (The Free Press/ Macmillan, 368 pp., $17.95). “I long to hear you have declared an Independancy—and by the way in the new Code of Laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make I desire you would Remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favourable to them than your ancestors,” wrote Abigail Adams to her husband in March 1776. This fragment of one of her most quoted letters gives a glimpse of the concerns and spirit that made Abigail Adams such a remarkable woman. Even if John Adams had not been elected second President of the United States, Abigail Adams’s copious correspondence, with its active commentary on the turbulent politics of the American Revolution and its chronicle of daily life in the nascent nation, would still be of historical significance. These letters are the source for much of Lynne Withey’s new biography, which provides a good, if at times historically slight, introduction to the life of our second First Lady. Abigail Adams’s own animated, feisty prose constitutes the charm and warmth of this biography; her words are more vibrant and engaging than the author’s, so one hungers for more of the letters and less of the simple narrative which connects. And one wants more historical anchoring; pages go by without a specific reference to a date, so that a reader not familiar with the chronology— which this gentle book cannot assume—is at a loss for what happened when. Yet a great mark in the book’s favor is that it introduces one to the world of the Adamses, and gives a straightforward, unromanticized picture of the circumstances and personalities that helped bring our country into being.