Customer Reviews

Abigail Adams: A Biography

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3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
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At last, a well written, well researched book on one of America's most fascinating ladies, Abigail Adams. Based on carefully interjected original research and letters, this book provides a long needed look at the issues and challenges that faced Abigail Adams. The author portrays her as a woman, very much in love with her husband, very much in love with her country, and very willing to try to balance the needs of both. It is striking to realize how totally independent she became in financial affairs, and in domestic issues. The book reminds you of the challenges of communications and distance. It also makes you aware of the personal sacrifices this family made for the young, emerging nation. The focus of the book is on Abigail, but sufficient information on the political events and political players is provided. An excellent look at a very important person. Don't miss it if you enjoy this period of history and are anxious to understand more about its key players.

Abigail Adams by Phyllis Lee Levin is an excellent companion work for David McCullough's John Adams.

Throughout life Abigail and John were inseparable, best of friends, and each others life. Through circumstances John was away in the service of forming a government and the duties to a new nation, but Abigail was not far from his heart, nor he from hers.

We see an unabated ardor in her for her "Best Friend" in life. Abigail Adams saw and wrote with clarity about the time leading to and after the Revolutionary War, and events following and her humanity. We have a unique perspective of the life and times of this period through her eyes written for posterity through her letters to a variety of people surrounding her life.

Not since Barbara Bush, has a woman been both a wife and mother to a President of the United States, even though she dies before John Quincy is elected. Abigail kept her family close to her heart and was the one to keep the family together and the family homestead viable in John's absence.

This is a well written book, solid in research, flowing prose and good details. This book captures Abigail Adams and shows us her intellegence and her perceptiveness of the events of her times. She wrote letters to Jefferson and had comments about all of the people, albeit caustic or poignant, close to John's work and life.

She loved John and missed him greatly when he was away, her letters attest to that, but when she was at his side both flourished. This book gives us a great insight into how Abigail was as a woman and how she coped with private and public life.

I recommend reading and enjoying this book.

I am an avid fan of biography, and I found this one to be OK. It was certainly informative, but there was little information here that can't be found in David McCullough's book on Abigail's husband John. Abigail is a true heroine of American history, and certainly deserves her own study, I just wish there was a bit more here. In McCullough's book both John and Abigail are so well drawn that it basically leaves this work as a side note. Pick this one up if you just want more on this dynamic, rare political woman who was opinionated and at the same time develop a true partnership with her husband.

Abigail Adams was an amazing woman in so many ways - a conservative feminist (before the word "feminist" was in popular use), and a woman who was unashamedly and passionately in love with her husband when such things weren't generally discussed. Despite her professed lack of education, Abigail's letters were erudite, eloquent and got right to the point in an era where legalese and dense language were the norm. Her understanding and interest in politics was nothing short of astounding (at times I think she had a keener understanding of the issues than her husband did).

Ms. Levin's painstaking research is apparent in every page of this meticulously crafted volume, and she should be very proud of her accomplishment in bringing someone who left us almost 200 years ago to vivid, blooming life.

This is an excellent companion to David McCullough's "John Adams," and should be required reading for anyone, especially any woman, who is interested in American history.

I was introduced to Mrs. Adams by Laura Linney's portrayal in the HBO miniseries. I am happy to report that the show was pretty faithful, and that this lady really was ahead of her time, inspiring in so many ways. A feminist, a patriot, and a wife who demanded her husband be her life's partner. Abigail and John's was a true love story. And what a letter writer she was! With only a minimum of schooling, as was the custom for women of her class at that time, she was a faithful reporter who witnessed the birth of a world power.

A wonderful and indept biography about Abigail Adams. On her own she's a very fascinating person and one of the first pioneers for women's equality hoping the newly formed United States would including women being made equal too. Its was interesting learning more about her. Her childhood, msrriage, children, the years of being alone raising her children and trying to support her family while John was away with meeting with the Congress or sent to France and her experiences being first lady. She was a remarkable lady.

I was more than pleased to find this wonderful historical biography for less than a dollar used! I was assigned a book review o this work an long passed the renewal max for this book, but i did not want to spend the fifteen dollars to buy it. Thank you Amazon.

The author attempts to pull together from principally Abigail's letters and some of her sister's Mary Cranch - and not enough from others - a discerning portrait of this extraordinary woman in American history. In this sense the effort falls short. Abigail without John Adams or vice-versa leaves too much out of the story...an important story that needs to be told. In the process what the reader gets is a limited portal into Abigail life that leaves a big piece of Abigail's life out, that of John Adams and her rising son John Quincy. In contrast, David McCullough's enjoyable, insightful and wonderfully written biography of John Adams weaves closely and seamlessly the life of the late President with that of his beloved Abigail so as to make Phyllis Lee Levin's biography of Abigail Adams seem in comparison as unnecessary surplusage and just a two star read. Although an autodidact, Abigail's Adams genius, political instincts and deep intellect (Jefferson and Adams thought so) fails to shine through in Ms. Lee Levin biography but is captured refreshingly in David McCullough's work through many quotes from Mrs. Adams extensive epistolary. Phyllis Lee Levin's prose is wooden and the book is simply a dry and not artful rephrase of Ms. Adams masterfully written letters; in the process, Ms. Lee Levin obscured and diminished Abigail Adams' pen and intellect. In sum after slogging through the book's 491 pages of text, you are left with no new insights into Abigail's persona and life experiences not already covered by Mr. McCulloch's book. The author may have missed the opportunity to break new ground by discovering other insights from what the extant and extensive diaries and letters of foreign ambassadors and their wives in Louis XVI and George III court set forth on Abigail's appearance, intellect, manners, conduct and deportment. The upshot here is, that given a choice, the reader may be better served by reading David McCullough's "John Adams". It is truly two wonderfully written closely integrated biographies for the price of one.

Its a lot of information that is somewhat boring. Huge book about Abigail Adams and I'm amazed that someone found her interesting enough to write so much about her.