Dearest Friend: A Life of Abigail Adams [Paperback]

Lynne Withey (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 2, 2002

This is the life of Abigail Adams, wife of patriot John Adams, who became the most influential woman in Revolutionary America. Rich with excerpts from her personal letters, Dearest Friend captures the public and private sides of this fascinating woman, who was both an advocate of slave emancipation and a burgeoning feminist, urging her husband to "Remember the Ladies" as he framed the laws of their new country.

John and Abigail Adams married for love. While John traveled in America and abroad to help forge a new nation, Abigail remained at home, raising four children, managing their estate, and writing letters to her beloved husband. Chronicling their remarkable fifty-four-year marriage, her blossoming feminism, her battles with loneliness, and her friendships with Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, Dearest Friend paints a portrait of Abigail Adams as an intelligent, resourceful, and outspoken woman.

Editorial Reviews

Review

The Boston Globe As lively, sensible, and forthright as the woman about whom it is written...illuminating.

Pauline Maier The New York Times Book Review Dearest Friend -- the Adamses' term for each other -- is most powerfully the history of a marriage, an "Eleanor and Franklin" for the 18th century with one important difference: Their marriage worked.

Kirkus Reviews Withey has not only brought Abigail to life, she has also added new depth and richness to our understanding of the intricate history of feminist thought.

About the Author

Lynne Withey's books include Voyages of Discovery: Captain James Cook and the Exploration of the Pacific (1987) and Grand Tours and Cook's Tours: A History of Leisure Travel, 1750-1915 (1997). She has taught history at the University of Iowa, Boston University, and the University of California at Berkeley, and is now the associate director of the University of California Press. She lives in San Francisco.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 392 pages
• Publisher: Touchstone (July 2, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 074323443X
• ISBN-13: 978-0743234436
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #107,725 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #21 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( A ) > Adams, John

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An engaging portrait of a remarkable woman, November 3, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Dearest Friend: The Life of Abigail Adams (Hardcover)

First off, cheers to the publisher for re-releasing this biography in light of McCollough's John Adams. But, then a jeer to the same publisher for not bothering to take the time to let a human proof the manuscript. (Hint: computer spell checkers don't find words that are spelled correctly but used incorrectly like "ad" for "and" and "as" for "has"). The number of typos in the author's text (not Abigail's unique spelling)is exasperating in places. Nevertheless, the book is a delightful read about Abigail's life, her love for her husband, her (sometimes overbearing) love for her children and most of all her love for her nascent country. Withey points out the many contradictions in Abigail's life: a woman who advocated improved education for women but was by no means the feminist many have tried to make her out to be; a woman who opposed slavery and saw that it would one day divide the country and yet who grew up in a family that owned two slaves. Having grown up in Braintree and Quincy myself the thing which spoke loudest to me was the deep-rooted Puritanism in Abigail's blood, the self-reliance, the willingness to completely subjugate her own happiness even allowing herself to be separated from her husband for the better part of ten years and the need to try to keep her children on the straight and narrow. Yet, Abigail is much softer here than the shrew portrayed in Nagel's book on John Quincy. You can help but admire her and feel sorry for the many trials she went through.

37 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is a book by a woman about a woman., March 10, 2008

By 

JOHN GODFREY (Milwaukee ,WI USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dearest Friend: The Life of Abigail Adams (Hardcover)

So I was disinclined to read it for a long time. I thought it would be a book of interest for only women. I was completely wrong. I won this book at a book fair years ago. It is not one I would have puchased on my own. I picked it up soon found myself reading it avidly. It is Abigail Adams' complete life story. A faithful, constant, patriotic wife for the cranky but brillant John Adams. Every bit her husband's intellectual equal, she was his most important advisor throughout his public life. She kept the family together during his long absences first in Philadelphia during the revolution & later in Europe. During these periods apart, once, over seven years, she raised the family, saw to the education of their children (Harvard for the boys) & ran the family finances quite well. All the time she was corresponding with John & we have many of her letters to him & others. After the war she spent several years with him in Europe. Although she was always loathe to leave her beloved New England, she knew she had to be with her husband to understand what he was trying to do, that is helping to build a nation. Her observations on the years spent in Paris & London are valuable social history. As mush as she was a revolutionary during the war, in her later years she turned into an uncompromising reactionary, unwilling to change & adapt to the evolution that she had fought to create. She became what she had fought against. Most of his career John Adams was unpopular & underappreiciated. This fact bothered Abigail all her life, more that it did John. How could anyone compete with George Washington, even if you were smarter than him? Eventually in her old age she mellowed. This was in part due to the sucessful career of her one of her sons John Quincy. She could be described as a earily feminist for sure. But for all her self taught political savvy, family always came first. Yes, there were Founding Mothers & she was. I fear very few people have read this book or will ever read this review. However, for the first person who reads it & gives me a positive vote I will send my copy, free, if you will read it, p&h included.

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Woman Behind the Man, August 21, 2002

By 

rockgeek56 "rockgeek56" (Wantagh, NY United States) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Dearest Friend: A Life of Abigail Adams (Paperback)

While in college I took an American History class because I wanted to, not because I had to. In the process of writing a paper on the role of women in the American Revolution, I found so many references to Abigail Adams, that I knew at some point in the future I would have to read her biography. Well, I just completed this book and I can't recommend it more highly!

With so many books regarding the Founding Fathers being touted at the bookstores recently, it's wonderful to read the story of one of the Women behind one of the Men. Though not traditionally educated Abigail's knowledge of politics, curiousity about everything, and affection for family and friends is well-documented through excerpts from her numerous letters. The sacrifices both she and her husband made for the fledgling America are a sober reminder of the courage and bravery required of our ancestors.

In a time when woman were subservient to men, she stood head and shoulders above other members of her gender. Her husband wisely depended on her counsel, love and care.

This is a wonderful biography that takes the reader back in time and place so vividly as to feel present at the birth of a nation and a voyeur into the unfolding political career of the second President of the United States and the woman who loved him.

I, too, wish American History had been presented this richly in my grammar and high school years.

After reading this book I would suggest reading "John Adams" by David McCullough, though quite lengthy, it is worthwhile to read the other half of the "conversation".