The Education of Henry Adams: A Centennial Version (Massachusetts Historical Society) [Hardcover]

Henry Adams (Author)

Book Description

Series: Massachusetts Historical Society | Publication Date: February 9, 2007

Both a winner of the Pulitzer Prize and at the head of the Modern Library's list of the one hundred best English-language nonfiction books of the twentieth century, The Education of Henry Adams has long been revered as a great work of literature. Written by Adams in the third person, the book became known for founding a new genre best described as "an education" -- an account not of life, but of learning. A tireless historian, politician, and traveler, Adams was from first to last a dedicated learner capable of great originality. In this text, Adams uses his background information (such as place of birth, voyage destinations, and alma mater) but little else, placing his protagonist in front of life's various pitfalls with the object of providing those stepping out into the world with the tools they need to handle themselves in the face of adversity. By inventing his own fictional missteps, Adams allows readers to educate themselves on how to approach life's curveballs.

Although The Education of Henry Adams has long been considered a classic, until now the only editions available were those from 1907 and 1918. The former, which appeared in Adams's lifetime, was a private printing of only one hundred copies, containing hundreds of printer's errors and editorial inconsistencies. The latter, printed by the Massachusetts Historical Society and Houghton Mifflin Company after Adams's death in March of 1918, amounted to a wholesale modernization of Adams's work, leaving telling defects, including stylistic inconsistencies and incomplete sentences. With The Education of Henry Adams: A Centennial Version, editors Edward Chalfant and Conrad Edick Wright have at long last returned this celebrated book to the author's vision. Combining close attention to the private printing's typesetting and editorial shortcomings with valuable insights into the history of the book and Adams's reasons for writing it, they have also inserted marginal corrections by Adams in his working copies of the 1907 printing. With an introductory note, an invitation to readers, and a postscript, they have both traced the text's own story and offered a compelling interpretation of the author's motives.

Editorial Reviews

Review

The greatest memoir in American history, I think, is The Education of Henry Adams: An Autobiogrpahy. He not only sustains the ironic perspective on himself but on the entire 19th century.

(Joseph J. Ellis in the New York Times )

About the Author

Edward Chalfant is a Professor of English Emeritus at Hofstra University and the author of a trilogy on the life of Henry Adams: Both Sides of the Ocean, Better in Darkness, and Improvement of the World. Conrad Edick Wright is the Ford Editor of Publications at the Massachusetts Historical Society, where he has been on staff since 1985. He is the author or coauthor of three books, the editor or coeditor of seven collections of essays, and the project director for Sibley's Harvard Graduates and Colonial Collegians: Biographies of Those Who Attended American Colleges before the War for Independence.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Hardcover: 542 pages
• Publisher: Massachusetts Historical Society; 1st THUS edition (February 9, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0934909911
• ISBN-13: 978-0934909914
• Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 7.4 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,256,463 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful Book, Miserable Format, Worthless Notes, November 21, 2010

By 

Don G. Evans (Randallstown, MD USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Education of Henry Adams: A Centennial Version (Paperback)

This review has nothing to do with the book itself, which is a classic of American letters and worthy of its many editions. I bought this edition since it seemed to be the "definitive" one. Well, I won't argue with that as far as the text goes. The editors seem to have tracked down every scrap of the text and correlated them with extensive notes, more than 40 pages of them, detailing what variation came from where, etc. While this perhaps has merit as an excercise for the obsessive compulsive, the real pity is that for much less labor we might have expected some reasonable helps to understanding the text. Instead, we get virtually no notes or commentary, and a pathetic list of names mentioned organized under each chapter (not in a general index, which would have been more useful), with such illuminating descriptions as "German philosopher" or "American astronomer" ...duh!! This list adds nothing to understanding the text or illuminating Adams' opinions of the many people mentioned, let alone providing some context for Adams' experiences and opinions for the benefit of people living in the first decade of the twenty-first century rather than that of the twentieth. But the worst offense is the sheer, lumbering, tree murdering waste of this edition. The text is double spaced, but the type is no larger than an ordinary book, so no help for the visually impaired. Outside of making this an edition for someone who wants to fill its pages with their own notes and comments, this makes the book the size and weight of a telephone book. Save a tree and yourself some frustration and opt for the Modern Library or Library of America editions. While not without drawbacks themselves, they provide no worse a text and in formats that will not tax your bookshelf space.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Top of the list for a reason, October 19, 2009

By 

W. Jamison "William S. Jamison" (Eagle River, Ak United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Education of Henry Adams: A Centennial Version (Paperback)

This book has been at the top of many lists of books and frequently made reference to in other great books that are also on great book lists. Finally, my book group decided to read it and I had an excuse. It turns out the book is much more of an effort than we thought but well worth it none the less. I like to use these reviews as a convenient place to keep my notes on the book and usually that would include great quotes. But with this book the number of keepers would be almost as large as the book itself. What a wry wit HA must have had! He was also sly to present himself as constantly failing in finding education except where it was a surprise and stressing the Harvard type as he does in the chapter by that name. It sets the character type that he plays as his and represents that as the ideal Harvard man but in some of the wriest terms. It is hilarious. This ideal type turns out to be a main focus of the autobiography. But very interesting is the way this is written from the point of view of the educated older man looking back and accounting for a life that still reflects the perspective of the child, adolescent, and adult, which was full of meetings with folks like the British Earl Russell and J.S. Mill, Americans like Secretary Seward, not to mention his own father and the Presidents - such that he assumed as a child that everyone would eventually be president, Italians like Garibaldi, such a life - jam packed with the important folks of the day. If HA had taken the tack of stressing the importance of his endeavors and experiences he would have come across as an unabashed egotist. But by decrying his abilities, education, and experience, the book becomes endearing and heartwarming. A joy to read. But some of the great quotes I noted were these: p. 55 "The chief wonder of education is that it does not ruin everybody concerned in it, the teachers and the taught." On Harvard but education in general? "...he, like the rest of mankind that accepted a material universe, remained always an insect or something much lower -- a man." P. 63 and p. 78 "The German government did not encourage reasoning." p. 192 "Everyone had heard of Mrs. Grote as "the origin of the word grotesque.". or p. 193 "The young American who should adopt English thought was lost. From the facts, the conclusion was correct, yet, as usual, the conclusion was wrong." Many more are worth noting but passed while I was nowhere near a computer.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Self-Deprecation To The Extreme, March 10, 2011

By 

Franklin the Mouse (Gorham, ME USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Education of Henry Adams: A Centennial Version (Paperback)

The late Mr. Adams' most famous work was at times interesting and other times boring beyond measure. The author takes the unique approach of addressing himself in the third person throughout the memoir. The style of the mid-1800s had more flourish and was less succinct than most of today's writing. He gives a clear view of what life was like during his times. His attitudes about such luminaries as Presidents Lincoln, Grant and Theodore Roosevelt show that the public's jaundiced view about politics and politicians hasn't changed one iota since this country's founding. It is also notable that he mentions many famous, powerful people of his time that, in today's light, have faded into obscurity. Mr. Adams, a wise proponent of Darwin's evolution theory, also had attitudes about Jews, women and stereotypes of other countries that, in today's world, are rightly viewed as just plain silly. This self-deprecating man spent his life constantly searching for knowledge and illumination, but his incessant whiny tone tried my patience. It's a great piece of historical literature, but only readable for people that are interested in such material.