The primary points of the letters from Abigail Adams to her husband John reveal that, in all likelihood, the country elected the wrong half of this letter-writing duo as the country’s second President. We are thankful for their contributions and encourage you to make your own. Akers wrote in 1980 that the book had been popular and served as the main way that readers knew who Adams was until the Adams Papers were 'opened'.These notes were contributed by members of the GradeSaver community. It was an early publication of content by a first lady. The Christian Examiner and General Review also published a review praising Adams and the collection, as did The Christian Review, which also considered Charles Francis Adams's introduction 'very interesting'. They concluded their review by saying the book had left them unsatisfied because they wanted more similar letters and requested another edition be published.

The North American Review described the first volume of letters as 'charming specimens of epistolary composition' but felt their greatest value was as a work expressing Adams' unedited opinion on her life. As a result of the book's success, a book of Letters of John Adams, addressed to his Wife as published the following year. A second edition was published in 1840, also by Liddle and Brown.

Īn introduction to the book was written by Charles, who also served as the book's editor. It was his hope that they would 'furnish an exact transcription of the feelings of the writer' and be 'susceptible of no misconception.' Accordingly, Charles began editing volumes from his family's papers. To respond to this, he decided to publish letters that had, to that point, remained private. Habert, suffered from 'serious historical distortion'. Charles Francis Adams, Abigail's grandson, felt that the earlier generations of his family had, according to Earl N. Letters and diaries, private content, were carefully distanced from what would be published. The Adams family included many avid writers, who wrote content they intended to remain private and content for the public. The first letter was written when Adams was seventeen years old. Other letters selected were addressed people including her son, John Quincy, and Adams' sisters and nieces living in New England. Two of them date to before the couple were married.

A majority of them were written to Adams' husband, John. The book includes letters written from 1761 to 1814. Little and James Brown and edited by Charles Francis Adams Sr. Adams, the Wife of John Adams is an 1840 book that contains selected correspondence of Abigail Adams, the second first lady of the United States.

The letters of john and abigail adams