Adams Family Correspondence April 1778 September 1780

A collection of letters exchanged by members of the Adams family through three full generations and part of a fourth beginning with the courtship of John Adams and Abigail Smith and ending with the death of Abigail Brooks Adams, wife of the first Charles Francis Adams, United States minister to London during the American Civil War.

The letters in these volumes, written from both sides of the Atlantic, addressed by and to members of the Adams family, chronicle nearly five years of its history, They were years in which John Adams in successive missions to Europe, accompanied first by one son, then by two, initiated what would be a continuing role for Adamses in three generadons: representing their country and advancing its interests in the capitals of Europe. John Adams, a troubled but stouthearted Yankee lawyer on the vast new scene of Europe, though always circumspect in familial correspondence in referring to public matters, provides, in his revealing letters about his own health and state of mind, sufficient insight into the difficult relations among the American commissioners, the designs of America's allies, and the diplomatic failures and triumphs he experienced in Paris and the Netherlands to permit some reevaluations of purposes and tactics. With these high matters are mingled the rigors and rewards of travel, concern with his sons' education, books for their reading, Dutch cloth and ribbons for his wife. Whether Mrs. Adams' letters relate to the upbringing of children, the problems of wartime taxes and inflation, the inferior roles assigned to American women, or her wide historical reading, they bear the marks of distinction of mind and mastery of language that make them timeless. If the letters of these two are central, those written by others are hardly less interesting, relating as they do to the concerns of young John Quincy at school in Levden and his observations on his way to and during his stay in St. Petersburg at age fourteen: to the adventure-filled return voyage of Charles, aged eleven, to America; to the interests of the younger Abigail maturing in Braintree; to the reactions of sturdy patriots to the tides and rumors of war.

A collection of letters exchanged by members of the Adams family through three full generations and part of a fourth beginning with the courtship of John Adams and Abigail Smith and ending with the death of Abigail Brooks Adams, wife of the first Charles Francis Adams, United States minister to London during the American Civil War.

A collection of letters exchanged by members of the Adams family through three full generations and part of a fourth beginning with the courtship of John Adams and Abigail Smith and ending with the death of Abigail Brooks Adams, wife of the first Charles Francis Adams, United States minister to London during the American Civil War.

The correspondence of a Founding Father and his brilliant wife The Letters of John and Abigail Adams provides an insightful record of American life before, during, and after the Revolution; the letters also reveal the intellectually and emotionally fulfilling relationship between John and Abigail that lasted fifty-four years and withstood historical upheavals, long periods apart, and personal tragedies. Covering key moments in American history - the Continental Congress, the drafting of the Declaration of Independence, the Revolutionary War, and John Adams's diplomatic missions to Europe - the letters reveal the concerns of a couple living during a period of explosive change, from smallpox and British warships to raising children, paying taxes, the state of women, and the emerging concepts of American democracy. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introdutions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.