1st Edition

Abigail Adams A Writing Life

By Edith B. Gelles Copyright 1998
    222 Pages 1 Color Illustrations
    by Routledge

    224 Pages
    by Routledge

    In this book, Edith B. Gelles asserts that Abigail Adams' vivid, insightful letters are "the best account that exists from the pre to the post-Revolutionary period in America of a woman's life and world." Adams' spontaneous, witty letters serve dual purposes for the modern reader: it provides an intriguing first hand account of pivotal historical events and it shows how these events from the Boston Tea Party to the War of 1812 entered the private sphere. Included in the book is a chronology, notes and reference section and a selected bibliography. This book will be a must for all scholars of American literature, history and politics seeking to understand this literary figure.

    Acknowledgments Chronology The Eighteenth-Century Letter 1. Introduction: Letters as Literature 2. Remember the Ladies The Confidential Letter 3. Bonds of Friendship: The Correspondence of Abigail Adams and Mercy Otis Warren The Travel Letter 4. The Voyage 5. In the Midst of the World in Solitude 6. At the Court of St. James Interlude The Historic Letter 7. Splendid Misery: Abigail Adams as First Lady 8. End of the Story Notes and References Selected Bibliography Index

    Biography

    Edith B. Gelles is a Senior Scholar at the Institute for Research on Women and Gender at Stanford University and the author of Portia: The World of Abigail Adams, winner of the American Historical Association's Herbert Feis Award.

    "All this Edith Gelles relates with clarity and warmth...this is a perceptive study and a lively incentive to read the correspondence itself." -- Economist
    "Edith Gelles's newly published biography and critique...offers an excellent entry point for anyone whi is interested in Abigail Adams as a writer." -- Biography Spring 2003