Dearest Friend: The Life of Abigail Adams | Lynne Withey | This is a book by a woman about a...

Dearest Friend: The Life of Abigail Adams | Lynne Withey | why is this out of print?

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Dearest Friend: Th...

	Dearest Friend: The Life of Abigail Adams Lynne Withey, 2001 - 384 pages average customer review:based on 14 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

"Dearest Friend" is the biography of Abigail Adams, the unschooled minister's daughter who became the most influential woman in Revolutionary America. Rich with excerpts from her incomparable letters and alive with the ferment of a new nation, "Dearest Friend" captures both the public and the private sides of this fascinating woman. She was a keen observer of the politics of her time and fully grasped the Revolution's implications for women and slaves. She was an advocate of black emancipation and urged her husband to "Remember the Ladies" as he framed the laws of their new country. John and Abigail Adams married for love, and their passion for each other endured for the fifty-four years of their marriage. They lived apart for more than a decade while John traveled in America and abroad to help begin a new country. Abigail remained at home for most of that time, writing letters to her "Dearest Friend," raising four children, managing a farm and the family finances, and keeping John informed of the political mood at home. This book chronicles their remarkable marriage, her blossoming feminism, her battles with the loneliness of separation, and her friendships with Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and other giants of her time. Intelligent, resourceful, and outspoken, Abigail Adams lived an uncommon life for a woman of her time. First published in 1981, "Dearest Friend" brings her legacy to our century.

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This is a book by a woman about a woman.

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.

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why is this out of print?

My book club read this several years ago. We went on the read John Adams, 1776, B. Franklin, etc. DEAREST FRIEND was the best of them all. I was as engaged and interested on the last page as I was on the first.
If you are enjoying the HBO John Adams read this book next.

Easy to read biography

I wanted to learn more about Abigail after seeing the John Adams series. She's also an ancestor and I wanted a book that was easy to read and interesting. I read this book in two days because it was all that I wanted and more. I felt like the author had somehow found out about Nabby's true feelings and personality and shared it with me in the pages of this book.

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Dearest Friend

I am very happy to have read "Dearest Friend". It makes me sad that this kind of wisdom, courage, and selflessness seems to be lacking in our leaders today. I wish I had 1/4 of the courage Mr. and Mrs. Adams had. I am ashamed of my own lack of conviction and courage.
Read this book and "John Adams" if you need to be inspired to serve your country and learn how to love unconditionally.

Somewhat disappointing

This is a somewhat disappointing book about a fascinating woman during a fascinating period of our history. The book was highly recommended to a friend of a member of my book club, but the women in my club agreed that the author failed to make Abigail Adams "come alive." The writing was tedious, especially in the first half. I read "The Summer of 1787" just before this, and "Dearest Friend" pales by comparison, especially in the richness of the story telling. Nonetheless, the book contains history I didn't know or had forgotten, and I'm glad I read it.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3

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