Adams Family Correspondence, Volumes 5 and 6, October 1782 - December 1785

Adams Family

Edited by Richard Alan Ryerson

Edited by Joanna Revelas

Edited by Celeste Walker

Edited by Gregg L. Lint

Edited by Humphrey Costello

  • Winner of the 1995 J. Franklin Jameson Prize in Editorial Achievement of the American Historical Association

Abigail Adams, as these volumes suggest, was the nation's 'First Lady,' not only of her husband's ill-starred presidency, but of this epoch of American history… She was, in sum, one of the superb letter writers in our history; her smooth-flowing prose sparkles, revealing repeatedly the high spirits, the wit, the high intelligence of this remarkable woman.
   --Jacoh F. Cooke, Pennsylvania History

Taken together, the four volumes now in print are as full a domestic correspondence as now exists for eightecnth-century America, and the wisdom of bringing them out as a separate series becomes-apparent. The value of the correspondence lies accordingly in the Opportunity it offers for probing the character of human relations, especially domestic relations. (luring the period…[The editors] supply us with the information or understanding the tone as well as the content of the letters And the index to the volumes volumes is a work of art in itself.
   --Edmund S. Morgan, American Historical Review

It is of course a familiar tribute to this enterprise to say that it disinters John Adams the man and gives film a place in history at least equal to that o any other Founding Father. In tact by publishing the family letters as a distinct series the editors enhance still more the vigorous personalities. human reactions, and often vehement opinions of their subjects.
   --Esmond Wright, William and Mary Quarterly

Here even the Revolution is in the background. subordinate to the immediate business of life. I here are letters among John and his relatives; there are also many back and forth between Abigail and her cousins,But the heart of this collection-and heart is the only word for it--is the long interchange between John and Abigail.
   --Perry Miller, Christian Science Janitor

Superbly edited. beautifully printed and magnificently written, in large part by John and Abigail Adams themselves this saga 0f private lives in times of great public peril is as moving o moving and dramatic as anything that has been put between covers in recent years.
   --Margaret L. Colt, Saturday Review

  • Cover: Adams Family Correspondence, Volumes 5 and 6, October 1782 - December 1785