First published 2010
Joseph J. Ellis opens with an unlikely beginning. John Adams, twenty-four, meets fifteen-year-old Abigail Smith. Neither impresses the other. Yet five years later they marry, launching a partnership that will span the American Revolution and the early republic. John's political ambitions constantly pull him away. He travels to Philadelphia to champion independence, leaving Abigail and their children in war-torn Massachusetts. Later he serves as minister to France alongside Benjamin Franklin while his family remains an ocean away. The separations strain their marriage to its limits. Abigail battles loneliness. The children suffer without their father. When John becomes the nation's first vice president, Abigail's poor health keeps them apart again. As president, John finally convinces her to join him, first in Philadelphia, then in the swampy new capital of Washington. He inherits a fractured country from George Washington and desperately needs his closest advisor. Ellis draws on over twelve hundred preserved letters between the couple to reveal how their personal struggles mirror the birth pangs of America itself.
Genres: biography, historical-fiction, politics, american-history
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, found-family
Setting: Massachusetts, Philadelphia, Washington D.C.
Period: 18th-century, american-revolution, early-republic
299 pages · Hardcover · Knopf