My Dearest Friend: Letters of Abigail and John Adams »

Margaret A. Hogan is Managing Editor of the Adams Papers at the Massachusetts Historical Society.

C. James Taylor is Editor in Chief of the Adams Papers at the Massachusetts Historical Society.

In 1762, John Adams penned a flirtatious note to "Miss Adorable," the 17-year-old Abigail Smith. In 1801, Abigail wrote to wish her husband a safe journey as he headed home to Quincy after serving as president of the nation he helped create. The letters that span these nearly forty years form the most significant correspondence -- and reveal one of the most intriguing and inspiring partnerships -- in American history.

As a pivotal player in the American Revolution and the early republic, John had a front-row seat at critical moments in the creation of the United States, from the drafting of the Declaration of Independence to negotiating peace with Great Britain to serving as the first vice president and second president under the U.S. Constitution. Separated more often than they were together during this founding era, John and Abigail shared their lives through letters that each addressed to "My Dearest Friend," debating ideas and commenting on current events while attending to the concerns of raising their children (including a future president).

Full of keen observations and articulate commentary on world events, these letters are also remarkably intimate. This new collection -- including some letters never before published -- invites readers to experience the founding of a nation and the partnership of two strong individuals, in their own words. This is history at its most authentic and most engaging.

The New York Times - Mary Beth Norton

My Dearest Friend begins with a 1762 courtship letter to the 17-year-old Abigail Smith from the 26-year-old John Adams, and ends (except for an epilogue describing Abigail's death in 1818) with the last surviving letter Abigail wrote John, shortly before he left Washington in 1801 at the end of his largely unsuccessful four-year presidency. The editors point out that this edition is intended to be "read and enjoyed, not necessarily studied," and so they have refrained from extensive annotations, although they occasionally add introductory paragraphs or brief clarifying comments. Nearly every letter is printed in its entirety, without modernized spelling or punctuation. That practice is especially revealing of Abigail's contributions, because, lacking formal education, she wrote with a charming idiosyncratic diction…From John's salutation in the first letter—"Miss Adorable"—to the epilogue and his final signature in a letter to his son John Quincy about Abigail's death—"your Aged and Afflicted Father"—the Adamses' correspondence gives modern Americans an extraordinarily personal view of our country's founding.

Foreword   Joseph J. Ellis     vii
Introduction     xiii
Note to the Reader and Acknowledgments     xix
Courtship and Marriage
"Love Sweetens Life": October 1762-July 1774     3
"The Decisive Day Is Come": August 1774-December 1775     37
Independence
"We Are Determined to Foment a Rebelion": January-October 1776     95
"Kind Providence Has Preserved to Me a Life": January-November 1777     159
The Years Abroad
"I Cast My Thoughts Across the Atlantick": February 1778-April 1782     203
"A Signal Tryumph": July 1782-March 1788     259
A New Government
"The Most Insignificant Office": December 1788-January 1794     315
"This Whirligig of a World": February 1794-December 1795     353
The First Couple
"I Am Heir Apparent": January 1796-January 1797     397
"The Chief Majestracy of a Nation": February 1797-February 1801     435
Epilogue: The Death of Abigail     477
Chronology     483
Index     489