Adams Abigail - Dear Abigail : the Intimate Lives and Revolutionary Ideas of Abigail Adams and Her Two Remarkable Sisters

Diane Jacobs weaves a fascinating fabric from the correspondence of Abigail Smith Adams and her two gifted sisters, Mary and Elizabeth, in Dear Abigail. The first book to trace the ties that bound, thrilled, and sometimes frustrated Americas most beloved Founding Mother to her siblings, Dear Abigail provides insights into the tenuous balance between love, empathy, and occasional envy expressed by the three sisters. A must-read for those interested in the lives of Revolutionary-era women.

N ANCY R UBIN S TUART , author of Defiant Brides: The Untold Story of Two Revolutionary-Era Women and the Radical Men They Married

Wonder what it was like in British-occupied Boston during the Revolutionary War and what women did while their men fought? The revolutionary lives of Abigail Adams and her two sisters come to life in a drama that shows how women, the generals in charge of their families, did so much to make America what it is today. Jacobs transforms these three different stories into one magnificent epic in an astonishing feat of narrative history and biography.

C ARL R OLLYSON , author of American Isis: The Life and Art of Sylvia Plath and Amy Lowell Anew: A Biography

Jacobs elegantly intertwines the personal with the political in Dear Abigail. Her intimate accounts of the lives and families of Abigail Adams and her two intellectual, passionately engaged sisters illuminate the history of colonial Massachusetts, eighteenth-century Enlightenment England, revolutionary Paris and, most importantly, the earliest years of the nascent United States.

S YDNEY L ADENSOHN S TERN , author of Gloria Steinem: Her Passions, Politics, and Mystique

In highlighting sorority, Diane Jacobs opens a new window on the familiar life of Abigail Adams, wife of American Revolution leader and second President of the United States, John. Deftly weaving military and political events of the Revolutionary period with the personal lives of these fascinating sisters, Jacobs has crafted a riveting curl-up-by-the-fireside story.

Publishers Weekly

[Abigails] feminist writing, both to husband and sisters, crackles off the page. Readers will cheer when she is finally goaded out of her enforced provincialism by the need to join her husband in his diplomatic mission to Paris in 1784. An intimate, deeply engaging method of following historic events.

Kirkus Reviews

Though Abigail Adams is a perennially popular historical subject, little has been written about her two accomplished sisters, Mary Cranch and Elizabeth Shaw Peabody. This triple biography corrects that oversight. Colonial America, the Revolutionary War era, and the fledgling state of a new nation come to life via the pens of these remarkably prolific, loving, and observant sisters.

Booklist

Copyright 2014 by Diane Jacobs

All rights reserved.

Published in the United States by Ballantine Books, an imprint of Random House, a division of Random House LLC, a Penguin Random House Company, New York.

B ALLANTINE and the H OUSE colophon are registered trademarks of Random House LLC.

ISBN 978-0-345-46506-1

eBook ISBN 978-0-345-54984-6

www.ballantinebooks.com

Jacket design: Joseph Perez
Jacket image: Fine Art Photographic Library, London / Art Resource, NY

v3.1_r3

For my mother, Patricia B. Jacobs

O NLY CONNECT !

Howards End

The Long Island Museum of American Art, History and Carriages. Gift of Elizabeth L. Godwin, 1951

Courtesy of the Massachusetts Historical Society

The Granger Collection, New York

Courtesy of the Massachusetts Historical Society

Emmet Collection, Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs, the New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations.

Library of Congress

Courtesy of the Massachusetts Historical Society

Courtesy of the Norman B. Leventhal Map Center at the Boston Public Library

Courtesy of the Massachusetts Historical Society

Courtesy of the Massachusetts Historical Society

Emmet Collection, Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs, the New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations.

Courtesy of the Trustees of the Haverhill Public Library, Special Collections Department

Courtesy of the American Antiquarian Society

Courtesy of the Quincy Historical Society

Collection of the New-York Historical Society

National Park Service, Adams Historical National Park

National Park Service, Adams Historical National Park

Norman Rockwell Museum Digital Collections

Emmet Collection, Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs, the New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations.

New-York Historical Society

Courtesy of the Massachusetts Historical Society

The Granger Collection, New York

Courtesy of the Massachusetts Historical Society

Courtesy of the Massachusetts Historical Society

Courtesy of the Massachusetts Historical Society

Bridgeman Art Library

Bridgeman Art Library

National Park Service, Adams Historical National Park

National Park Service, Adams Historical National Park

Copyright The Trustees of the British Museum

American Antiquarian Society

Courtesy of the Massachusetts Historical Society

Art Resource, NY

National Park Service, Adams Historical National Park

Print Collection, Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs, the New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations.

Library of Congress

The Carl H. Pforzheimer Collection of Shelley and His Circle, the New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations.

Print Collection, Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs, the New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations.

Courtesy of the Trustees of the Haverhill Public Library, Special Collections Department

Library of Congress

Courtesy of the Massachusetts Historical Society

White House Historical Association (White House Collection)

Print Collection, Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs, the New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations.

Collection of the Arizona State University of Art Museum; Gift of Oliver B. James