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

518 Pages·2014·6.35 MB·English

by  Adams

ADVANCE PRAISE FOR
Dear Abigial
“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 America’s 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 R S , author of Defiant Brides: The Untold Story of Two
ANCY UBIN TUART
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 R , author of American Isis: The Life and Art of Sylvia Plath
ARL OLLYSON
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 L S , author of Gloria Steinem: Her Passions, Politics,
YDNEY ADENSOHN TERN
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
“[Abigail’s] 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.
BALLANTINE and the HOUSE colophon are registered trademarks of Random House LLC.
ISBN 978-0-345-46506-1
eBook ISBN 978-0-34554984-6
www.ballantinebooks.com
Jacket design: Joseph Perez
Jacket image: Fine Art Photographic Library, London / Art Resource, NY
v3.1_r3
“ONLY CONNECT!”
—Howards End
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Epigraph
Illustration Credits
Author’s Note
Family Tree
CHAPTER I “Never sisters loved each other better than we”
CHAPTER II “Oppression is enough to make a wise people Mad”
CHAPTER III “Sister Delegate”
CHAPTER IV “Something great is daily expected”
CHAPTER V “A Solemn Scene of Joy”
CHAPTER VI “The heart which is susceptable to all the finer sensations is ever subject to the
deepest wounds.”
CHAPTER VII “The steel and the Magnet”
CHAPTER VIII “How many how various how complicated my Sensations!”
CHAPTER IX “A joy in which our reason plays no part is but a sorrow.”
CHAPTER X “The die is cast”
CHAPTER XI “The disunited State of America”
CHAPTER XII “With much joy and pleasure”
CHAPTER XIII “The most insignificant office that ever the Invention of Man contrived”
CHAPTER XIV “Too painful to think upon”
CHAPTER XV “Second to no man but Washington”
CHAPTER XVI “Yours are mine and mine are yours”
CHAPTER XVII “One of Sister Cranchs Letters is worth half a dozen others”
CHAPTER XVIII “As always I hope for the best”
Epilogue
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Selected Bibliography
Notes
About the Author