Portia: The World of Abigail Adams PDF
Preview Portia: The World of Abigail Adams
|f \o/» OW a T he W orld oj j % t ~ y ■ - ’" o j f - ^ ,V- J.' O- 3fr‘^ * 1 ‘" V '-y r? « ^ rt< J < PORTIA The World of Abigail Adams EDITH B GE11E5 “'Hoc, an toe, is* tdte biography tfacar Abigail Adfams k» Doing dftsmcd—oot that puds bar, radtanr than few kwbaiKt aid its center, asrod wfabdb httcipirm Iter Me fa light ©f both ks ci^eeiofifaheemairy contoi and recent iiieinndt- nitw scboiaesfclip. Gdles brings new insights to fagnmllag topics tlte Adames marriage and M& Abigails wartime jofc; explains more fuDy than previous scholars such incidents as the failed courtship otf Royall TyleT and Abigail Junior; and examines with sensitivity hitherto fade-known episodes like that of AbtgaiTs epistolary ffirtanoo with James Lovell during the Revolution or Abigail Junior's mastec tomy in 1811. In short, this is a remarkable achievement, far surpassing all earlier attempts to capture the essence of the woman who was one of early America’s greatest letter- writers.”—Mary Beth Norton “Edith Gelles has written a deeply interesting book about Abigail Adams. ... she is careful to reconstruct the eighteenth-century envi ronment of Abigail Adams. Dr. Gelles is a care ful historian of eighteenth-century America and a thoughtful biographer. She has given us a fresh examination of Abigail Adams which will stimulate in helpful ways additional re search and discussion.”—Robert Middlekauf “In this important and fascinating biography, Edith Gelles not only restores Abigail Adams to her rightful place at the center of her own story, she challenges the creaky conventions of‘traditional’ male-defined biography. Portia breaks ranks with the biographers twice— by refusing to treat Abigail Adams as a reflec tion of her husband and by refusing to force her life’s story into an artificially linear nar- (continued on back flap) PORTIA This One YTEl-PPC-A26 PORTIA The W orld o f A bigail A dam s EDITH B. GELLES Indiana University Press BLOOMINGTON & INDIANAPOLIS 01992 by Edith B. Gelles All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recoiding, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The Association of American University Presses' Resolution on Permissions constitutes the only exception to this prohibition. The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984. Manufactured in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Gelles, Edith Belle. Portia : the world of Abigail Adams / Edith B. Gelles. p cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN0-253-32553-6 1. Adams, Abigail, 1744-1818. 2. Presidents—United States— Wives—Biography. 1. Title. E322.1.A38G45 1992 973.4'4'092—dc20 [B] 92-7860 1 2 3 4 5 % 95 94 93 92
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