Adams Family Correspondence: Volume 7 January 1786 – February 1787(Adams Papers)

This volume continues the incredible family saga of the Adamses of Massachusetts as told through their myriad letters to one another, to their extended family, and to such other notable correspondents as Thomas Jefferson and Mercy Otis Warren. The book opens in January 1786, when John and Abigail resided at Grosvenor Square in London, partaking of the English social scene, while John made slow progress on negotiations for an Anglo-American commercial treaty. Daughter Abigail ("Nabby"), also in London, had begun a courtship with William Stephens Smith that would culminate in their marriage in June 1786. Back in Massachusetts, John Quincy had rejoined his brothers Charles and Thomas, entered Harvard College, and begun to make preparations to study law. Writing back and forth across the Atlantic, the Adamses interspersed observations about their own family life--births and deaths, illnesses and marriages, new homes and new jobs, education and finances--with commentary on the most important social and political events of their day, from the scandals in the British royal family to the deteriorating political situation in Massachusetts that eventually culminated in Shays' Rebellion. As in the previous volumes in this series of the Adams Papers, the correspondence presented here offers a unique perspective on the eighteenth century from a preeminent American family.

About the Author :
Margaret A. Hogan is an independent scholar and former editor of the Adams Papers at the Massachusetts Historical Society. C. James Taylor is former Editor in Chief of the Adams Papers at the Massachusetts Historical Society. Gregg L. Lint is Series Editor for the Papers of John Adams of the Adams Papers at the Massachusetts Historical Society. Hobson Woodward is Series Editor for the Adams Family Correspondence of the Adams Papers at the Massachusetts Historical Society.

Review :
Volume 7 of the Adam Family Correspondence is a fine example of a published collection of letters. Like the other volumes in the series, this publication will prove immensely valuable to scholars interested in eighteenth-century society and culture generally or in the Adams family specifically. The time and effort put into the volume are apparent in its careful editing and annotation...The latest volume of the Adams Family Correspondence lives up to the Adams Papers project's tradition of high-quality work and fine editing, as the project continues to steadily provide needed sources to historians and biographers.