PRESIDENT'S LADY

New Zealand Listener, Volume 21, Issue 545, 2 December 1949, Page 16

PRESIDENT'S LADY

ABIGAIL ADAMS, by Janet Whitney; Harrap. English price, 15/-, A BIGAIL ADAMS might well have had the once-popular sub-title, "Her Life and Times." Although the book is not

completely absorbing as an intimate biography, it is interesting as the story of the American Revolution, revealed through the letters of an independent, discreet woman who had advance, inside information and an unusual grasp~ of political problems. Abigail is vivacious and, charming, equally at ease living quietly with her Boston friends, as Ambassador’s wife at the French and English courts, or as President’s Lady. In 1764 Abigail Smith married John Adams, fiery orator and lawyer. Her father, with sardonic humour, preached from the text, "For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, He hath a devil." A year later the vexed question of the Stamp Act forced Adams to a decision between private and public interests. "I have a Zeal at my heart for my country, which I cannot smother nor conceal. This Zeal will prove fatal to the Fortunes and Felicity of my Family." That it did not, was due to Abigail. Fervently patriotic, less analytical and more biased than John, she fully supported his revolutionary activities, though they brought loneliness, depression and financial burdens. This biography is built upon the hundreds of letters Abigail wrote. John once said, "Your letters have more good thoughts, fine strokes and mother wit in them than I hear in a week." Her biographer has turned the reported speech of the early letters into direct speech, not always happily. When this dramatic device is dropped, the portraits gain

sincerity.

C.M.

B.