"First Family"

My favorite American history writer is Joseph J. Ellis. He writes mostly about the Revolutionary/Founding Era with his most famous book being "Founding Brothers", a phenomenal book of five short stories from the Founding Era. I got it as a Secret Santa gift when I worked at Sun Life Financial and have read it about five times. I also assign it as summer reading for my AP US History class.

Ellis' newest book is "First Family", a look at the relationship between John and Abigail Adams. I was a little disappointed when I heard this was going to be his latest book as Adams has gotten a lot of play lately. Not only that, the Boston Globe gave the book a tepid review when it came out last month. Either way, I love all things Ellis writes and I asked for it for Christmas and got it.

I won't get a chance to read it for a bit but was excited to read that the New York Times gave it a positive review:

There have been numerous collections of John and Abigail’s wonderfully candid and witty letters, of course, and several biographies of Abigail, including Phyllis Lee Levin’s “Abigail Adams,” Edith Gelles’s “Portia: the World of Abigail Adams” and, most recently, Woody Holton’s “Abigail Adams.” But Mr. Ellis — the author of an astute 1993 portrait of John Adams (“Passionate Sage: The Character and Legacy of John Adams”), as well as of books on Thomas Jefferson, George Washington and other members of the Revolutionary generation — uses his easy familiarity with the era to invest his portrait of the couple with authoritative historical perspective. We may not learn anything appreciably new about the Adams family, per se, but in “First Family” Mr. Ellis employs his narrative gifts to draw a remarkably intimate portrait of John and Abigail’s marriage as it played out against the momentous events that marked the birth of a nation.

I'll let you know what I think when I get a chance. I can't wait to read it.