11/13/2001 John Adams by David McCullough Amazon Price $21.00 you save $14.00 (40%)

Since September 11, I have had a little trouble turning off the television set and settling down for sleep or reading. CNN has seized my bedroom with a more or less iron grip depending on the dire content of the crawl. This does not mean that I am without resources to fend off the effects of The News. Currently I am sleeping with John Adams, a biography by David McCullough. The book is a perfect, substantial, downright cuddly sleeping partner. I open a page, peek in, and John Adams is being affectionate or troubled or staunch or cranky or thoughtful. Abigail is describing the troubled times and how much she misses John and what she thinks, and sometimes what she hears, the sounds of artillery. They wrote letters to each other almost every day and kept the letters so we know a great deal about what they thought. The chattiness of our founding fathers and mothers is astounding and comforting. Like us, they lived in troubled times. And, amazingly, like them, we stay in touch by the written word. Our written words are transmitted electronically and instantly; theirs were on paper and agonizingly slow to arrive, a topic of much discussion at the time. John Adams wrote letters and kept daily journals but he also kept fascinating To Do Lists, and was always on a project - read more, tidy up his desk, write a declaration of independence.... To my mind, he is a perfect example of a person always in search of better methods of time and self management, a somewhat better example than Benjamin Franklin, since Adams frequently kept his resolutions. He had big things to do; he wanted to make his mark on history, be well-regarded by his peers and do the right thing, at a time when the choices weren't always clear. He tried to plan for the future - for himself and his country. He had long-term goals: build a good country based on a good foundation of law and principle. He recognized that breaking away from England, winning a war, was not enough. Winning was only the beginning. Not only did John Adams write a great deal but with grace and vigor. It is, however, the very human quality of his communication that is most delightful. When he was away from his home in Braintree he missed his farm, dreadfully; he missed his wife and children and wrote to them incessantly. Yet he also enjoyed the new places that he visited in the line of duty and confessed to an appreciation of the ladies wherever he went - without, however, disgracing himself or the women in any way. He travelled a great deal, on governmental business or as a circuit judge. I had to pull out a road map to follow his progress. In fact, the amount of travelling done in general at the time was a surprise to me, given the arduous conditions and the amount of time it took to get from place to place. The book, in fact, was full of small surprises - who knew that the consumption of a glass of hard cider every morning was a perfectly respectable colonial habit? And that Benjamin Franklin tended to fall asleep during revolutionary debates? For some reason, probably the Union soldiers in my family and the stories, pictures, medals, and battlefields associated with them, the Civil War seems vivid and close. The Revolution always seemed remote and the figures populating the tale even more distanced. The outcome of the Revolutionary War seemed, somehow, rather boringly inevitable; but of course we would beat the British and become an independent country. There was not, actually, any inevitability about it. The men who began the Revolution were English gentlemen, and proud to belong to England until things began to go wrong. While you read in this biography the accounts of the rising tide of revolution, it is perfectly clear that we might all still be pledging allegiance to the crown and not the Stars and Stripes. John Adams and his to-do lists made a huge difference in the history of the United State and the form of its government today. He did make his mark, but his place in history is not what draws me to David McCullough’s book. John Adams had a genius for friendship and affection, openly expressed, and this quality shines throughout his biography. John Adams is a good companion. I must, as a reviewer, confess that I have no intention of finishing this book quickly or rushing through to finish it for this review. I intend to read this book as slowly as possible, a page or two a day - that way, given the 700 or so pages in the book, I can continue to sleep with John Adams for a year or two, blessed by his literary presence as long as possible, thanks to David McCullough’s brilliant book.

Jean Blake White is a regular contributor to the Meadow. She is an artist and novelist. Her paintings are on display in various venues in Franklin, MA. Her latest novel, Favorite Son, written with Anthony Fowles, will be published soon by Greenwich Exchange Publishing. Favorite Son is the somewhat naughty updated story of Jocasta and Oedipus.

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