Fellow men

I must study Politics and War that my sons may have liberty to study Mathematics and Philosophy. My sons ought to study Mathematics and Philosophy…in order to give their Children a right to study Painting, Poetry, Music, Architecture, Statuary, Tapestry and Porcelain. — to , May 12, 1780

A Family Affair

Abigail 1765–1813

JOHN 1735–1826

John Quincy 1767–1848 Between the Pages

John Adams’s passion for reading and book Abigail Adams shared her husband’s love of books, John Adams wanted his children to learn, These notes in John Adams’s hand- John Adams’s first known acquisition is this as he wrote nine-year-old son John Quincy, writing include Greek, Latin, and small copy of Cicero’s Orations filled with blots, collecting blossomed slowly during his youth on and together they passed on their reverence English translations of key terms and that books were “of the utmost importance… pen trials, and swaggeringly grandiose signatures. important phrases from his reading. a Massachusetts farm in the 1740s. By his own for reading to future generations of the Adams in business, as well as the most ingenious and The book’s battered cover shows significant wear ABIGAIL They were loosely tucked between from being jammed into fourteen-year-old 1744–1818 admission, Adams was a reluctant student. At family. From their earliest years, the four Adams elegant entertainment of your life.” During the pages of the Plutarch for future Adams’s pocket as he walked the Massachusetts the age of 13, young John informed his father children—Abigail (Nabby), John Quincy, Charles, several periods abroad, John Adams oversaw reference by Adams or his children. his children’s education and personally tutored countryside. Adams acquired the book in 1749 that “I did not love books and wished he would and Thomas Boylston—were instructed that books while preparing for Harvard. He believed that John and Abigail Adams regarded them in classics, mathematics, and language. books as essential tools for leading Books can serve many purposes, and the reading of his beloved Cicero even provided Charles lay aside the thoughts of sending me to college.” counted among the world’s highest goods. It was He and son John Quincy read this copy a moral, cultivated, and successful many volumes in the Adams library physical benefits; he recited the orations aloud 1770–1800 of Plutarch aloud to one another over the life. While reading was certainly However, his father persevered and—with the a duty of citizenship, a call to religious and moral contain more than the printed text. because “it exercises my Lungs, raises my Spirits, pleasurable for the Adamses and breakfast table. These leaves from New England help of a kindly teacher—Adams soon developed contemplation, and a gateway to the imagination. opens my Pores, quickens the Circulations, and their children, it was not an end in trees were pressed between miscel- so contributes much to Health.” itself: it was a means for self- a deep appreciation for the printed word that John Adams impressed on his children the laneous pages of Plutarch’s Parallel improvement and public service. would endure for the rest of his life. His extensive importance of reading whenever the opportunity Lives, where they remained for Marcus Tullius Cicero, M. Tullii Ciceronis over a century. The image Orationum Selectarum Liber, 1734. book collecting began in his teens with a few arose: “You will never be alone with a poet in your of each leaf remains faintly The John Adams Library at the Boston Public Library. slim volumes of classics and mathematics. Even pocket. You will never have an idle hour.” outlined on the page Plutarch, Plutarchi Chaeronensis: Vitae where it was pressed. these earliest volumes illustrate Adams’s active Parallelae, cum Singulis Aliquot, 1723–29. The John Adams Library at the Boston engagement with his books in their scrawled Public Library. E. Malcolm, The “Old House,” The Adams signatures, smudges, notes, and doodles. Family Home in Braintree, Massachusetts, John Adams, Manuscript notes, undated. 1798. Courtesy of National Park Service, The John Adams Library at the Boston Adams National Historical Park. Public Library. Thomas Boylston 1772–1832

This brief collection of biographies by Jane Stuart, John Adams, undated. After Roman historian Nepos is loosely modeled the original 1800 portrait by her father, on Plutarch’s Lives. John Adams dated his Gilbert Stuart. Courtesy of National Park copy 1781 and penned a whimsical ship Service, Adams National Historical Park. Our little flock send duty. drawing on the flyleaf alongside a number of “pen trials” in which he practiced his Jane Stuart, Abigail Adams, undated. After signature. The bookplate featuring the the original 1800–1812 portrait by her father, Adams family crest indicates that his Gilbert Stuart. Courtesy of National Park grandson Charles Francis Adams possessed Service, Adams National Historical Park. the volume at one time. Artist unknown, Abigail Adams Smith, I called them separately and ca. 1795. After a portrait by John Singleton Copley. Courtesy of the Massachusetts Historical Society.

Sidney L. Smith, , 1783. Courtesy of National Park Service, Adams told them Pappa wanted National Historical Park. Artist unknown, Charles Adams, date unknown. Reproduced in Wide Awake, an Illustrated Magazine, November 1888. Courtesy of the Massachusetts to send them something, Historical Society.

Mr. [?] Parker, Thomas Boylston Adams, 1795. Courtesy of the Massachusetts and requested of them what Historical Society.

Cornelius Nepos, Cornelii Nepotis Vitae Excellentium Imperatorum, 1745. The John Adams Library at the Boston they would have. A Book was Public Library. the answer of them all. —Abigail Adams to John Adams, May 14, 1776