The Unexpected Abigail Adams: A Woman "Not Apt to be Intimidated"
by John L. Smith Jr.
"If any young woman wants to have a nice, quiet life, I advise her not to marry an Adams," wrote Abigail Smith Adams's granddaughter-in-law. Abigail Adams--wife to President John Adams, family matriarch, proto feminist, second First Lady, and first presidential advisor in early America--certainly did not have "a nice, quiet life." She was not only an eyewitness to America's founding, she helped to shape large portions of it working through her trusting husband, John. Later in her life, Abigail looked back and firmly stated, "no man ever prospered in the world without the consent and cooperation of his wife."
Abigail's unique contributions throughout her life led to the establishment and stability of the first new form of democratic government in the world. It easily marks her as one of the Founders of the United States of America. Abigail met almost every important figure of the American Revolutionary period: George Washington and his wife Martha (whom she loved), Thomas Jefferson, Sally Hemings, Benjamin Franklin, Henry Knox, Samuel and Elizabeth Adams, John Hancock, John and Sarah Jay, Marquis and Adrienne de Lafayette, John Paul Jones, Alexander Hamilton (whom she hated), James Monroe, artist Patience Wright, and even King George III and Queen Charlotte, as well as King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette. Abigail famously wrote more than two thousand letters, spanning from the 1760s to her death in 1818, a priceless documentation of one of the most important periods of world history. In these letters she comments on the varied personalities she encountered, personal and historic snapshots of the time.
In The Unexpected Abigail Adams: A Woman "Not Apt to Be Intimidated", writer and researcher John L. Smith, Jr. presents sides of Abigail's life that are not covered by the standard, retold biographies. The author interweaves Abigail's colorful correspondence--some of which has not appeared in print before--with a contextual narrative. The result is a revealing portrait of a remarkable woman very relatable to modern readers. Having read and studied nearly her entire correspondence, the author describes the experience as panning for gold, for her letters contain a wealth of nuggets of wisdom, but also humorous moments, poignant reflections, and unique historical descriptions. The result is an unexpected Abigail Adams, one that will transform how she will be perceived going forward and one that recognizes our national debt to her for her sagacious
Valentines for All: Esther Howland Captures America's Heart
by Nancy Churnin and Monika Róza Wisniewska
How an enterprising woman helped establish a tradition that Americans still observe today. When Esther Howland first saw the fancy valentine her father brought home from England, most Americans thought Valentine's Day was a waste of time. But through the card, Esther felt how much her father loved her. Could she help others express themselves in the same way?
Becoming Ella Fitzgerald: The Jazz Singer Who Transformed American Song
by Judith Tick
A landmark biography that reclaims Ella Fitzgerald as a major American artist and modernist innovator. Ella Fitzgerald (1917–1996) possessed one of the twentieth century’s most astonishing voices. In this first major biography since Fitzgerald’s death, historian Judith Tick offers a sublime portrait of this ambitious risk-taker whose exceptional musical spontaneity made her a transformational artist.
Becoming Ella Fitzgerald clears up long-enduring mysteries. Archival research and in-depth family interviews shed new light on the singer’s difficult childhood in Yonkers, New York, the tragic death of her mother, and the year she spent in a girls’ reformatory school―where she sang in its renowned choir and dreamed of being a dancer. Rarely seen profiles from the Black press offer precious glimpses of Fitzgerald’s tense experiences of racial discrimination and her struggles with constricting models of Black and white femininity at midcentury.
Tick’s compelling narrative depicts Fitzgerald’s complicated career in fresh and original detail, upending the traditional view that segregates vocal jazz from the genre’s mainstream. As Fitzgerald navigated the shifting tides between jazz and pop, she used her originality to pioneer modernist vocal jazz. Interpreting long-lost setlists, reviews from both white and Black newspapers, and newly released footage and recordings, the book explores how Ella’s transcendence as an improvisor produced onstage performances every bit as significant as her historic recorded oeuvre.
From the singer’s first performance at the Apollo Theatre’s famous “Amateur Night” to the Savoy Ballroom, where Fitzgerald broke through with Chick Webb’s big band in the 1930s, Tick evokes the jazz world in riveting detail. She describes how Ella helped shape the bebop movement in the 1940s, as she joined Dizzy Gillespie and her then-husband, Ray Brown, in the world-touring Jazz at the Philharmonic, one of the first moments of high-culture acceptance for the disreputable art form.
Breaking ground as a female bandleader, Fitzgerald refuted expectations of musical Blackness, deftly balancing artistic ambition and market expectations. Her legendary exploration of the Great American Songbook in the 1950s fused a Black vocal aesthetic and jazz improvisation to revolutionize the popular repertoire. This hybridity often confounded critics, yet throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Ella reached audiences around the world, electrifying concert halls, and sold millions of records.
A masterful biography, Becoming Ella Fitzgerald describes a powerful woman who set a standard for American excellence nearly unmatched in the 20th century. 30 black-and-white images
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