Fifty Years and Two Continents: The Diaries and Memoirs of Louisa Catherine Adams

The diary and autobiographical writings of Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams, the British-born wife of John Quincy Adams, will be published in two volumes this year as part of the Adams Papers Diary series. To the prodigious records left by the Adamses, Louisa adds highly personal works that give a fresh perspective on the family and particularly on John Quincy, who emerges from her pages as a gallant and generous husband as often as he confirms his image as the ambitious and duty-bound Adams scion. Louisa offers opinions on the great events of her time, in so many of which her husband played a central role, but what makes her writings most valuable are her descriptions of life in the ballrooms and drawing rooms of Europe and America, the parlors of friends, and the family home, wherever that might be.

We will consider the nature and purpose of Louisa’s writings, the challenges encountered in transforming her manuscripts into a documentary edition, and the rewards her works provide for historians and an interested public alike.