Ernest Samuels (1903–1996)

This, the second of three volumes, deals with the period that began with Adams’s resignation from the faculty of Harvard to devote his full energy to work as a historian. He moved to Washington with his wife; with her founded an exclusive salon, a center of literary, artistic, scientific thought, as well as reform politics.Well-chosen excerpts from letters and diaries give a taste of the scintillating wit and sardonic view of politics that marked this couple and the circle around them.
The heart of the book is the author’s sensitive treatment of the suicide of Adams’s wife Clover. Adams considered his own life to have ended with hers, although he not only survived her by nearly 40 years, but also continued his prodigious literary output and travelled the world. His first trip after her death, an extensive stay in Japan shortly after that country opened itself to Western visitors, is described as a flight from the self.
Samuels also excels in his analysis of Adams’s works. In addition to his magnum opus, a nine-volume treatment of the Jefferson and Madison administrations, these include biographies of Albert Gallatin and John Randolph, as well as two novels, which he published anonymously. The penultimate chapter, which treats the Jefferson-Madison masterpiece, also explores Adams’s deterministic philosophy of history, which stood in ironic contrast to his own elitist views and his awareness of belonging to one of the leading families in the nation.
One can readily see why this has been praised as a sterling example of the art of biography. A very good read.… (mais)

1912 The Young Henry Adams, by Ernest Samuels (read 3 Mar 1985) Henry Adams was a grandson of John Quincy Adams, and was born 16 Feb 1838. This is a book published in 1948 and is the first volume of a 3-volume biography. It is really very good. This first volume takes him up to 1877. I have not read his historical writings, but have read Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres as well as The Education of Henry Adams. He was a brilliant person, and I would like to read some of his magazine articles and the like. There is so much to read.… (mais)

1913 Henry Adams The Middle Years, by Ernest Samuels (read 9 Mar 1985) This second volume of the trilogy was published in 1958, and takes Adams from 1877 to 1890. This is the period in which he published his life of Albert Gallatin and of John Randolph as well a novel, Esther, and his multi-volume History of the USA during the Jefferson and Madison Administrations. His wife committed suicide Dec 6, 1895. This book is expertly done, even though some of Adams' thinking deals with some esoteric things which aren't too interesting. Included in this book are the words: "He knew the hypnotic fascination of family trees. Genealogy 'has a curious, personal interest, which history lacks.'" I well remember when I was first caught up in the throes of genealogical research I could not find history without relation to my genealogy as interesting as usual. This book I presume is still the definitive work on Adams and is well worth reading. It won the 1958 Francis Parkman Prize of the Society of American Historians, and the 1959 Bancroft Prize.… (mais)