The letters of Abigail Adams represent the best history we have of the Revolutionary and Early National periods of American history from a woman’s point of view. Her letters rank among the most poignant literary artifacts we have from her time of women’s lives, and had she lived in a later era she might have been a novelist or a journalist.

Instead she was a daughter, wife, mother, sister, friend and grandmother, all roles that she dignified because she respected herself and other women. She became as well, an autodidact, a highly erudite woman, a diplomatic wife and the second First Lady of the newly formed United States.

Edith Gelles will briefly explore Abigail’s life story and her legacy. As she says, “it was my good fortune to come of age as a historian during the formative years of the second wave of the women’s movement. As I looked for a topic to research, it was my further good fortune to discover Abigail Adams who became my subject and companion.” Edith has explored her life in three books and is currently editing her letters for publication. “As another stroke of exceptional privilege,” Edith says, “I became affiliated with the pioneering Center for Research on Women (now called the Michelle R. Clayman Institute for Research on Women and Gender) at Stanford during its early years when feminist scholarship and activism were in their infancy, and where I am now a senior scholar.”

Edith Gelles was educated at Cornell, Yale and the University of California, Irvine, where she received a PhD in early American history. She has taught at UCI, SFSU, and in the Humanities Program at Stanford. She is the author of the award winning Portia: The World of Abigail Adams and Abigail and John: Portrait of a Marriage as well as several other books and numerous scholarly articles. She has appeared several times on the PBS program American Experience and on C-Span, most recently at the commemoration of the 250th wedding anniversary of Abigail and John Adams. She lives in Palo Alto and swims with the Rinconada Masters.