Quincy Shaw's Books

John Quincy Adams: Diaries Vol. 1 1779-1821 (LOA #293)

By: John Quincy Adams

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

John Quincy Adams: Diaries Vol. 1 1779-1821 (LOA #293)

By: John Quincy Adams

A landmark edition of an American masterpiece: the incomparable self-portrait of John Quincy Adams and his times from the Revolution to the coming of the Civil War The diary of John Quincy Adams is one of the most extraordinary works in American literature. Begun in 1779 at the age of twelve and kept more or less faithfully until his death almost 70 years later, and totaling some fifteen thousand closely-written manuscript pages, it is both an unrivaled record of historical events and personalities from the nation's founding to the antebellum era and a masterpiece of American self-portraiture, tracing the spiritual, literary, and scientific interests of an exceptionally lively mind. Now, for the 250th anniversary of Adams's birth, Library of America and historian David Waldstreicher present a two-volume reader's edition of diary selections based for the first time on the original manuscripts, restoring personal and revealing passages suppressed in earlier editions. Volume I begins during the American Revolution, with Adams's first entry, as he prepares to embark on a perilous wartime voyage to Europe with his father, diplomat John Adams, and records his early impressions of Franklin and Jefferson and of Paris on the eve of revolution; it details his abbreviated but eventful years of study at Harvard and his emergence into the world of politics in his own right, as American minister to the Netherlands and to Prussia, and then as a U. S. senator from Massachusetts; and it reveals a young man at war with his passions, before finding love with the remarkable Louisa Catherine Johnson. In passages that form a kind of real-world War and Peace, the diary follows the young married couple to St. Petersburg, where as U.S. minister Adams is a witness to Napoleon's invasion of Russia. Its account of the negotiations at Ghent to end the War of 1812, where Adams leads the American delegation, is the perhaps the most detailed and dramatic picture of a diplomatic confrontation ever recorded. Volume 1 concludes with his elevation as Secretary of State under James Monroe, as he takes the fore in a fractious cabinet and emerges as the principal architect of what will become known as the Monroe Doctrine.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

938

Publisher

Library of America

Published Date

ISBN 10

1598535234

ISBN 13

9781598535235

A Woman's Wit & Whimsy

The 1833 Diary of Anna Cabot Lowell Quincy

By: Anna Cabot Lowell Quincy Waterston

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

A Woman's Wit & Whimsy

The 1833 Diary of Anna Cabot Lowell Quincy

By: Anna Cabot Lowell Quincy Waterston

Anna Cabot Lowell Quincy (1812-1899), the youngest daughter of Josiah Quincy-onetime U.S. Congressman, former Mayor of Boston, and President of Harvard University-was a discerning twenty-one-year-old woman of privilege when she kept a diary during the spring and summer of 1833. Although Anna was respectful in polite company regarding her limited status in a male-dominated society, her journal entries of the Quincy family's social activities reveal an unexpectedly trenchant and amused view of the affectation in the Harvard community as well as in upper class life in Boston. Quincy's lively, lighthearted, and satirical accounts of Harvard University soirees and Boston cotillions portray a world where rites of courtship predominate, appearances are both significant and deceiving, and callow young men vie for an eligible woman's attention. Evoking the style of her admired Jane Austen, Anna re-creates a comfortable life-akin to Pride and Prejudice-spent walking, drawing, reading, writing letters, attending the theatre, and entertaining visitors. She describes receiving Harvard students and faculty at biweekly socials, dancing at formal balls, visits from "Cambridge Worthies" and dignitaries such as Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story, naturalist John J. Audubon, and President Andrew Jackson, and seeing the acclaimed British actress Fanny Kemble in Much Ado About Nothing. Above all, Anna's diary presents a young woman keenly aware of her early nineteenth-century milieu and her own place in society. She ponders her role in a prominent family clearly governed, professionally and economically, by men. She recounts dutifully receiving gentlemen callers in the gracious manner expected of young ladies, yet dismisses the "ridiculous and the unmeaning behavior of the young men" who end up as targets for her pen rather than potential suitors. While dramatizing her own position, Anna inexorably mocks society's pretensions, superficiality, and emphasis on appearance.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

202

Publisher

UPNE

Published Date

ISBN 10

1555535747

ISBN 13

9781555535742

Miles

By: Miles Davis,Quincy Troupe

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Miles

By: Miles Davis,Quincy Troupe

Miles discusses his life and music from playing trumpet in high school to the new instruments and sounds from the Caribbean.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

452

Publisher

Simon and Schuster

Published Date

ISBN 10

0671725823

ISBN 13

9780671725822

Book's by Quincy Shaw

John Quincy Adams: Diaries Vol. 1 1779-1821 (LOA #293)

John Quincy Adams: Diaries Vol. 1 1779-1821 (LOA #293)

A Woman's Wit & Whimsy

A Woman's Wit & Whimsy

Miles

Miles

Username

Password

Username

Password

Password again

Birthday

Email