Center for the Book:

First Lady Louisa Adams Is Subject of Book Discussion

Wife of John Quincy Adams Is Often Forgotten in History    

http://www.loc.gov/today/pr/2016/16-186.html

What do we know about Louisa Adams, the “other Mrs. Adams,” whom history has mostly ignored?

            Louisa Adams was the wife of President John Quincy Adams and the daughter-in-law of the much more famous Abigail Adams. In “Louisa: The Extraordinary Life of Mrs. Adams” (Penguin, 2016), author Louisa Thomas presents the first comprehensive biography of our only foreign-born first lady.

            Louisa Catherine Johnson (1775-1852) was born in London on the eve of the American Revolution. Her parents, an American father and a British mother, raised her as an American and wanted her to marry one. She met her future husband at the house of her father, who was appointed in 1790 as consul general for the United States. John Quincy Adams visited in 1795. After a tempestuous courtship, Louisa and John Quincy married and eventually moved to America.

Louisa Adams’s story is one of political adeptness and support of her husband’s ambition to become U.S. president.

Louisa Thomas will discuss and sign her book, which was researched at the Library of Congress, on Thursday, Nov. 3, at noon in the Montpelier Room, sixth floor of the Madison Building, 101 Independence Ave. S.E. This Books & Beyond event is sponsored by the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress. It is free and open to the public; no tickets are required.

 

http://www.loc.gov/today/pr/2016/16-186.html