*Please notice the change in time, to allow everyone to attend the Holocaust Service
Before there was the Addams family, there was the Adams family.
Before Morticia and Gomez and their offspring Wednesday and Pugsley, there were John and Abigail Adams and their offspring John Quincy Adams and his offspring Charles Francis Adams and his offspring Henry Brooks Adams.
John Adams was the second President of the United States. To those of us who get our history from novels, he is best known as the husband of Abigail Adams.
John Quincy Adams served as the sixth President of the United States. To those of us who who get our history from the flickering screen, he is best known as the defender of Cinque and his comrades on the Amistad.
Charles Francis Adams, Sr. was a congressman and diplomat. Most of us dilettantes had never heard of him until we started paying attention to his son.
Henry Adams was a journalist, historian, and writer. His autobiography, The Education of Henry Adams, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1916, was ranked first in Modern Library's list of 100 Best Nonfiction Books, and was named "the best book of the 20th century" by The Intercollegiate Studies Institute.
One of the questions St. Peter's Readers might ask, when we meet to discuss this book,* is whether such high praise is deserved.
We could also discuss the effect focusing on his education had on his autobiography as a whole. If we wanted to be particularly snarky, we could discuss the possibility that he chose this focus so he could avoid talking about his personal life, especially his marriage.
We will discuss these and other questions when we meet in the St. Peter's Church conference room at
*5:30 p.m. on April 27 in Lewes, Delaware. For directions, please call the church office.
