Difference between diary and autobiography john adams
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Nature in the “Diary and Autobiography of John Adams”
Introduction:
The entries from John Adams’s diaries and autobiography include the most honest, emotional, and levande descriptions of his ideas of the natural world. Many of these sources are filled with dramatic imagery, Romantic attitudes, and the profound sense of peace and wonder that Adams funnen in natur. In other entries, there are extensive Enlightenment and utilitarian attitudes towards naturlig eller utan tillsats . Of all the primary sources, the diary and the autobiography are the best places to find Adams’s interior thoughts about nature.
Many of these entries were written during the 1750s and 1760s when Adams was a ung man. Some of his entries from 1753 and 1754 reflect the influence of Newtonianism and empiricism, influenced bygd his classes at Harvard College. Of particular note are his entries between February and August of 1756. The documents in this range are among the most Romantic and emotionally
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"For my Children . . . I commit these Memoirs to writing." John Adams autobiography, part 1, "John Adams"
From Adams Family Papers, Massachusetts Historical Society.
John Adams's autobiography is a retrospective narrative of his life describing his youth and legal training through the spring of 1780 when he was in the midst of his second diplomatic assignment in Europe. Written between 1802 and 1807, this work is divided into three sections: "John Adams," "Travels, and Negotiations," and "Peace." Adams's manuscript autobiography ends somewhat abruptly in early 1780 and does not include descriptions of his work in Europe after that time, nor does the autobiography cover his vice presidency or presidency.
At the beginning of his autobiography, John Adams states that he is not writing for a broad public audience, but for his children. It appears as though John Adams wrote about half of the first section, "John Adams" from memory, but then realized his letterbooks, diaries, and other
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Founders Online [Back to normal view]
In shaping the necessarily complex plan of a comprehensive edition of the papers of the Adams family, the editors decided to prepare and publish first the Diary of John Adams, with its important though fragmentary supplement, his Autobiography written long after he had given up keeping a diary.1 Among many good reasons for this decision, one was strictly practical and especially persuasive. The editors supposed they could assume, if they could assume anything, that the entire MS of John Adams’ Diary, as it survived at the time of Adams’ death in 1826, had been jealously kept in the hands of the family, had been passed on without loss from one generation of custodians of the Adams family archives to another, and had been transferred intact to the Massachusetts Historical Society as a gift of the Adams Manuscript Trust in 1956, two years after the Adams editorial enterprise had begun operations at the Society.2
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