John and Abigail Adams

First of all, what an amazing example for modern day relationships. The strength of their relationship illustrated by their private letters is astounding. "The Letters of John and Abigail Adams" could simply be captioned "Dear Reader, It is Possible--With a Little Effort and Communication."

Second of all, not to sound creepy, but how cool it is to be able to truly stalk a strong and lasting celebrity relationship through letters which actually were written for the personal audience, unlike most of the published early American letters. We get an open and honest look at the life of the early American dynamic of the married life. A look which readers won't ever get now until they are actually married. Or actually stalking. And that actually is creepy.

The wisdoms presented by their correspondence are epic. Perhaps my favorite letter was "Classical Parallels" written by Abigail to John, particularly her reference to Polybius: "there is nothing more desirable, or advantages than peace, when founded in justice and honour, so there is nothing more shameful and at the same time more pernicious when attained by bad measures, and purchased at the price of liberty."

Abigail is also another representation of the triumph of the human spirit over the circumstance of birth; obviously, as one can tell by her grammatical and spelling errors, she was not conventionally educated. However, she was extremely wise and definitely an effective and important American citizen.