Update on Bibliography

Through my various research, I am discovering the complexities of the Warren-Adams relationship.  Recently, I have found how Warren's and Adams' pen names were symbolic of their historical connection to Roman women.  Adams used the Roman worthie, Portia, who was married to Brutus (conspirator who assassinated Caesar) and she supposedly committed suicide by ingesting burning coals rather than forfeit her republican ideals of freedom and patriotism (Hicks 275).  Warren signed her correspondence with Adams as Marcia, referencing two potential women that were "self-sacrificing enem[ies] of Caesar" (Hicks 285).  Both pen names offered a connection to the past for Adams and Warren, and 'justified' their political involvement in the American Revolution.  By signing their correspondence with these Roman worthies, Warren and Adams expressed their desire to join the patriotic heroines of the past.  These names portrayed their decision to ask more of themselves, as women fighting for the cause of liberty and freedom.  The pen names of Portia and Marcia are also symbolic of women's need for education, as a means of making sense of the challenges and sacrifices they faced due to the war.  Thus, it is through education and writing that Warren and Adams come to terms with the dangers of war, the political milieu, and their patriotic roles.  It is through each other that they discover a support system and a homosocial connection.  Unfortunately, their intimacy and closeness as friends is short-lived.

Hicks, Philip. "Portia and Marcia: Female Political Identity and the Historical Imagination, 1770-

1800." The William and Mary Quarterly 3rd ser. 62.2 (2005): 265-94. JSTOR. Web. 2 Oct. 2011.

Bibliographical Update

Adams, (famille), and Richard Alan Ryerson. Adams Family Correspondence. Vol. 6.

            Cambridge Mass: Belknap of Harvard Univ., 1993. Print.

Adams, John, Abigail Adams, and Frank Shuffelton. The Letters of John and Abigail Adams.

            New York: Penguin Group, 2003. Print.

Amory, Hugh, and David D. Hall. "Readers & Writers in Early New England." A History

of the Book in America. [Worcester, Mass.]: American Antiquarian Society, 2000. Print.

Baym, Nina. "Between Enlightenment and Victorian: Toward a Narrative of American Women

Writers Writing." Critical Inquiry 18.1 (1991): 22-41. JSTOR. Web. 10 Sept. 2011

Buckingham, Joseph T., ed. "Cover 1-No Title." New-England Galaxy and Masonic

Magazine [Boston] 25 Dec. 1818, 2nd ed., sec. 63: 1. American Periodicals Series Online. Web. 15 Sept. 2011

Buckingham, Joseph T., ed. "Obiuary Notice of Madam Abigail Adams." New-England   

Galaxy and Masonic Magazine [Boston] 13 Nov. 1818, Series 1 ed.: 18. American Periodicals Series Online. Web. 14 Sept. 2011.

Butterfield, L. H., Wendell D. Garrett, and Marjorie E. Sprague. Adams Family Correspondence.

            Vol. 2. Cambridge, MA: Belknap of Harvard UP, 1963. Print.

Crane, Elaine F. "Political Dialogue and the Spring of Abigail's Discontent." The William and

            Mary Quarterly 3rd ser. 56.4 (1999): 745-74. JSTOR. Web. 10 Sept. 2011.

Gelles, Edith B. "Abigail Adams: Domesticity and the American Revolution." The New England

            Quarterly 52.4 (1979): 500-21. JSTOR. Web. 2 Oct. 2011.

Gelles, Edith B. "Bonds of Friendship: The Correspondence of Abigail Adams and Mercy Otis

Warren." Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society 3rd ser. 108 (1996): 35-71. JSTOR. Web. 2 Oct. 2011.

Gelles, Edith. "Review: More than a Wife." The Woman's Review of Books 5.5 (1988): 18-19.

            JSTOR. Web. 2 Oct. 2011.

Hicks, Philip. "Portia and Marcia: Female Political Identity and the Historical Imagination, 1770-

1800." The William and Mary Quarterly 3rd ser. 62.2 (2005): 265-94. JSTOR. Web. 2 Oct. 2011.

Hoornstra, Jean, and Trudy Heath. American Periodicals, 1741-1900: An Index to the

Microfilm Collections-American Periodicals 18th Century, American Periodicals, 1800-1850, American Periodicals, 1850-1900, Civil War and Reconstruction. Ann Arbor: University Microfilms International, 1979. Print.

"Madam Abigail Adams." Christian Disciple 6 Dec. 1818: 364. American Periodicals

Series Online. Web. 10 Sept. 2011.

Meschutt, David. "A Long Lost Portrait of John Adams and an Unknown Portrait of Abigail

Adams by James Sharples." American Art Journal 32.1/2 (2001): 76-93. JSTOR. Web. 2 Oct. 2011.

Richards, Jeffrey H. Mercy Otis Warren. New York: Twayne, 1995. Print.

Shuffleton, Frank. "In Different Voices: Gender in the American Republic of Letters." Early

            American Literature 25 (1990): 289-304. JSTOR. Web. 12 Oct. 2011.

Sweet, Rosemary. "Freemen and Independence in English Borough Politics c. 1770-

1830." The Past and Present Society 161 (1998): 84-115. JSTOR. Web. 16 Sept. 2011.

Whitney, Peter. A Sermon Delivered on the Lord's Day Succeeding the Interment of

Madam Abigail Adams, Consort of the Hon. John Adams Late President of America. Boston, 1819. American History & Culture Online: Sabin Americana, 1500-1926. Web. 17 Sept. 2011.