© ELENA SEIBERT
Out of the shadows
Stacy Schiff provides a sweeping biography of Samuel Adams
by BRYAN REESMAN
Pulitzer Prize–winning author and historian Stacy Schiff did not intend to write her latest book about Samuel Adams. Although she had been contemplating researching a powerful fifth-century Frenchwoman, every time Schiff went to her local library she kept veering to Adams’ side of the aisle. She ultimately felt compelled to chronicle the Founding Father’s life.
The other Founding Fathers believed he was an essential part of American independence, yet much less is known about him. “What did they know that we don’t know?” Schiff wondered. She soon realized that a majority of public knowledge about Adams came from his opposition.
In The Revolutionary, Schiff dives into the life of the man who helped incite the American Revolution. “It’s hard to write about him because so much has been destroyed,” Schiff tells the Connection during a phone call from her New York home. “He’s so much often confused with [his cousin and second U.S. president] John [Adams]. His name works against him to some extent, and he clearly preferred to be in the background. So he has fallen out of the picture for that very embrace of [being] behind the scenes.” Beyond his anonymously penned newspaper editorials, much of what endures is written accounts by his adversaries. Adams destroyed many of his personal writings and letters so as not to expose his plans to the British, but luckily some survived.
Samuel Adams had a lackluster life until his 40s, when he took up the cause for American freedom. He became a prolific writer and a political agitator who sought to rouse his Colonial brethren from what he saw as increasingly tyrannical British rule.
Adams had a gift for running circles around his adversaries as well as for cutting to the heart of matters. “He’s very good at tearing an argument down to the single most important elements and just shaking out all the other nonsense,” explains Schiff.
Costco Connection: The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams (Item 1690797; 10/25) is available in most Costco warehouses.
Bryan Reesman is an author and host of the podcast Side Jams.
