Browsing: Early Diary of John Adams, Volume 1

Another typical page, {23} in the MS, written late in 1758, in what had by now become for Adams an all-purpose miscellany rather than a diary. At the top is a query, which can be made out with effort, concerning Luke Lambert’s horses that trampled Joseph Field’s crops and led to Adams’ first case as a trial lawyer. Then follows a draft letter, deliberately casual in tone, to his friend Crawford, inquiring about friends in Worcester and particularly about a girl there named Betsy Greene. The draft is initialed “J.A.,” the only occurrence in the Diary Fragment of Adams’ name in any form. Finally there are detached quotations and reflections on Fame and Reputation, matters of absorbing interest to an intensely ambitious young man making his start in the world.