As you may have heard, HBO is about to air a mini-series based on David McCullough's John Adams, with Paul Giamatti and Laura Linney starring as John and Abigail. The very flashy series website contains trailers, clips, interviews, and all sorts of other goodies. HBO has arranged a tie-in marketing campaign with the US Postal Service which is highlighted at poweroftheletter.com: among other things, first class letters will be postmarked with a special cancellation in March containing a 1765 quote from JA: "Let us dare to read, think, speak and write."
The USPS website also contains "see the original letters" links to the Adams Electronic Archive here at MHS, where you can view images and transcriptions of the entire John-Abigail correspondence (among other things). Our web guru has also mounted a brand-new site designed specifically to complement the HBO mini-series.
Beyond the virtual, there will be two physical exhibits of Adams letters and other manuscript materials. Here at the MHS in Boston, "John Adams: A Life in Letters" will be open to the public from 8 March through 31 (Monday through Saturday, 1-4 p.m.). And at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, NY, "My Dearest Friend" will run from 5-30 April in the Frederick Ferris Thompson Memorial Library.
