Louisa Catherine

The first biography of John Quincy Adams’ talented and spirited wife, the only first lady born outside the United States

Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams, wife and political partner of John Quincy Adams, became one of the most widely known women in America when her husband assumed office as sixth president in 1825. Shrewd, intellectual, and articulate, she was close to the center of American power over many decades, and extensive archives reveal her as an unparalleled observer of the politics, personalities, and issues of her day. Louisa left behind a trove of journals, essays, letters, and other writings, yet no biographer has mined these riches until now. Margery Heffron brings Louisa out of the shadows at last to offer the first full and nuanced portrait of an extraordinary first lady.

The book begins with Louisa’s early life in London and Nantes, France, then details her excruciatingly awkward courtship and engagement to John Quincy, her famous diplomatic success in tsarist Russia, her life as a mother, years abroad as the wife of a distinguished diplomat, and finally the Washington, D.C., era when, as a legendary hostess, she made no small contribution to her husband’s successful bid for the White House. Louisa’s sharp insights as a tireless recorder provide a fresh view of early American democratic society, presidential politics and elections, and indeed every important political and social issue of her time.

The late Margery Heffron was an independent writer and scholar. Her interest in Louisa Catherine Adams began in an encounter with an "arresting" portrait of Louisa at the Adams National Historical Park in the 1970s: "Her level, appraising glance challenged me to pay her respect.” This book is Heffron's answer to that challenge.

"Richly detailed, evocative and wonderfully intimate, Louisa Catherine is historical biography at its best. The portraits of John Quincy Adams and Louisa—her upbringing, his "entrapment," their courtship, the marriage, and beyond—seem to come straight out of a Jane Austen novel. Painted on a broad canvas, from Philadelphia to St. Petersburg, this narrative will linger in the mind long after reading."—Nigel Hamilton, University of Massachusetts Boston

“Louisa Catherine Adams was one of the savviest political minds of early America and she presided as an honored presence in Washington for almost a half century. But, despite her witty letters and detailed diaries, no one has given us a good biography of ‘the other Mrs. Adams’ until now. Thankfully Margery Heffron finally righted that wrong with this lively book about a charming but complicated woman and her times.”—Cokie Roberts, author of Founding Mothers and Ladies of Liberty


"Margery Heffron does much more than tell Louisa Catherine's tale, as fascinating as the tale is. Above all else, this is a sophisticated analysis of a self. It takes a scholar such as Heffron to contextualize and tease out meaning. Under Heffron's deft hand, Louisa Catherine is presented as a full human being, a woman of her time and place."—Catherine Allgor, The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens