They loved and argued. They pined and parried. They were caring and cranky. You don’t write to me enough, she said. Deal with it, he said. I’m busy.

John and Abigail Adams built the prototype of the stressed and overachieving American couple even before there was a United States of America. They filled parental roles, bringing up baby on two fronts, John helping guide the fledgling nation’s first steps far away, Abigail toiling at the family farm back in Braintree, the war raging around her.