LOUISA – The Extraordinary Journey of Mrs. Adams – by Louisa Thomas.

PENGUIN PRESS, 2016

Louisa Adams waited excitedly, small and slight, with large dark eyes. It was January 8, 1824. Louisa stood exactly where she would be seen, the cynosure of all eyes and all attention rapt on her, with “a beautiful plan in her head,” as she wrote in her diary. Fifty-four bonfires lit the road, with a thousand guests arriving “as splendid an assemblage of beauty and fashion as we have ever witnessed,” the Richmond Enquirer exultantly wrote.

Miriam Jacob