John Quincy Adams was a bit of a nerd. Honestly, that’s the best way to describe him if you look at his daily routine. He didn't just read; he inhaled information. He was the kind of guy who would wake up at 5:00 AM, bathe in the Potomac River, and then spend hours painstakingly recording every single detail of his life and thoughts. This obsessive-compulsive dedication to the written word is exactly why books by John Quincy Adams—and the books he curated in his massive personal library—offer a weirdly intimate window into the early American mind.
Most people know him as the son of a founder or the guy who had a rough one-term presidency. They forget he was perhaps the most literate man to ever occupy the White House. He spoke multiple languages. He translated German poetry for fun. He was a professor of rhetoric at Harvard. If you want to understand the intellectual DNA of the United States, you can’t just look at the Constitution; you have to look at what JQA was putting on paper.
The Massive Scale of the Memoirs
If you walk into a library looking for books by John Quincy Adams, the first thing that hits you is the sheer physical weight of his Memoirs. We aren't talking about a slim 200-page autobiography written by a ghostwriter for a campaign trail. No. This is a 12-volume behemoth edited by his son, Charles Francis Adams, and published decades after JQA died.
It covers sixty years. Sixty.
Think about that for a second. He started his diary as a young boy accompanying his father to Europe and didn't stop until he was literally dying on the floor of the House of Representatives. Because he was so meticulous, we get these tiny, granular details that other historians might have skipped. You see his insecurities. You see him complaining about his health or agonizing over his political failures. It's not a polished PR piece. It's raw. Historian Allan Nevins once noted that the diary is "one of the greatest of all American political documents." It’s basically a daily play-by-play of the United States growing up, written by someone who was always in the room where it happened.
Why "Lectures on Rhetoric and Oratory" Still Slaps
Before he was President, Adams was the Boylston Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory at Harvard. He took the job seriously. Like, really seriously. In 1810, he published Lectures on Rhetoric and Oratory, which is a two-volume set based on his class notes.
Now, I know what you're thinking. "Rhetoric? Sounds dry."
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But here’s the thing: Adams believed that in a democracy, the ability to speak clearly and persuasively was the only thing keeping the country from falling into chaos. He was obsessed with the classics—Cicero, Quintilian, the Greeks. He argued that eloquence wasn't just about sounding fancy; it was about moral character. If you’ve ever watched a modern political debate and felt like your brain was melting, reading JQA’s lectures is a refreshing, if slightly dense, palate cleanser. He breaks down how to structure an argument and why the truth matters more than the "win." It’s essentially a manual for how to be a citizen-statesman.
The Poetry and the Weird Stuff
Did you know John Quincy Adams wrote poetry? Not many people do. He published Dermot MacMorrogh, or The Conquest of Ireland in 1832. It’s a historical epic in four cantos.
It’s... okay.
Look, he wasn't Lord Byron. But the fact that a sitting member of Congress (which he was at the time, having gone back to the House after his presidency) was publishing epic poetry tells you everything you need to know about the man's brain. He also wrote Poems of Religion and Society, which came out posthumously. These books show a side of him that his political enemies never saw—a man grappling with faith, legacy, and the beauty of the natural world.
There’s also his work on weights and measures. Yes, really. In 1821, he submitted a Report upon Weights and Measures to the Senate. It sounds like the most boring thing ever written, but scientists and historians actually consider it a masterpiece of research. He spent years investigating how different countries measured things because he wanted a unified system for the U.S. He was thinking about the global economy before that was even a buzzword.
The Library at Peacefield
You can't really talk about books by John Quincy Adams without talking about the books owned by him. His library at the Old House in Quincy, Massachusetts (part of the Adams National Historical Park), contains over 8,000 volumes.
It is one of the best-preserved private libraries from that era.
When you look at the titles on those shelves, you see a man who was obsessed with everything. Astronomy. Botany. Law. Theology. He had books in French, Dutch, German, Latin, and Greek. He would often write in the margins (marginalia), arguing with the authors. This wasn't a "display" library. These books were used, battered, and loved.
If you're ever in Massachusetts, you have to go see the Stone Library. It’s a separate fireproof building his son built to house the collection. Standing in there feels like standing inside JQA's mind. It's quiet, organized, and slightly overwhelming.
How to Actually Read Him Today
If you want to dive into his world, don't try to read all 12 volumes of the Memoirs right away. You’ll burn out.
Instead, look for the abridged versions. There’s a great one-volume edition edited by Allan Nevins that hits the highlights. It keeps the juicy political drama and the personal reflections without the 300-page tangents about 19th-century diplomatic protocol.
Another essential is The Diaries of John Quincy Adams: 1779–1848, published by the Library of America. They do a fantastic job of cleaning up the text and making it readable for a modern audience. It’s high-quality, durable, and fits on a normal bookshelf.
Actionable Steps for the Aspiring JQA Scholar
If you’re ready to get started, here is how you should actually approach the literary world of the sixth president:
- Start with the Library of America volumes. They are the most accessible and "human-friendly" versions of his diaries.
- Check out the Massachusetts Historical Society website. They have digitized huge chunks of the Adams Family Papers. You can actually see his handwriting, which—fair warning—is sometimes a bit of a nightmare to decipher.
- Read "Dermot MacMorrogh" only if you’re a completionist. It’s a tough slog if you aren't into 19th-century epic poetry, but it’s a fascinating look at his creative side.
- Focus on the "Gag Rule" years. If you want the most "action-movie" version of JQA, read his diary entries from the late 1830s and 1840s when he was fighting against slavery in the House of Representatives. That’s where he earns the nickname "Old Man Eloquent."
- Visit the Adams National Historical Park. Seeing the physical books he held makes the history feel real in a way a Kindle screen never will.
John Quincy Adams wasn't trying to be a best-selling author. He was trying to record the truth of a brand-new nation. Whether he was writing about the stars, the law, or his own failures, he did it with a level of honesty that is rare in the "great man" history of the 1800s. Reading him isn't just a history lesson; it's a look at what it means to be a person deeply committed to the idea of a Republic. It’s messy, it’s long, and it’s occasionally grumpy—just like the man himself.