how do i differ from david mccollough. i think david mccollough's john adams has been not only a service to john adams, but to all of us. john adams was the least known of all of the founding fathers until mccollough's books. there were few biographies of adams, but mccollough's book brought him to attention and since that time, there have been a couple of television programs as you know and so forth, so it was a very wonderful book and he gets john adams spot on from the first paragraph, where he has john adams on a horse, in a snowstorm, riding from quincy, mis, to boston, talking and talking, and talking, and that to me is john adams spot on. the mouth talking in every circumstance. inventively, creatively. mccollough also likes abigail a great deal, but she's a subordinate figure in the book. she shows up only as it compliments john adams, and he doesn't give her what i call agency. that is, she reacts throughout the book. she doesn't -- you don't see here as an innovator. for instance, this passage that i just read yo