John Adams has a huge fan in David McCullough

Like a finely honed narrative, the grounds behind David McCullough's house in West Tisbury, Mass., unfold along a neat, narrow line, an acre divided in three by low stone walls. On the far part, beyond shouts and telephone lines, stands a cottage.

COMING UP

DAVID McCULLOUGH

WHAT: Reading from "John Adams"

WHEN/WHERE: Today, 7 p.m., Town Hall, 1119 Eighth Ave., free tickets at University Book Stores, 206-634-3400; tomorrow, 4 p.m.; Elliott Bay Book Co., 101 S. Main St., free tickets at store, 206-624-6600

"That's where I work," the historian says on a recent sunny morning. "Practically everything I've done has been written there."

His office is a cozy place with pine floorboards and small square window panes. Hundreds of books cover the walls and a procession of toy Revolutionary War soldiers are aligned on a ledge.

Much of the time, though, the 67-year-old McCullough's eyes turn to his manual typewriter, purchased more than 35 years ago and still fit for use. He calls it a "good investment," and his publisher, Simon & Schuster, would not argue. McCullough has sold millions of books and won some big prizes.

Both "Mornings on Horseback," about Theodore Roosevelt, and "The Path Between the Seas," about the building of the Panama Canal, won the National Book Award. "Truman," published in 1991, was among the most popular presidential books ever, selling more than 1 million copies and winning the Pulitzer Prize.

"John Adams" is McCullough's current book. It had a first printing of 265,000, a number more common for commercial novels than for history books. Adams is a peculiar subject for such attention. He was suspicious of the masses, and doubtful of his place in history. But he never had a fan in his lifetime like McCullough, a historian readable enough to sell and sell and serious enough to please the experts.

Even more than Truman, Adams could use the McCullough touch. Unlike his fellow revolutionary leaders, he was never idolized. A 1997 historians' poll of presidents ranked him below Jefferson and Washington -- and Truman. He has no public monuments. Politicians rarely quote him.

Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence, has been called the "pen" of the American Revolution. Adams, the most passionate spokesman for separation from Britain, has been called the "voice." But his early leadership has been shadowed by two incidents.

As vice president, he suggested that the country's leaders be given titles, inspiring critics to label him a would-be monarchist. As president, he signed the Alien and Sedition Acts, which subjected government critics to imprisonment.

Defending his mistakes as minor compared to his triumphs, Adams' supporters long have believed him to be an unappreciated statesman, an opinion he held of himself.

McCullough says he began the current project intending to write a dual biography of Jefferson and Adams. He had been warned by a friend that Jefferson would overtake his fellow "founding father," as he often did in real life. But the Adams papers changed his mind.

"I have never had such a wealth of material as I did for this book," he says. "A lot of this has to do with ... the quality of the prose, the quality of the language, which is a reflection of the quality of the thinking."

The historian believes the public knows too little about the personal qualities of Adams. He was honest, funny, loyal and warm, especially to his wife, Abigail. Unlike Jefferson, he owned no slaves and had only modest personal wealth. If he lacked Jefferson's knack for history-making language, he was not without poetry. McCullough cites a journal entry the morning after a severe winter storm:

"Every tree was a chandelier of cut glass," Adams wrote. "I have seen a Queen of France with eighteen million livres of diamonds upon her person and I declare that all the charms of her face and figure added to all the glitter of her jewel did not make an impression on me equal to that presented by every shrub."

McCullough's obvious fondness for his subjects have made him widely, but not universally, admired. No one doubts his skill, but some question his judgment. Several critics of "Truman" found McCullough too easy on his subject, more interested in uplifting narrative than serious analysis.

Researching his current book, McCullough stood on the shoreline of Quincy, Mass., where in the winter of 1778 Adams sailed with his young son, John Quincy, on a diplomatic mission to Europe.

"I went there at the same time, February, same time of day, which was late afternoon -- dusk. ... And the wind was blowing as it was then, and the gulls were screaming and it was so cold I could hardly stand to be out there," McCullough explains.

"And it was then that I really felt, 'My God! To think that they were going to get into a boat to be rowed out to the frigate that's waiting to take them there to sea, in the dead of winter, when nobody went to sea.' He's never been on a ship in his life. He's never been to sea in his life."

Vice president for two terms under George Washington, John Adams won the presidency by just three electoral votes in 1796. Jefferson beat Adams in 1800, and a bitter Adams returned to Quincy, refusing to attend his former friend's inauguration.

McCullough was especially moved by Adams' post-presidential years. He was old, bald, toothless, but not in despair. He loved debate, so much so that he wrote passionate rebuttals in the margins of old books. He reconciled with Jefferson, beginning a correspondence McCullough and others consider the most learned in American history.

Adams' death is among the most star-crossed of American presidents. He died at age 90 on the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1826. Jefferson, meanwhile, had been gravely ill and died the same day.

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