Picture a woman hanging wet laundry in the unfinished East Room of the White House, who also wielded so much covert political influence that her husband's critics called her Mrs. President. This deep dive explores the extraordinary life of Abigail Adams, self-taught intellectual, financial strategist, and indispensable advisor during the founding of the United States.

Barred from formal schooling, Abigail educated herself in her family's libraries, reading the same political theory as the founders. While John was away at the Continental Congress and in Europe, she ran the family farm, made bold financial gambles, and shaped policy through more than 1,200 letters that doubled as strategic briefings.

• How self-directed reading gave her an education equal to the era's statesmen
• Her use of a male proxy to buy depreciated war d ...