Since the TV miniseries debuted, an alternative cover has been added to the book showing Paul Giamatti as John Adams.

[2] Perhaps the greatest treasure trove was the enormous amount of correspondence between John Adams and his wife, Abigail Adams, a marriage McCullough calls "one of the great love stories of American history.

"[3] In 2009, McCullough acknowledged that he misquoted Thomas Jefferson in John Adams.

He was criticized in a Harper's Magazine review of the book, which claimed that McCullough had mistakenly attributed Jefferson as having referred to the second president as a "colossus of independence."

"It's hard work; you're trying to get the truth about distant times," he told the Associated Press.