About Nina Sankovitch
Nina Sankovitch is the author of four books of nonfiction, with a fifth coming out in 2024 about the life of a revolutionary era non-gendered minister fighting to save the soul of America. A bestselling author, an award winning historian, and a voracious reader, Sankovitch has been profiled in the New York Times (twice) and in addition to her books, has written for the New York Times, the LA Times, Vogue, the Huffington Post, and other media. She can be reached via Facebook, Goodreads, Threads, and here, on Medium.
American Rebels: How the Hancock, Adams, and Quincy Families Fanned the Flames of Revolution
American Rebels: How the Hancock, Adams, and Quincy Families Fanned the Flames of Revolution explores for the first time the intimate connections and intertwined lives of John Hancock, John Adams, Josiah Quincy Junior, Abigail Smith Adams, and Dorothy Quincy Hancock.
“Sankovitch has woven a compelling, potent chronicle of members of three principal American families that will be valued by readers of American history at all levels,” from Library Journal, in its starred review.
“Best-selling author Nina Sankovitch has given us a magnificent, solid work on the life, times and people who helped guide the American colonies to freedom from English rule…. puts her readers in the hearts and minds of participants and, more important, offers us fresh perspective of the events leading to revolution here,” wrote Jack Shea of The Martha’s Vineyard Times.
Publishers Weekly also praised American Rebels: “Historian Sankovitch (The Lowells of Massachusetts) explores the family connections and revolutionary politics shared by John Hancock, John and Abigail Adams, and Josiah Quincy Jr., in this richly detailed and fluidly written account…Revolutionary War buffs will savor this thoughtful addition to popular histories of the period.”
Booklist recommended American Rebels: “Sankovitch lays out the evolution of eighteenth-century political thought and shows how it arose within these families and their interconnections. Students of American Revolution history will find a fresh perspective here.”
Goodreads named American Rebels one of “the most highly anticipated new and upcoming nonfiction… books readers can’t wait to crack open…”
American Rebels: How the Hancock, Adams, and Quincy Families Fanned the Flames of Revolution won the 2021 New England Society in the City of New York Book Award for Best Historical Nonfiction.
The Lowells of Massachusetts: An American Family
The Lowells of Massachusetts tells the story of the Lowell family from Percival Lowle’s arrival in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1639 through the blazing of Amy Lowell’s poetic glory in the early twentieth century.
Critics hailed The Lowells of Massachusetts as “[A] stirring saga …Vivid and intimate, Ms. Sankovitch’s account entertains us with Puritans and preachers, Tories and rebels, abolitionists and industrialists, lecturers and poets … Ms. Sankovitch has made a compelling contribution to Massachusetts and American History.” ( The Wall Street Journal)
“Meet American’s Most Extraordinary Family: the Lowells of Massachusetts,” said The Washington Post: “Sankovitch has searched out these letters to write the powerful story of one of America’s most extraordinary families, a family that helped shape the course of American history in dramatic and decisive ways…By the final pages of this volume, one feels deeply attached to the individual Lowells, while also exhilarated at having experienced this grand sweep of American history.“
“[Sankovitch’s] skillful blending of context and detail makes the vicissitudes of one family emblematic of a nation’s,” proclaimed The New Yorker.
The Connecticut Post praised it for reading “like a fine novel. You might be reminded of one of those deep digs into history and storytelling that James Michener used to do in his novels “Hawaii” and “Chesapeake.”
“A fascinating collective biography … paying tribute to both worthy individuals and everyone else in this prominent, complicated family,” said Booklist.
The Library Journal also recommended The Lowells of Massachusetts: “Sankovitch’s use of interpretative passages breathe color into descriptions of home life of various Lowells, adding an artistic dimension to the account. Her ability to switch the focus among the family members while keeping readers fully engaged in the narrative is a significant achievement.”
“A sturdy, busy multibiography of an eminent American family… Exhaustive work by a clear admirer and dogged researcher,” said Kirkus Reviews.
Tolstoy and the Purple Chair: My Year of Magical Reading
Tolstoy and the Purple Chair is a memoir of the year Sankovitch spent reading a book a day for one year. It was hailed as “an outstanding debut” by Kirkus Reviews, designated a “book to read now” by Oprah, and praised by The Christian Science Monitor, The Los Angeles Times, Bookpage, Publishers’s Weekly, and Booklist.
Signed, Sealed, Delivered: Celebrating the Joys of Letter Writing
Signed, Sealed, Delivered is a combination of history and memoir, in which Sankovitch explores the history of letter-writing. Oprah hailed Signed, Sealed, Delivered as a book “every joy-seeking woman needs to read” and the book also received celebratory reviews from Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Review, Library Journal, and Booklist. Sankovitch was invited to give a TEDx talk on the importance of letter writing, in which she presented her own obsession with writing, reading, and saving letters.
