Jefferson the President

Of all the presidents of the United States, none save Washington and Lincoln have inspired half so much historical writing as Thomas Jefferson. Books and articles by the score have dealt with the Sage of Monticello in one or another of his myriad aspects— Virginian, statesman, philosopher, scientist, farmer, architect, rationalist, theologian, slaveholder, apostle of liberty, author of the Declaration of Independence. His most intimate letters have been published and analysed and published again; pedants have used his offhand utterances as the basis for ponderous tomes; there have been treatises on his health, his psyche, his sex life, and the history of his reputation. One could, in fact, spend years reading the literature on Jefferson and never come close to exhausting the supply.