Synopses & Reviews
This keepsake book contains a selection of quotations by and about Thomas Jefferson, chosen for the exhibition
The Words of Thomas Jefferson, featured in the new Thomas Jefferson Visitor Center at Monticello. Designed in the spirit of the early nineteenth-century literary tradition, the volume is a celebration of Jefferson's humor, curiosity, and wisdom. His words, reproduced as literally and as faithfully as possible, have been checked character for character against the original manuscripts by at least three trained documentary editors.
Selected by the staff of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, the quotations correspond to fifteen themes that comprise the chapters of the book, representing Jefferson's thoughts and advice on subjects ranging from "America" and "Education" to "Progress" and "Slavery." The final section, "The Words of Others," includes twenty quotations about Thomas Jefferson himself.
The book includes two very brief prefaces, one that explains the relationship between the book and the Monticello galleries, and one offering a concise description of the editorial work involved in transcribing Jefferson's correspondence.