Thomas Jefferson was an avid book-collector, a voracious reader, and a
gifted writer--a man who prided himself on his knowledge of classical
and modern languages and whose marginal annotations include quotations
from Euripides, Herodotus, and Milton. And yet there has never been a
literary life of our most literary president.
In The Road to Monticello, Kevin J. Hayes fills this important gap by
offering a lively account of Jefferson's spiritual and intellectual
development, focusing on the books and ideas that exerted the most
profound influence on him. Moving chronologically through Jefferson's
life, Hayes reveals the full range and depth of Jefferson's literary
passions, from the popular "small books" sold by traveling chapmen, such
as The History of Tom Thumb, which enthralled him as a child; to his
lifelong love of Aesop's Fables and Robinson Crusoe; his engagement
with Horace, Ovid, Virgil and other writers of classical antiquity; and
his deep affinity with the melancholy verse of Ossian, the legendary
third-century Gaelic warrior-poet.
Drawing on Jefferson's letters, journals, and commonplace books, Hayes
offers a wealth of new scholarship on the print culture of colonial
America, reveals an intimate portrait of Jefferson's activities beyond
the political chamber, and reconstructs the president's investigations
in such different fields of knowledge as law, history, philosophy and
natural science.
Most importantly, Hayes uncovers the ideas and exchanges which informed
the thinking of America's first great intellectual and shows how his
lifelong pursuit of knowledge culminated in the formation of a public
offering, the "academic village" which became UVA, and his more private
retreat at Monticello. Gracefully written and painstakingly researched,
The Road to Monticello provides an invaluable look at Jefferson's
intellectual and literary life, uncovering the roots of some of the most
important--and influential--ideas that have informed American history.
