Description
"Thomas Jefferson's Scrapbooks: Poems of Nation, Family, & Romantic Love Collected by America's Third President" is a previously unpublished collection of poetry gathered by Jefferson between 1800 and 1808. Pasted together by Jefferson himself, and sent to his grand-daughters Cornelia and Ellen, the four newspaper clippings books on which this single volume is based provide insight into the literary tastes of the author of the Declaration of Independence. This edition follows Jefferson's own arrangement of his material into three categories: patriotic, domestic, and romantic verse. Jefferson's poems of nation, chiefly celebrating July 4th, show how Jefferson wished his country to celebrate this historic date; his poems about family provide insight into his views on marriage and happiness as a retreat from political strife; while his wide reading in romantic poetry significantly challenges the previous view of Jefferson as primarily a legal draftsman who could only enjoy Virgil, Homer, and other classical writers.
