Landmark Books in All Fields
ItemID: #116801
Cost: $4,500.00

Memoir, Correspondence, and Miscellanies

Thomas Jefferson

"AGAINST EVERY FORM OF TYRANNY OVER THE MIND OF MAN": JEFFERSON'S MEMOIRS, 1830, RARE IN ORIGINAL BOARDS

JEFFERSON, Thomas. Memoir, Correspondence, and Miscellanies, from the Papers of Thomas Jefferson. Edited by Thomas Jefferson Randolph. Boston: Gray and Bowen, New York: G. & C. & H. Carvill, 1830. Four volumes. Octavo, original half tan cloth and paper boards, original printed paper spine labels, uncut and largely unopened. Housed in a custom clamshell box. $4500.

Second edition of Jefferson’s writings (issued one year after the Charlotteville edition), compiled and edited by his grandson, with frontispiece portrait and folding facsimile of the original draft of the Declaration, uncut and largely unopened in original boards.

An invaluable window into arguably the foremost intellect of early America, these four volumes of Jefferson's memoirs "begin with a short fragment concerning [Jefferson] himself, drawn up at the age of 77; and close with a… journal kept by him while Secretary of State during Washington's administration. The rest consists exclusively of a voluminous correspondence, ranging from 1775, after the blood had been spilt at Boston, to June 1826, ten days only before his death" (Sabin). The final letter included (dated June 24, 1826), contains a worthy summary of Jefferson's guiding principles and passions: "All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man. The general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately… These are grounds of hope for others" (IV:441). Included is his famous letter to Benjamin Rush, in which he declared, "I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man." Volume I with steel-engraved frontispiece portrait of Jefferson by J.B. Longacre after Stuart, and folding facsimile of the original draft of the Declaration of Independence. With half titles. First published in Charlotteville the previous year. Howes R60. Sabin 35891.

Interior generally fresh with light scattered foxing, one leaf and folding facsimile of Declaration with expert paper repairs, faint occasional marginal dampstaining; mild soiling, trace of light dampstaining to original boards.

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