Saving Monticello: The Newsletter
The latest about the book, author
events, and more
Newsletter Editor - Marc Leepson
Volume XIII, Number 9 September
1, 2016
BOOKS: Thomas Jefferson, as I wrote in Saving Monticello, had the largest
private library in America. But Jefferson was forced to sell the entire
collection because of his serious fiscal difficulties that escalated greatly
his second presidential term ended in 1809. Not long after he came back to
Charlottesville that year to live full time at Monticello, Jefferson decided to
part with the books to try to pay off his mounting debts.
The sale took place in February of 1815 when Congress, after a spirited debate and by
a small majority, agreed to buy Jefferson’s private, 6,500-odd book library for
$23,950. He had offered the books to the nation after learning that British
troops had burned the congressional library in Washington following the War of
1812 Battle of Bladensburg in August of 1814.
Because of his offer
to expand the library, Jefferson has been known as the father of the Library of
Congress, which had started in 1800. A 2000 Library of Congress exhibit on
Jefferson (photo, above) included a
replica of the library Jefferson sold to the nation in 1815. It filled twenty,
twelve-foot high bookcases.
Soon after selling the collection, though Thomas Jefferson had seller’s remorse. “I cannot live without books,” he famously wrote to John Adams on June 10, 1815. So the Sage of Monticello began acquiring books for another personal library. When he died in 1824, Jefferson left more than $107,000 in debt to his heirs, along with instructions to donate his new library of some three thousand volumes to the University of Virginia.
But
Thomas Jefferson Randolph, working to pay off his grandfather’s enormous debt,
sold the bulk of the collection to a Washington, D.C., bookseller in 1829. That
same year Jeff Randolph sold a historically important collection of his
grandfather's printed books, bound volumes and manuscripts
that dealt primarily with Virginia history to the Library of Congress.
Sadly, in 1851 a fire engulfed
much of the Library of Congress, destroying about two-thirds of the Jefferson
collection. In recent years, the Library has worked diligently to find
replacements. The good news is that the LOC has acquired hundreds of
replacement copies from antiquarian book dealers all over the world, mainly
through a large 1999 grant from Jerry and Gene Jones (yes, it’s the Jerry Jones
who owns the Dallas Cowboys) in its quest to reassemble the collection as it
was in 1815.
I just learned that a lawyer in Chicago
named Joe Gromacki, has worked for years to assemble copies of every one of the
books Jefferson donated to the Library of Congress in 1815 for his own library.
According to an article in Crain’s Chicago Business, Gromacki now owns
nearly 4,000 of the books. You can read the whole story at http://bit.ly/TJBookCollection
EVENTS: We are very close to having a title and the
cover design for my next book, the first ever biography of Barry Sadler, “The
Ballad of the Green Berets” guy, which will come out in March of next year. I am
doing more speaking on my books, including Saving
Monticello. Just one event in September, though.
I’ll be doing a talk on the Marquis
de Lafayette on Monday, September 26,
as part of the Lynchburg College Senior Symposium in Lynchburg, Virginia. Seven
others will give talks to the LC seniors in this program, which has the primary
theme of “Knowledge, Justice, Leadership and Creativity.” I did at talk on the
history of the American flag for the Senior Symposium in the fall of 2008, my
daughter Cara’s senior year at Lynchburg.
Please email me if you’d like to arrange an event for Saving Monticello—or for any of my other
books, including my Francis Scott Key, biography, What So Proudly We Hailed, and Lafayette:
Idealist General, my concise bio of the Marquis de Lafayette—at marc527psc@aol.com For more details on
other upcoming events, go to http://bit.ly/SMOnline That’s the “Author
Events” page on my website, www.marcleepson.com
Facebook,
Twitter: If you’re on Facebook, please send me a friend request. If
you’re on Twitter, I’d love to have you as a follower.
Gift
Ideas: If you would like a
personally autographed, brand-new paperback copy of Saving Monticello, e-mail me at Marc527psc@aol.com Or go to this page of my website: http://marcleepson.com/signedbooks.html
to order copies through my local bookstore, Second Chapter Books in Middleburg , Virginia Lafayette
