This review applies to the entire series, Jefferson and His Times.
Anyone who wants to understand a fraction of Jefferson, needs to start here. This work is the source that most academicians use. It is thorough and depends upon Jefferson's correspondence, editorials, reports, day books, conversations and memories. What more could you ever need? Heavily footnoted, this series puts to shame all other works on this great American. Some popular authors have written of Jefferson suggesting what he may have thought, or he may have done (Brody, anyone?) Malone is authoritative and needs not speculate. Read the series and then ask yourself, "Is it more likely than not that Jefferson fathered Sally Hemming's children?" I can only conclude that he did not. I remember when Clinton was president and, when incidents arose which questioned his fidelity, suddenly this old rumor became current. Someone interviewed the descendants of Hemmings and guess what? They all believed they were related to him! Isn't that peculiar? NO! What does a reasonable man expect them to say? Is it not more impressive to be part of a family that was sired by one of the greatest Americans or his philandering nephew, Peter Carr. All resurrected in the hope of distracting the American public from a current political scandal.
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1674 The Sage of Monticello: Jefferson and His Time Volume Six, by Dumas Malone (read 26 Nov 1981) I read Malone's five previous volumes, finishing the fifth volume on 23 Apr 1978. When I started reading those volumes I did not know the series was incomplete, but this volume, the final one, was just published this year [1982]. This volume is carefully done and really well-done. Jefferson's years after 1809 were not really happy ones. He always was in debt and when he died July 4, 1826, his debts totaled $107,273.63 and apparently they were not paid off for a long time. Much of this volume deals with his work with the University of Virginia, which did not get going until 1825. Also covered is his sale of his library to congress, thus laying the foundation of the Library of Congress after the War of 1812. Reading this book was easy and deeply satisfying. The period covered is one I have found of particular interest in American history. ( )