Books

392pp. plus frontispiece portrait and folding table. Folding map. With the folding plate of the Natural Bridge of Virginia supplied in facsimile. Contemporary calf, neatly rebacked with gilt spine laid down, gilt morocco label. Boards slightly rubbed. Lightly tanned and foxed. Very good. In a folding cloth box, leather label. The self-styled "third American edition," although the statement to that effect has been effaced from the titlepage. There were actually five American editions published before this one. NOTES ON THE STATE OF VIRGINIA is the only book-length work by Jefferson to be published in his lifetime. It has been called "one of America's first permanent literary and intellectual landmarks." It was largely written in 1781 and first published in Paris, in French, in 1785. Written in the form of answers to questions about Virginia, the book supplies a description of the geography, with an abundance of supporting material and unusual information. The portrait of Jefferson was engraved by John Scoles, and is pictured and described in Cunningham's THE IMAGE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON IN THE PUBLIC EYE. This edition contains a copy of the 1794 Samuel Lewis map of the state of Virginia which is usually found in the second American edition of NOTES. This edition is also the first to contain the appendix relating to the murder of the Indian chief, Logan, and his family during the American Revolution. Jefferson here corrects statements he made in earlier editions and adds numerous documents relating to the affair. HOWES J78. Noble E. Cunningham, Jr., THE IMAGE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON IN THE PUBLIC EYE, pp.16-17. SABIN 35906. SHAW & SHOEMAKER 722. CLARK I:262. SOWERBY, JEFFERSON'S LIBRARY 4167. ADAMS, THE EYE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON 57. REESE, FEDERAL HUNDRED 6 (ref).