Books

JEFFERSON, Thomas. Notes on the State of Virginia. With An Appendix. New York: Printed by M.L. & W.A. Davis - For Furman & Loudon, 1801. 392pp. plus folding plate, folding map, and folding table. Contemporary calf, outer hinges weak but holding. Map reinforced with tissue at horizontal folds. Some light scattered foxing and soiling. Very good in a custom leather-backed box. The self-styled "third American edition," although 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 is only the second American edition of Jefferson's NOTES, with a map. The map which accompanies this copy is the Samuel Lewis map of Virginia, printed in New York in 1794. This is the same map which accompanies the 1794 New York edition, the first American edition of the NOTES, to have a map. This edition also includes a view of the Natural Bridge in Virginia. This edition is also notable for being the first to contain the appendix on the murder of the Indian chief Logan and his family during the American Revolution. Jefferson here adds numerous documents and correct errors he made about the matter in earlier editions. HOWES J78. SABIN 35906. SHAW & SHOEMAKER 722. CLARK I:262. SOWERBY, JEFFERSON'S LIBRARY 4167. ADAMS, THE EYE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON 57.