Books

364pp. plus frontispiece, folding map, and folding table. Contemporary tree calf, neatly rebacked, morocco label, gilt. Minor toning to text, light occasional foxing, small marginal repairs to folding map. Short closed tear in L4, touching a few words. Very good. In a brown half morocco box. A very nice copy of Jefferson's essential work on his home state of Virginia, styled on the titlepage "Eighth American edition." This is the only book-length work by Jefferson to be published in his lifetime, and 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 provides a description of the geography, with an abundance of supporting material and unusual information. The map by Samuel Lewis which accompanies this edition is the same map as that issued with the Philadelphia 1794 edition, with the same date of 1794. The frontispiece portrait was engraved by Enoch G. Gridley, and is pictured and described in Cunningham's THE IMAGE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON IN THE PUBLIC EYE. Cunningham states: "Not all copies [of this edition] contain a signed state of the engraving, but the unsigned prints are otherwise identical to those that included 'Gridley sc.' inscribed in very small lettering immediately under the portrait." The portrait in the present copy is not "signed." This edition includes appendices containing Charles Thompson's notes on Jefferson's original text, his "Draught of a Fundamental Constitution for the Commonwealth of Virginia," "An Act for Establishing Religious Freedom," and the story of the "Murder of Logan's Family." An excellent copy of Jefferson's enduring work, in an edition also notable for the portrait and the map. HOWES J78. Noble E. Cunningham, Jr., THE IMAGE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON IN THE PUBLIC EYE, pp.17-18. SABIN 35895. CLARK I:262. SOWERBY IV, pp.301-30. ADAMS, THE EYE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON 57. REESE, FEDERAL HUNDRED 6 (ref).