The Women Jefferson Loved - Hardcover

Scharff, Virginia

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0061227072 ISBN 13: 9780061227073

Publisher: Harper, 2010

Synopsis

“A focused, fresh spin on Jeffersonian biography.” —Kirkus Reviews

In the tradition of Annette Gordon-Reed’s The Hemingses of Monticello and David McCullough’s John Adams, historian Virginia Scharff offers a compelling, highly readable multi-generational biography revealing how the women Thomas Jefferson loved shaped the third president’s ideas and his vision for the nation. Scharff creates a nuanced portrait of the preeminent founding father, examining Jefferson through the eyes of the women who were closest to him, from his mother to his wife and daughters to Sally Hemings and the slave family he began with her.

About this title

From the Back Cover

Throughout his life, Thomas Jefferson constructed a seemingly impenetrable wall between his public legacy and his private life, a division maintained by his family and the several traditional biographies written about this founding father. Now Virginia Scharff breaks down the barrier between Jefferson's public and private histories to offer an intriguing new portrait of this complicated and influential figure, as seen through the lives of a remarkable group of women.

Scharff brings together for the first time in one volume the stories of these diverse women, separated by race but related by blood, including Jefferson's mother, Jane Randolph; his wife, Martha; her half sister, Sally Hemings, his slave mistress; his daughters; and his granddaughters. "Their lives, their Revolutions, their vulnerabilities, shaped the choices Jefferson made, from the selection of words and ideas in his Declaration, to the endless building of his mountaintop mansion, to the vision of a great agrarian nation that powered his Louisiana Purchase," Scharff writes. Based on a wealth of sources, including family letters, and written with empathy and great insight, The Women Jefferson Loved is a welcome new look at this legendary American and one that offers a fresh twist on American history itself.

About the Author

Virginia Scharff is a professor of history at the University of New Mexico and holds the Women of the West Chair at the Autry National Center in Los Angeles. She is also the author of four mystery/suspense novels penned under the name Virginia Swift.

Edition details

• Publisher: Harper
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0061227072
• ISBN 13: 9780061227073
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 496