His masterly pen A biography of Jefferson the writer

Biographer Kaplan, who has chronicled the lives of authors and presidents, follows Lincoln and the Abolitionists (2017) with this account of Thomas Jefferson as a writer. After Jefferson's Summary View of the Rights of British America impressed members of the Continental Congress with his ability to eloquently express in words what many felt, he was given the primary responsibility for writing the Declaration of Independence. That alone would be the apex of many political and writing careers, but Jefferson had 50 more productive years. Kaplan examines Jefferson's writing from his youth through the American Revolution and his years as minister to France during the French Revolution, as well as his term as secretary of state, his presidency, and his post--White House years. Letters, addresses, portraits, and more show Jefferson to be a consistently gifted writer, always able to express himself elegantly and illuminate the world in which he lived. He was skilled in his ability to use language to meet political goals and to try to shape his historical legacy. Readers interested in American history will enjoy this deep dive into a different aspect of Thomas Jefferson.

Biographer Kaplan (Lincoln and the Abolitionists) focuses on Thomas Jefferson's "growth and development as a writer" in this intriguing if uneven study. Among the works analyzed are the Declaration of Independence ("Jefferson's most remembered and celebrated accomplishment"); the one book he published in his lifetime, Notes on the State of Virginia (which "provides Jefferson's fullest comments on race and slavery"); and Notes of a Tour into the Southern Parts of France. Kaplan also delves into more private writings, including a series of "personally expressive and revealing" letters Jefferson wrote to Maria Cosway, a painter and musician with whom he shared a "few months of romantic attachment" in 1786. Kaplan draws out some revealing themes in Jefferson's writing, including his hypocritical use of the "slavery trope" to describe the plight of American colonists under the British crown; the tension between his support for "small independent farmers" and his membership among the elite class of landowners who accumulated most of the country's wealth; and his paternalistic tone when addressing Native American tribal leaders. But the balance between biography and literary analysis feels out of proportion, and the lack of a narrative through line sometimes makes for disjointed reading. The result is a tantalizing yet frustrating portrait. (Nov.)

The literary prowess of a Founding Father. As he did in Lincoln: The Biography of a Writer, Kaplan examines the life and thought of Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) through an astute reading of his copious writings. Jefferson, he notes, "was a superb writer, with a genius particularly suited to his needs as a Virginia legislator, wartime propagandist, governor, Congressional delegate, secretary of state, vice president, president, and the premier intellectual, cultural, and moral voice of the republic he helped create and then lived in for fifty years." Trained as a lawyer, Jefferson found the practice of law "intellectually thin and repetitive" and became immersed, instead, in the Colonies' political fortunes. In 1774, his A Summary View of the Rights of British America "put Jefferson's name on the transatlantic map," and the text served as a template for his crafting the Declaration of Independence. That powerful document, reflecting the views of the incipient nation's elite leaders, "was to be philosophy, argument, and propaganda combined and raised to the highest level of political literature. Its purpose was to help make and change history." Jefferson navigated through tumultuous times, partisan dissent, war, and the fraught matter of slavery. He claimed to abhor slavery "in principle," yet he "still defined slaves as property" and kept hundreds of enslaved people as "his irreplaceable labor force." He also believed that freed slaves and Whites could never coexist. He advocated limited government, a priority on agriculture, and fiscal economy, in sharp conflict with Federalists such as Washington and Hamilton. Certainly, his political views are more easily discerned than personal revelations. Even in the memoirs he began late in life, or even in epistolary flirtations, "secrecy and repression in regard to private matters were hallmarks of Jefferson's personality." Among those private matters were his feelings for his wife, who died in 1782, and his mistress Sally Hemings. Kaplan smoothly combines analysis of Jefferson's rhetorical strategies with an authoritative portrayal of his world. A sensitive probing of a complex man. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.