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American sphinx [electronic resource] : the character of Thomas Jefferson / Joseph J. Ellis.

by Ellis, Joseph J.

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New York : Vintage Books, 1998.

Jefferson, Thomas, 1743-1826 -- Psychology.

Electronic Resource

http://hawaii.lib.overdrive.com/ContentDetails.htm?ID=31403BA0-74AE-4C0B-992B-B1D988926541 This title is available online; click here to access

Electronic Resource

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9780375727467 (electronic bk.)

0375727469 (electronic bk.)

1 online resource (xix, 440 p.)

1st [Vintage] ed.

From Ellis we learn that Jefferson sang incessantly under his breath; that he delivered only two public speeches in eight years as president, while spending ten hours a day at his writing desk; that sometimes his political sensibilities collided with his domestic agenda, as when he ordered an expensive piano from London during a boycott (and pledged to "keep it in storage"). We see him relishing such projects as the nailery at Monticello that allowed him to interact with his slaves more palatably, as pseudo-employer to pseudo-employees. We grow convinced that he preferred to meet his lovers in the rarefied region of his mind rather than in the actual bedchamber. We watch him exhibiting both great depth and great shallowness, combining massive learning with extraordinary naivete, piercing insights with self-deception on the grandest scale. We understand why we should neither beatify him nor consign him to the rubbish heap of history, though we are by no means required to stop loving him. He is Thomas Jefferson, after all--our very own sphinx. From the Trade Paperback edition.

National Book Award, 1997: Nonfiction.

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