Notes

• "In July 1784, Thomas Jefferson, recently appointed to represent the American Congress in Paris, sailed from Boston with his daughter Martha, bound for France. Jefferson was eventually installed in a house on the Champs-Elysees, where he set about enjoying the special attractions of Paris. He went to galleries and concerts and entertained widely; he made note of the urban engineering and the beauty of Parisian architecture; and he browsed assiduously in local bookstores. Jefferson also made trips around the country and across western Europe, all the while taking notes on what he saw: the soil, crops, livestock, buildings, wine, and local politics and customs." "Fortunately, Jefferson, who was to become the third president of the United States in 1801, recorded his impressions in his voluminous correspondence and journals. He wrote to Abigail and John Adams, James Madison, George Washington, and also to a number of women friends and his children, so a variety of styles and levels of intimacy adds to the fascination of these accounts." "This volume has been selected from Jefferson’s letters by Douglas L. Wilson and Lucia Stanton, scholars of the International Center for Jefferson Studies at Monticello, who have provided a Preface and Notes."–BOOK JACKET