Memoir Correspondence and Miscellanies
From Thomas Jefferson Encyclopedia
The Memoir, Correspondence, and Miscellanies from the Papers of Thomas Jefferson was the first publication of Thomas Jefferson's papers after his death, and the only one available until Henry A. Washington's edition was published in 1853-1854. It was initially published by F. Carr in Charlottesville in 1829, with subsequent editions published in London, Boston, and Paris. The documents included were selected, transcribed and edited by Thomas Jefferson Randolph (Thomas Jefferson's oldest grandson), with the help of his mother and sisters, in an effort to take control of their grandfather's legacy and a means to relieve some of the debt they'd been left with. They were somewhat successful in the first endeavor and not very successful in the second.
The Memoir contains only a tiny portion of Jefferson's total body of correspondence and other papers, and was carefully edited by his family to avoid controversial subjects; they also made occasional errors in their transcriptions.
Further Sources
- Cogliano, Francis D. "Jefferson's Papers." In Thomas Jefferson: Reputation and Legacy. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 2006.
