Fred Kaplan on His Masterly Pen
As he did for Abraham Lincoln and John Quincy Adams, biographer Fred Kaplan offers a look at the life of Thomas Jefferson and his contributions as a writer.\n\nFred Kaplan emphasizes Thomas Jefferson\u2019s genius with language and his ability to use the power of words to inspire and shape a nation. A man renowned for many talents, writing was one of the major activities of the statemen\u2019s life, though much of his best, most influential writing\u2014 numbering approximately 100,000\u2014was done by 1789, when Jefferson was just forty-six. All of his works\u2014from his earliest correspondence; his essays and proclamations, including A Summary View of British America, The Declaration of Independence, and Notes on the State of Virginia; his religious and scientific writings; his inaugural addresses; his addresses to Indian nations; and his exchanges with Washington, Madison, Hamilton, John and Abigail Adams, demonstrate his remarkable intelligence, prescient wisdom, and literary flair and reveal the man in all his complex and controversial brilliance.\n\nIn His Masterly Pen, readers will find a new appreciation of Jefferson as a whole, of his strengths and weaknesses, and particularly of the degree to which his writing skills\u2014which James Madison admired as \u201cthe shining traces of his pen\u201d\u2014are key to his personality and public career. \n\nJoin us when we examine his complications, the inconsistencies, and the contradictions between his principles and his policies, between his head and his heart, and between his optimistic view of human nature and the realities of his personal situation and the world he lived in on this installment on Leonard Lopate.