“ work will not be delayed. I will ask the favor of you therefore to name the latest time which the progress of the other part will admit, by which time you shall not fail to recieve it. my matter may fill perhaps 20. 8 ^vo. pages, and as these may be paged independantly of the body of the work, I suppose it may be the last sheet printed.

" Of General Clarke I shall be able to give you nothing. he was indeed born within 2. miles of Charlottesvill, [ sic -- Ed. ] & 4. of the place of my birth in the county of Albemarle, but he was so much my junior, that before I could know him, his father removed to another part of the country. Accept the assurance of my great respect. ”

On August 18, Allen wrote to Jefferson: “I have in consequence of the reception of your letter & the prospect which it gives me of rendering the work more compleat by the addition of Gov. Lewis biography prevailed upon the Booksellers to delay the publication of the first volume as it was not originally contemplated to have done. This plan was to publish the first volume as soon as it was struck off & to have the second published with all possible expectation afterward. But Sir I apprehend your delay has done me a benefit, as a publication in the manner contemplated would unquestionably have done an essential injury to the work. I am now authorized by the Booksellers to say that they will wait four weeks for the communication which you have obligingly condescended to promise. The work will now all be published at once, & your communication will be placed in the front of the Narrative.

"If Sir it would not suit amidst the multiplicity of your other engagements to finish the biography at the time which the Booksellers have stipulated I think that I might venture to add a procrastination of three or four weeks on my own responsibility. You would confer an essential obligation by informing me at an early period whether either & which of these portions of time would best enable you to fulfill your benevolent engagement. I am not apprehensive that the fulness of your Biography will be an obstacle to its publication now that I have prevailed upon the Booksellers to procrastinate the volumes. I wish very much to enliven the dulness of the Narrative by something more popular splendid & attractive. The publick taste has from a variety of adventious [ sic -- Ed. ] causes been gorged to repletion on fanciful viands & the most nutritive & invigorating aliments will not be relished unless seasoned with something of that character. Biography partakes to a certain extent of this quality, & is essentially connected with subjects dear to every heart.”

On the same day, Jefferson sent to Allen his life of Meriwether Lewis, printed at the beginning of the first volume. An original holograph draft is in the Jefferson Papers in the Library of Congress, 12 pages in Jefferson’s hand. His covering letter to Allen reads: “ In compliance with the request conveyed in your letter of May 25. I have endeavored to obtain, from the relations & friends of the late Governor Lewis, information of such incidents of his life as might be not unacceptable to those who may read the Narrative of his Western discoveries. the ordinary occurrences of a private life, & those also while acting in a subordinate sphere in the army, in a time of peace, are not deemed sufficiently interesting to occupy the public attention; but a general account of his parentage, with such smaller incidents as marked early character, are briefly noted, and to these are added, as being peculiarly within my own knolege, whatever related to the public mission, of which an account is now to be published. the result of my enquiries & recollections, shall now be offered, to be enlarged or abridged as you may think best, or otherwise to be used with the materials you may have collected from other sources. ”

On August 20, Jefferson again wrote to Allen: “ In my letter of the 5 ^th. inst. I requested what time you could give me for further enquiry on the subject of the life of Gov ^r. Lewis. I have since satisfied myself that there is no more matter within my reach, and being about to set out on a journey, on which I shall be absent three weeks, I have concluded it best to forward you without delay the sketch I have been able to prepare. Accept with it the assurance of my great respect.

" P.S. not knowing who is to print the work, I will ask ”