“
have selected what I wished to take: the Secretary of state has examined them also. between us we shall probably keep about
200.D. worth. as soon as he has concluded his part, you shall recieve a list of those we take with the money, and the residue
shall be repacked, and sent by the first vessel. within a few days this will be made up. Accept my salutations.
”
The book is included in the various bills and lists of books he bought from Reibelt and others at this time, and the price was $
1.10.
Jefferson’s binding bill from John March for August, 1805, included 6 volumes of Sterne in 18s, at 62½, total
$3.75.
Jefferson had read the Sentimental Journey before 1771, and must necessarily have read it in duodecimo. In his letter to Robert
Skipwith, dated from Monticello, August 3, 1771, relative to the catalogue of books he had made at Skipwith’s request, he wrote: “
. . . we neither know nor care whether Lawrence Sterne really went to France, whether he was there accosted by the poor Franciscan,
at first rebuked him unkindly, and then gave him a peace offering: or whether the whole be not a fiction. in either case we
equally are sorrowful at the rebuke, and secretly resolve
we
will never do so: we are pleased with the subsequent atonement, and view with emulation a soul candidly acknowleging it’s
fault and making a just reparation . . .
”
In his letter of advice on reading sent to Peter Carr from Paris on August 10, 1787, Jefferson mentioned that “
. . . the writings of Sterne particularly form the best course of morality that ever was written . . .”
Laurence Sterne, 1713-1768, began in 1765 a seven months tour in France and Italy, of which the French part is described in the Sentimental
Journey, which was originally intended to be in four volumes duodecimo, but of which only two were finished and published
less than a month before the death of the author.
[4335]
32
Sterne’s Tristram Shandy.
4. v.
12
mo.
1815 Catalogue, page 139, no. 20 [Sterne’s Tristram Shandy, in his works, 4 v 12mo].
1839 Catalogue, page 598, no. 22 [Sterne, Lawrence] Works; with the Life of the Author, vols. 1, 2, and 4, 12mo; London, 1780.
STERNE,
Laurence.
The Works of Laurence Sterne. In Ten Volumes Complete. Containing, I: The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gent . . .
London: Printed for
W. Strahan,
J. Rivington and Sons,
J. Dodsley,
G. Kearsley,
T. Lowndes,
G. Robinson,
T. Cadell,
J. Murray,
T. Becket,
R. Baldwin, and
T. Evans,
m dcc lxxx
. [1780.]
This edition contains 10 volumes in all, 12mo., of which volumes I, II, III, and IV contain The Life and Opinions of Tristram
Shandy, Gentleman, with illustrations in each volume. It is not clear whether Jefferson had the complete Works in 10 volumes
but his copy of the first four, containing Tristram Shandy, was apparently perfect. In the contemporary working copy of the
Library of Congress Catalogue of 1815, the entry has the annotation in ink
3d vol missing, and the volume is entered in the manuscript list of missing books made at a later date. The entry is not credited to the
Jefferson collection in the catalogue of 1839 and later issues, but the recorded absence of volume III points to the fact
that it was his copy. The catalogue of 1830 assigns the book to the Jefferson collection.
For Jefferson’s correspondence on his editions of Sterne, see the previous entry.
[4336]
33
Brackenridge’s Modern chivalry.
12
mo.
1815 Catalogue, page 137, no. 23, as above.
BRACKENRIDGE,
Hugh Henry.
Modern Chivalry: containing the Adventures of Captain John Farrago, and Teague Oregan, his Servant. Volume I. [-IV.] By H. H. Brackenridge . . .
Philadelphia: Printed and sold by
John M’Culloch [Volume III,
Pittsburgh:
