Jefferson’s copy was sent to him by the author, to whom Jefferson wrote on July 16, 1807: “ I have recieved, Madam, the letter which you have done me the favor to write from Paris on the 24 ^th. of April, and M. le Ray de Chaumont informs me that the book you were so kind as to confide to him, not having reached Nantes when he sailed, will come by the first vessel from that port to this country. I shall read with great pleasure whatever comes from your pen, having known it’s powers when I was in a situation to judge, nearer at hand, the talents which directed it . . . ”

Neither the letter of Madame de Staël of April 24, nor the letter of Ray de Chaumont has been found to date and without them it is impossible to know which of the various editions published in 1807 was sent by the author to Jefferson. The first edition (Lonchamp no[.] 58) was without the name of the printer; the next issue, Lonchamp no. 59, had the name of H. Nicolle as above in the imprint, and the name of the printer on the back of the half-title. Two more editions in octavo were published in the same year.

In 1807 also were printed three editions in 3 volumes duodecimo of which Jefferson owned one, as can be seen from his binding bill from Joseph Milligan of Georgetown, which, under date April 30, 1808, has the entries:

“Corinne 3 vols 12 mo 1.50

Ditto 2 vols 8vo 2.00”

Previous to this date, Jefferson had been appealed to for the loan of a copy by Mrs. Thornton, who wrote to him on January 15, 1808: “M ^rs Thornton’s compliments to the President of the U.S. and having heard that he possesses a copy of Mad ^e. Staël’s celebrated novel “Corinne” & not being able to procure it elsewhere at present, hopes he will excuse the liberty she takes in requesting the favor of a perusal of it, if disengaged. M ^rs T. will take particular [sic] of the work should the President oblige her with it.”

Anne Louise Germaine, Baronne de Staël-Holstein, 1766-1817, French novelist, was the daughter of the famous financier Jacques Necker, and became the wife of Eric Magnus, Baron of Staël-Holstein. Necker died in April 1804, and Madame de Staël spent the autumn of that year travelling in Italy, where she collected the material for this novel, the story of “a picturesque tour couched in the form of a novel.”