JEFFERSON

The biographer, in concentrating the great canvas of Thomas Jefferson's life into one volume, has done great service to the general public. For here is a very readable, inspiring and human biography of a man whose whole career is a symbol of that democracy for which we fight today. Padover has made Jefferson come alive, with his extraordinary gifts, his virtues and his weaknesses, his infinite capacity for growth, his maturity of understanding of social and democratic principles. All these aspects unfold as the story of his crowded life is told. An enormous amount of material is packed into these 422 pages. At some points the author diverges from the traditional and almost legendary figure, but always he seems to know his subject thoroughly. One should wish for more ramifications of the pattern of history; one misses that sense of the influences he set at work (a conspicuous example, for instance, is the omission of the Lewis and Clark venture with all its implications, and other similar evidences of Jefferson's vision). But there is so much there -- and the man is himself so essentially the whole, that one need not quarrel with omissions. Illustrated with an unusual number of fine portraits....Tie sales in with Jefferson's birthday and the dedication of the Jefferson memorial.