His Masterly Pen: A Biography of Jefferson the Writer
Written by Fred Kaplan
Narrated by Mark Bramhall
()
About this audiobook
As he did for Abraham Lincoln and John Quincy Adams, award-winning biographer Fred Kaplan offers a fresh, illuminating look at the life of Thomas Jefferson and his contributions as a writer.
In this unique biography, Fred Kaplan emphasizes Thomas Jefferson’s 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’s life, though much of his best, most influential writing—with the exception of the letters he wrote up to his death, numbering approximately 100,000—was done by 1789, when Jefferson was just forty-six. All of his works—from 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, and dear friends such as Maria Cosway—demonstrate his remarkable intelligence, prescient wisdom, and literary flair and reveal the man in all his complex and controversial brilliance.
In 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—which James Madison admired as “the shining traces of his pen”—are key to his personality and public career. Though Jefferson could wield his pen with unrivaled power, he was also a master of using words to both reveal and conceal from others and himself the 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.
Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.
Fred Kaplan
Fred Kaplan is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of English at Queens College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He is the author of Lincoln: The Biography of a Writer, which was named a Best Book of the Year by the New York Times and Washington Post, among other publications. His biography of Thomas Carlyle was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Pulitzer Prize. He lives in Maine.
More audiobooks from Fred Kaplan
Lincoln: The Biography of a Writer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Insurgents: David Petraeus and the Plot to Change the American Way of War Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Related to His Masterly Pen
Related audiobooks
Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness: Britain and the American Dream Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Negro President: Jefferson and the Slave Power Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Presidents vs. the Press Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTwo Americans: Truman, Eisenhower, and a Dangerous World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Approaching Fury: Voices of the Storm, 1820-1861 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Printer and the Preacher: Ben Franklin, George Whitefield, and the Surprising Friendship that Invented America Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAnne Bradstreet and Phillis Wheatley: The Lives and Legacies of Colonial America’s Most Prominent Poets Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRedeeming the Great Emancipator Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJohn Jay: Founding Father Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Washington's Farewell: The Founding Father's Warning to Future Generations Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Summoned to Glory: The Audacious Life of Abraham Lincoln Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsInto the Bright Sunshine: Young Hubert Humphrey and the Fight for Civil Rights Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPresident Garfield: From Radical to Unifier Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The President and the Assassin: McKinley, Terror, and Empire at the Dawn of the American Century Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5American Visions: The United States 1800-1860 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRealistic Visionary: A Portrait of George Washington Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Patriarch: George Washington and the New American Nation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5When Washington Burned: The British Invasion of the Capital and a Nation's Rise from the Ashes Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Year That Broke Politics: Collusion and Chaos in the Presidential Election of 1968 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Statesman and the Storyteller: John Hay, Mark Twain, and the Rise of American Imperialism Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lincoln and the Power of the Press: The War for Public Opinion Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Rightful Heritage: Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Land of America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Heartbreak of Aaron Burr Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Founders' Son: A Life of Abraham Lincoln Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All This Marvelous Potential: Robert Kennedy's 1968 Tour of Appalachia Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Collision 2012: Obama vs. Romney and the Future of Elections in America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Isolated Presidency Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Last Charge of the Rough Rider: Theodore Roosevelt's Final Days Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5When the World Seemed New: George H. W. Bush and the End of the Cold War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Henry Clay: The Man Who Would Be President Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Political Biographies For You
Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Enough Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Romney: A Reckoning Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5John Adams Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Assassination Vacation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Killing Kennedy: The End of Camelot Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Trump Tapes: Bob Woodward's Twenty Interviews with President Donald Trump Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A River in Darkness: One Man's Escape from North Korea Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lincoln Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Nazi Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill Roosevelt, Stalin, and Churchill Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The White House Plumbers: The Seven Weeks That Led to Watergate and Doomed Nixon's Presidency Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dressed for a Dance in the Snow: Women's Voices from the Gulag Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mornings on Horseback Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Benjamin Franklin: An American Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Team of Rivals Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Fear: Trump in the White House Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination that Changed America Forever Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rage Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5American Ulysses: A Life of Ulysses S. Grant Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Five Presidents: My Extraordinary Journey with Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, and Ford Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Peril Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Showman: Inside the Invasion That Shook the World and Made a Leader of Volodymyr Zelensky Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5V Is For Victory Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Watergate Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Reaganland: America's Right Turn 1976-1980 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Benjamin Franklin Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for His Masterly Pen
0 ratings0 reviews