DUMAS MALONE: JEFFERSON BIOGRAPHER
by Madeline McMurdo Whitmore
The books about Mr. Jefferson could fill several shelves in one's bookcase. Many are very good, well-researched and well-written, some few are very bad, and some are, of course, mediocre. Unless a person is a real history buff with an all absorbing interest in Thomas Jefferson it is not likely that he'll own all or even a majority of the books of facts or fiction about our illustrious ancestor. Even should he own them it would be an avid and diligent reader who could read all of them. Therefore, it seems fitting for your present historian to write about the preeminent authority on Jefferson, Dumas Malone, and his outstanding multi- volume biography, Jefferson and His Time.
Dr. Dumas Malone is Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation Biographer- in-Residence and professor emeritus of history at the University of Virginia. He was born January 10, 1892, in Coldwater, Mississippi. Malone received his bachelor of arts degree from Emory College in 1910 and his bachelor of divinity from Yale University in 1916 where he also received his master of arts in 1921 and his doctorate in 1923. He was instructor in history at Yale from 1919 to 1923, associate professor of history at the University of Virginia from 1923 to 1926, and professor from 1926 to 1929. Dr. Malone was at one time visiting professor of history at Yale and was professor of history at Columbia for fourteen years. Since 1959 he has been back at the University of Virginia. He was professor there until his retirement in 1962; he now has an office in Alderman Library, University of Virginia, which he considers his professional home.
Dumas Malone was for seven years director of the Harvard University Press. He was a distinguished editor of The Dictionary of American Biography. He has also contributed to Harpers, Atlantic Monthly, Virginia Quarterly Review and American Scholar. In 1975 Dumas Malone, at the age of 83, won the Pulitzer Prize in history for his first five volumes of Jefferson and His Time. Mr. Malone, expressing his surprise when he learned of his award, said: "You know as a rule with these series books they won't give the Pulitzer to you until you've finished and I've still got one to go, so I didn't really expect it." Malone is presently working on the sixth and final book in the series which he says will concern Jefferson's life in retirement during which time he established the University of Virginia. "This last book will be much more of a biography," he said, "and not so much concerned with public affairs."
Mr. Malone, who prefers to call himself a historian, not a biographer, has spent almost thirty years of his professional life in Charlottesville with the University of Virginia. His desire to write a comprehensive life of Jefferson dates from his early years as a professor at the University, where they speak of the Father of the University as though he were in the next room. He explained that he got sidetracked along the way and published his first volume in 1948 while teaching at Columbia. .
The first volume of Jefferson and His Time is Jefferson, the Virginian. This covers a clearly defined period (1743-1784 ) in the life of an extraordinarily active man. It is based on vast sources. It includes Jefferson's ancestry , youth, education, legal career, marriage, the building of Monticello, the writing of the Declaration of Independence and the Notes on Virginia, his richly fruitful legislative career, his highly controversial governorship, and his early services to the development of the West. The Appendices of this first volume include three main sections -I. Genealogy, II. The Jefferson Estate, and III. The Walker Affair, 1768-1909.
Jefferson and the Rights of Man is the second volume of the series. It tells the story of the eventful middle years of the life of Thomas Jefferson -his ministry to France in the years just before the French Revolution and during the early years of that struggle, his service as Secretary of State in President Washington's first cabinet, the crucial period of his first differences with Hamilton and the beginnings of his long struggle with the Federalists. Mr. Malone has written a discerning introduction to this work in which he says, "To me the Virginia of Jefferson's youth and early manhood will ever be a charming scene, but Paris and Versailles at the time of Louis XVI, London in the reign of George III, and New York and Philadelphia in the presidency of George Washington provided a far richer and more colorful background than Monticello and Williamsburg; and Jefferson participated in far more complicated movements and events in the second period of his public life than in the first."
In the third volume of Jefferson's biography, Jefferson and the Ordeal of Liberty, Dumas Malone begins with Jefferson's final phase of service as Secretary of State in Washington's cabinet and goes on to Jefferson's own election as President in 1801. With the exception of a brief period of tranquility at Monticello, Jefferson found this a difficult and turbulent time. The last main section of this book is titled The Crisis of Republican Freedom. This shows how Jefferson, as a party leader and a lifelong champion of individual freedom, faced the challenge of one of the most intolerant periods of all American history.
The fourth volume, Jefferson the President, First Term 1801-1805 covers a very crucial period in American history .It was a time, following the administrations of Washington and Adams, when the nation was deeply divided. This volume tells of the acquisition of the vast Louisiana Territory. It also gives us an excellent insight into Jefferson's duel with the Supreme Court, and his continued opposition to the Hamilton doctrine. Appendix 11, The Miscegenation Legend gives us a complete and definitive account of this much discussed and often controversial subject.
Jefferson the President, Second Term 1805-1809 is the fifth volume in this classic biography. It covers the Lewis and Clark Expedition, which Jefferson sponsored, and the successful conclusion of the naval "war" with the Barbary pirates. There were mounting problems confronting Jefferson in his second term. Aaron Burr's conspiracy provided great trouble on the domestic scene and was followed by his highly controversial trial. This aggravated the already bitter relationships between the executive and the judicial branches of government. Jefferson left the presidency a troubled and discouraged man. However, he vacated the President's House without regret and was thankful and joyous to return to his beloved Monticello.
The last volume, which we hope is near completion, will deal with the last years of Jefferson's life, which turned out to be happy and productive. We eagerly await its publication.
Dumas Malone has written an introduction to a book recently published which we believe deserves a place on your Jefferson bookshelf. This volume apparently has not had the publicity it deserves. It is Thomas Jefferson, The M an ...His World. ..His Influence, Edited by Lally Weymouth. The publisher is G. P. Putnam's and Sons. This is a group of essays by well-known authors emphasizing the diverse interests and talents of Thomas Jefferson. They are all well written and informative. We particularly like one by Kenneth Clark, Thomas Jefferson and the Italian Renaissance and one by our associate member, Walter Muir Whitehill, Thomas Jefferson, Architect. This book is beautifully illustrated.
