All of Jefferson

When Thomas Jefferson penned a letter expounding a revolutionary idea or explaining the difference between dry, sweet and astringent wines, he noted the correspondence in his Epistolary Record. That fact will be of great help for the next ten years to Princeton University's Librarian Julian Parks Boyd. He is preparing the first complete edition of the writings of the first complete U.S. philosopher.

It is 40 years since a 20-volume edition made available a mere tithe of Jefferson's letters. The new edition--costs of $344,300 to be shared by the New York Times and Princeton--will consist of 50 richly designed volumes. It will include all of Jefferson's major writings and speeches, his 18,624 known letters, plus texts or references to the 21,696 letters known to have been written to him. Search will be made for additional letters. New light may thus shine both on Jefferson's thought and on U.S. history.

The project will be a memorial to Timesman Adolph Simon Ochs. Said Princeton President Harold Willis Dodds last week: "When Jefferson said, 'Where the press is free, and every man able to read, all is safe,' he voiced a belief that today has greater meaning. . . . This . . . was also the lifelong conviction of the great journalist . . . Adolph S. Ochs, [who] also advanced the idea of a responsible press. It is . . . appropriate that a university dedicated to free inquiry, aided by a free and responsible newspaper, should present . . . the complete writings of the man who swore 'eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind.'"*

The 1,000 sets of the Ochs memorial edition will be printed on durable 25% rag paper, with format by the Princeton University Press's art director, P. Jefferson Conkwright. Included will be the first collected volume of Jefferson's sketches and architectural drawings, many of which are classics of housing history. Considerable use will be made of microfilm in preparing the edition, and the linotype men will set largely from photographs of the letters.

South Carolina-born Editor Boyd studied at Duke University, got a doctorate at Franklin & Marshall. He is a distinguished younger U.S. historian, has collaborated with such able writers as Franklin biographer Carl Van Doren and the University of Pennsylvania's Roy Franklin Nichols. With hobbies running from gardening to handsetting type, Boyd shares some of Jefferson's own tastes. Among topics of lasting interest treated with passion and discrimination in the writings of the great Virginian: politics, government, history, art, science, literature, agriculture, music, architecture, education, mathematics, business, newspapers, wine-drinking.

*Today 86.5% of all adult Americans are technically literate.

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