Thomas Jefferson to Ann C. Bankhead, 26 May 1811
To Ann C. Bankhead
Monticello May 26. 11.
My dear Anne
I have just recieved a copy of the Modern Griselda which Ellen tells me will not be unacceptable to you. I therefore inclose it. the heroine presents herself certainly as a perfect model of ingenious perverseness, & of the art of making herself and others unhappy. if it can be made of use in inculcating the virtues and felicities of life, it must be by the rule of contraries. nothing new has happened in our neighborhood since you left us. the houses & trees stand where they did. the flowers come forth like the belles of the day, have their short reign of beauty and splendor, & retire like them to the more interesting office of reproducing their like. the hyacinths and tulips are off the stage, the Irises are giving place1 to the Belladonnas, as this will to the Tuberoses Etc. as your Mama has done to you, my dear Anne, as you will do to the sisters of little John, and as I shall soon & chearfully do to you all in wishing you a long, long, goodnight. present me respectfully to Doctr & mrs Bankhead2 and accept for mr Bankhead & yourself the assurances of my cordial affection,3 not forgetting that Cornelia shares them.
Th: Jefferson
PrC (DLC: TJ Papers, ser. 10); at foot of text: “Mrs Anne C. Bankhead.” Enclosure: Maria Edgeworth, The Modern Griselda: A Tale (Georgetown, 1810).
Martha Jefferson Randolph had expressed an interest in acquiring a copy of Maria Edgeworth’smodern griselda after reading part of it in a literary magazine more than two years previously (Randolph to TJ, 24 Nov. 1808 [MHi]). The novel, first published in London in 1804, details the breakdown of a quarrelsome marriage.
1. Reworked from “way.”
2. Manuscript: “Bankheed,” here and later in sentence.
3. Remainder of sentence added.
Index Entries
- Bankhead, Ann (Anne) Cary Randolph (TJ’s granddaughter; Charles Lewis Bankhead’s wife); book for search
- Bankhead, Ann (Anne) Cary Randolph (TJ’s granddaughter; Charles Lewis Bankhead’s wife); compared to flowers by TJ search
- Bankhead, Ann (Anne) Cary Randolph (TJ’s granddaughter; Charles Lewis Bankhead’s wife); letters to search
- Bankhead, Charles Lewis (Ann Cary Randolph Bankhead’s husband); TJ sends greetings to search
- Bankhead, John; TJ sends greetings to search
- Bankhead, John Warner (TJ’s great-grandson) search
- Bankhead, Mary Warner Lewis (John Bankhead’s wife); TJ sends greetings to search
- belladonna lily search
- books; novels search
- Coolidge, Ellen Wayles Randolph (TJ’s granddaughter); book recommended by search
- Edgeworth, Maria; The Modern Griselda: A Tale search
- flowers; TJ compares human life to search
- hyacinths search
- irises search
- Jefferson, Thomas; Books & Library; sends books search
- Jefferson, Thomas; Family & Friends; relations with grandchildren search
- lily; belladonna search
- marriage; in literature search
- Randolph, Cornelia Jefferson (TJ’s granddaughter); visits Port Royal search
- Randolph, Martha Jefferson (Patsy; TJ’s daughter; Thomas Mann Randolph’s wife); mentioned search
- Randolph, Martha Jefferson (Patsy; TJ’s daughter; Thomas Mann Randolph’s wife); reads novels search
- The Modern Griselda: A Tale (Edgeworth) search
- tuberose search
- tulips; at Monticello search
- women; letters to; A. C. Bankhead search