“A Sect by Myself”

This chapter describes the effort to replenish Monticello’s library. In October 1816, Richard Rush climbed Jefferson’s mountain and found its occupant “lamenting” the loss of his library. Bereft of its books, Monticello seemed a little airy. Although pilgrims kept coming to provide company for Jefferson, without his volumes to read, a vacancy reigned on Jefferson’s peak. Miles of shelving needed restocking to make up for the “6,487” books that had migrated north to Washington. Edward Everett and George Ticknor had travelled to Europe with a pledge to help replicate Monticello’s library. Instead, the American youths would replicate Jefferson’s experiences. Back in 1785, during Jefferson’s European residence, he was forced to contend with Muslim lands, negotiating war and peace with Arabic-speaking Africans. In 1815, three decades later, arriving to Europe with Jefferson in mind, Ticknor and Everett would find Arabic and Africa once more intertwined.