Thomas Jefferson died on July 4, 1826, leaving behind a series of mysteries that have captured the imaginations of historical investigators - an interest rekindled by the recent revelation that he fathered a child by Sally Hemings, a woman he legally owned. Yet there is still surprisingly little known about his intimate life. In Jefferson's Secrets Andrew Burstein places his subject in a world of political and carnal appetites. He begins with Jefferson's last days and looks backward to create an emotionally powerful portrait of the private citizen as well as the champion of political democracy.Burstein draws on sources previous biographers have glossed over or missed entirely. Above all he shows how Jefferson confronted his own mortality. Through letters, diaries, and Jefferson's own library, Burstein recovers meaning in a lost medical vocabulary, makes sense of shadowy references and offhand musings, and tackles the questions history has yet to answer: Did Jefferson love Sally Hemings, as many today would prefer to think? Did he believe in God? What were his attitudes towards women? How did he wish to be remembered?Burstein reinterprets hundreds of unceremonious letters among the president's retirement papers to discover a personality generally missing from published anthologies. The result is a moving and surprising work of history that sets a new standard, post-DNA, for the next generation's reassessment of the most evocative and provocative of this country's founders. Read Less