Re-created library speaks volumes about Jefferson

Mark Dimunation of the Library of Congress led a worldwide search for books to replicate Thomas Jefferson's collection. The results of that effort go on display in Washington today. (MELINA MARA/WASHINGTON POST)

WASHINGTON - In Thomas Jefferson's day, the books he lovingly collected were almost as famous as he was.

Leather-bound tomes on topics as varied as whist, beekeeping, and philosophy were gathered from across Europe and colonial America, then brought to Monticello to help fulfill Jefferson's vow to amass the whole of human knowledge. They eventually became the foundation for the Library of Congress, although two-thirds were lost in a fire in 1851.

For the past decade, a small group of rare-book experts has sought to re-create Jefferson's library, scouring antiquarian book collections on two continents to acquire thousands of volumes. The entire collection of more than 6,000 volumes - some originals and some replacements - will go on display today at the Library of Congress, looking much as it would have 200 years ago.

"These are the books that made America," said Mark Dimunation, chief of the Rare Books and Special Collections Division of the Library of Congress.

After a lifetime collecting the books, Jefferson sold them when the War of 1812 was in its third year. British soldiers had set fire to the first congressional library, obliterating more than 1,000 books. Aghast, Jefferson offered his library at whatever price Congress deemed reasonable. In 1815, Congress paid about $24,000 for all 6,487 volumes.

Re-creating such a famous library is a book collector's dream, Dimunation said, and it has not been easy. The search took Dimunation and his staff near and far, from their own stacks to the basements of French booksellers as they hunted down the same editions and obscure pamphlets from the early 1800s.

"We have dealt with the dealers from both coasts and everything in between," Dimunation said with a resigned laugh. "I am still waiting for my pamphlet on brewing beer."

The journey has its roots in 1943, when the library wanted to honor Jefferson's 200th birthday. Library of Congress employee E. Millicent Sowerby searched through Jefferson's books, notes, and letters in the library's collection and drew up a catalogue of books Jefferson would have owned. Although Jefferson maintained a bibliography, it didn't include details that would matter a century and half later to someone trying to re-create his library. Sowerby produced five volumes that include every known note Jefferson ever wrote about a book.

With Sowerby's work to guide him, Dimunation began to look in 1998 through the library's collection and pull together a re-creation of Jefferson's library to exhibit at the Library of Congress's bicentennial in 2000.

He succeeded in finding two thirds of the collection. A third of the original books were in the library's stacks. The library owned other copies of editions that had been burned in 1851 when a faulty chimney flue caused a fire Christmas Eve morning.

But the final third proved elusive, keeping Dimunation and his staff busy for eight years. They have made use of a $1 million endowment, spending as much as $17,000 on a single volume.

They have found books in France, the Netherlands, Italy, and Britain. Books came from private collections and universities.

Dimunation dispatched a colleague, Daniel De Simone, to Europe. After 25 years of dealing in the antiquarian book trade, De Simone had many contacts he could go to for help. De Simone said dealers often get lists from collectors looking for books, and he figured that by traveling to the dealers, he would impress on them the importance of the project. That approach was particularly useful in France, where Jefferson had served the young American republic as ambassador. It helped that Jefferson was a renowned Francophile, which endears him to many French to this day.

The library has replicated not only Jefferson's collection but also the manner in which he displayed it. He arranged his bookshelves in a conch shell pattern, so that a person could walk into the middle and be surrounded by books.

Even Jefferson's system of organizing the books reflected an enlightened thought process, Dimunation said. Every book fell into one of three categories: memory, reason, or imagination. An updated version of that system is used by the Library of Congress.

The precious books are displayed behind glass for their protection, but visitors can use touch-screen technology to move digitally from page to page.

Despite the massive effort, the collection remains incomplete. About 300 volumes may never be found. In some cases, no identical copies exist, and there is insufficient information to determine every book he owned. Some titles aren't on the market for any price.

Still, Dimunation is satisfied.

"You are seeing the library pretty much how Thomas Jefferson would have seen it," Dimunation said.