Positive reconstruction · reader-scoped, not an inferred-absence lacuna
This reconstruction covers the readable fraction of Thomas Jefferson's formation -- attested reading and writing only, not the whole of a life.
Thomas Jefferson and Life of Jackson
Thomas Jefferson's attested relationship to Life of Jackson.
Thomas Jefferson is attested as having read this work by John Reid and John Henry Eaton.
Evidence ledger
- First-person reading testimony (Explicit first-person completed reading by TJ (voice confirmed: the letter discusses the Central College trustees): 'You ask if I have seen Buchanan's, McAfee's, or Wilkinson's books? I have seen none of them, but have lately read, with great pleasure, Reid and Eaton's Life of Jackson.' Title and authors in-passage; no catalogue match (post-1815 publication), proposed as a new Work.). Self-report reliability discount 0.9: Recency ('have lately read') and differentiated criticism strengthen ('Reid's part is well written. Eaton's continuation is better for its matter than style. The whole, however, is valuable'); no flattery context (neither author is the correspondent); the same sentence candidly denies having seen three other named books.