Abraham Lincoln? Boyfriend material. George Washington? A wise man, even as a teen (he wrote a list of rules for decent behavior — “Rule 100: Cleanse not your teeth with the table cloth”). Thomas Jefferson? The puzzle piece to understanding America. Today is Jefferson’s birthday. Had he been immortal, he would now be 271 years old. Author and illustrator Maira Kalman would have definitely welcomed this. The newest in her series of books for young readers about U.S. presidents, Thomas Jefferson: Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Everything, is a whimsical and hypnotic look into Jefferson’s life and accomplishments. “Thomas Jefferson is perhaps best known for writing the Declaration of Independence,” reads the inside flap of this book. “But there’s so much more to discover.” Indeed. He had many freckles (twenty, Kalman thinks); he could not live without books; he repaired the lining of his jackets with socks; and he grew over fifteen types of peas. After reading Thomas Jefferson: Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Everything, I couldn’t wait to e-mail Kalman to ask her about it.
What’s the importance of reading about Thomas Jefferson? Why now?
It is always encouraging and inspiring to learn about people in the past who were both brilliant and very human at the same time. Thomas Jefferson is one of the people that actually created this country as we know it. We are all, in some way, products of the development of this land with all the good and bad. So it is interesting to look at who we are now in relation to who they were then. It gives perspective on the changes that keep coming at you. It helps to cope.

You wrote this about Jefferson’s house, “If you want to understand this country and its people and what it means to be optimistic and complex and tragic and wrong and courageous, you need to go to his home in Virginia. Monticello.” What moment from your visit to Monticello has stayed with you?
If there was one moment, it was standing in his bedroom and looking at the room. His bed, his boots, his study on one side of the bed. I felt like I was looking at his brain. But in the bigger picture, I was constantly overwhelmed by the breadth of Jefferson’s passions. Architecture. Art. Music. Industrial design. Inventions. Farming. Flora. Fauna. History. Science. And his love of books, books, books. You really see curiosity as a guiding force.