I'm back! Welcome to the day 2 (the first *official* day) recap.
Day 2
CITIES
We visited stops in Charlottesville and Richmond today. There is an hour's drive between the cities, and I am overall glad that we made the trek into Richmond today.
AUTHOR'S HOUSES
Monticello
Today, we had the pleasure of visiting Monticello, the original home of the United States's third President, author of the Declaration of Independence, and founder of the University of Virginia: Thomas Jefferson. While I last visited Monticello when I was eight years old, Jefferson's home and gardens held a new significance to me this time around. While its beauty and grandeur is well-founded, the literary air captured my attention.
Enlightenment thinker, scientist, writer, and politician, Thomas Jefferson was a reader above all. Jefferson's interests, which were varied and largely important to his long life, were reflected in his book collection, covering various subjects including "visions of antiquity," "everything which related to America," and "whatever was rare and valuable in every science." Jefferson was a polyglot, as he read in French (he was the ambassador of France before his time as the Commander and Chief), Italian, Spanish, Greek, Latin, and Anglo-Saxon. He collected books in each of these languages.
Jefferson coveted a collection of over 6,500 books at Monticello. He organized them according to Francis Bacon's "divisions of knowledge," a system that was later adopted by the Library of Congress. Jefferson, in fact, collected three libraries in his lifetime. In his youth, he collected books; however, his first collection was destroyed at his mother's home in 1770. The largest of his collections, his second library was comprised of around 7,000 books. Jefferson sold this collection to the United States government in 1814 after the British burned the original Library of Congress during the War of 1812. Jefferson helped found our country, but he also helped re-establish our nation's library. After he sold his second collection, Jefferson amassed around 2,000 of his favorite books before his death which he held in a reading room at his home.
Jefferson's shelves at Monticello were no different than any other interesting contraption he had in his home. The bookshelves are comprised of floor-to-ceiling "book boxes." This way, if Jefferson wanted to move books, the open side of each unit could be boarded over to create book units.
While Jefferson was a book collector and reader, he was an author himself, penning the Declaration of Independence and one full-length book: Notes on Virginia. Published in 1787, Jefferson's book was a collection of thoughts and observations about his home state, including descriptions of natural, human, and animal characteristics.
An imperfect man, Jefferson's shortcomings reminded me of his beautiful capacity to be fully human just like you and me. Literature highlights humanity's triumphs and failures, and I find this duality perfectly exhibited in Jefferson's life.
The University of Virginia
We also had the chance to take a quick walk around the product of Jefferson's passion in his old age: The University of Virginia.
Edgar Allen Poe's Dorm Room
Literary critic and America's first career author and poet, Edgar Allen Poe spent one year at UVA. Poe lived in Richmond with his foster parents, so he headed to UVA to further his studies. Poe's foster father would not pay his way at the University, so the young writer took to gambling to pay his debts. Unfortunately, Poe was not as talented at betting as he was at writing. Poe left the University after one session in more debt than he began his time at UVA with. His room is maintained by the Raven Society at UVA in the style of Edgar Allen Poe's time at the University.
BOOKSTORES
We visited two bookstores in Richmond today: Fountain Books Inc. and Chop Suey Books. To be completely honest, neither store was amazing. I didn't love either one of them.
Fountain Books Inc.
The best aspect of this bookstore was the street it sits on. The cobblestones were a lovely match for the facades of charming stores and shops boasting products from house-drip coffees to creepy antique lamps. I believe Fountain Books Inc.; however, was, unfortunately, the most lackluster of all the shops on the endearing little road. Selling a lot of knick-knacks is not the way to this book lover's heart.
Chop Suey Books
The bookstore was not in the *best* part of town, though, that is not necessarily the determinator for a great bookstore. My issue with this bookshop was the disorganization on the shelves. Along with the elimination of knick-knacks, the shelf organization would certainly make my Bookstore Ten Commandments.
I took 13,753 steps today for a total of 6.4 miles. I will check in tomorrow with another update!
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