April 25, 2006, 6:34 a.m.
Author Confessional: Rick Brookhiser
Spring authors tell tales out of the publisher’s office.

I was surprised to find myself liking Thomas Jefferson personally. (Of course he is on any short list of patriots, and heads any list of prose stylists.) Reading him in a big block showed that his hypocrisy rested on a truly sweet nature, which hated confrontation. "Let us restore to social intercourse that harmony and affection without which liberty and even life itself are but dreary things" (Inauguration Address, 3/4/01).

He only lied when telling the truth would make him sad. That's not exactly a character reference, is it?

— Richard Brookhiser is author of the upcoming What Would the Founders Do?: Our Questions, Their Answers.