Paradise regain'd. A poem, in four books. To which is added Samson Agonistes; and poems upon several occasions, with a tractate of education ... The Eighth Edition, corrected by JEFFERSON, Thomas (1743-1826); Library of - John MILTON (1608-1674) - 1742

London: printed for J. and R. Tonson in the Strand, 1742. 8vo. (8 x 5 1/8 inches). [6],504pp., plus engraved frontispiece. Title page printed in red and black. Contemporary calf, spine gilt with raised bands, red morocco lettering piece (covers detached, spine abraded). Housed in a red morocco box. Provenance: Reuben Skelton (armorial bookplate); Thomas Jefferson (with his initials on pages 113 and 273); Martha Randolph (inscription); Virginia Jefferson Randolph (signature); Mary Jefferson Randolph (signature); Harold Jefferson Coolidge (bookplate) Thomas Jefferson's copy of Milton's Paradise Regained. By the end of the 18th century, Thomas Jefferson held the largest private library in America. In 1783, his library at Monticello included 2,640 volumes. Over the next thirty years, the collection swelled to over 6,000. In 1815, Jefferson's library was sold en bloc to the Library of Congress to replace their collection lost during the War of 1812 when the British burned the Capitol. The bulk of that collection was destroyed, again by fire, on Christmas eve 1851. Jefferson would build another library between 1815 and his death in 1826, which was dispersed at auction in 1829 by Nathaniel Poor. The provenance of the present volume pre-dates both of those sales, having originally been owned by Reuben Skelton of Virginia, the first husband of Martha Jefferson's stepmother, Elizabeth Lomax Skelton. Elizabeth Skelton was the third wife of Martha's father, John Wayles, and this volume was evidently inherited by her with her husband's estate. Elizabeth passed away shortly after her marriage to Martha's father, and this volume subsequently passed to Martha upon her father's death in 1773. Alternatively, given the interrelated marriages of the period, the volume could also have been inherited from Reuben Skelton by his brother, Bathurst Skelton, who would become Martha's first husband in 1766, until his death in 1768. Either way, the volume entered into Thomas Jefferson's library at Monticello in the 1770s. In his characteristic fashion, Thomas Jefferson has inscribed his initials on signature marks I1 and T1. The front pastedown furthermore bears the signature of his daughter Martha Randolph and her daughters Virginia and Mary. Further indications of provenance show the volume descending among various Randolph and Coolidge relatives into the 20th century. Why this volume was not sold to the Library of Congress in 1815 remains a mystery, but was perhaps in Jefferson's daughter's possession given her inscription. Among the surviving volumes from Jefferson's first library at the Library of Congress are other volumes with provenance to Reuben Skelton. Among the favorite and influential authors among the Founding Fathers, John Milton's republican political philosophy and radical thoughts on human liberty resonated with Thomas Jefferson. Indeed, even at a young age, Jefferson's commonplace book quotes Milton more than any other English poet. Jefferson's statute of Virginia for religious freedom, among his most important contributions, borrowed heavily from Milton's ideas on the separation of church and state. A quarto Baskerville edition of Paradise Regain'd, as well as octavo Baskerville editions of both Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained, were among the books sold to the Library of Congress in 1815, though both were destroyed in the subsequent fire (See Sowerby 4287 and 4288). The present volume not listed in Sowerby. ESTC T134211.