Readers of Thomas Jefferson's fragmentary autobiography are sometimes startled to find that, after a few obligatory pages about his ancestors, Jefferson proceeds to a discussion of the Declaration of Independence. He presents his original draft of the Declaration, complete with indications of the emendations and deletions made by Congress. The Declaration occupies the physical center of the text of his life. Autobiography was much in vogue. Benjamin Franklin's autobiography had been a remarkable success, and Rousseau (1712-1778) whose work Jefferson knew well, had proclaimed that the autobiographical Confessions(1770) would accompany him to the Last Judgment as his defense of who and what he had been. Jefferson's autobiography contrasts with both Franklin's and Rousseau's. It is neither a narrative of the contraction of a self, as is Franklin's, nor a set of intimate revelations like Rousseau's. Jefferson's autobiography centers in the drafting of the Declaration of Independence. (more)