1. Jared Sparks (1789–1866), a Harvard-educated writer, editor, and historian, served as Unitarian minister of the First Independent Church of Baltimore, 1819–23. In 1823 he purchased the North American Review and was its editor for six years. From that point on Sparks began to collect and publish historical materials ranging from The Life of Gouverneur Morris (1832), and The Works of Benjamin Franklin (1836–40), to The Diplomatic Correspondence of the American Revolution (1829–30). It was in the course of editing the twelve-volume Writings of George Washington (1834–37) that Sparks corresponded with JM, who furnished him with copies of Washington’s letters in his files, as well as details of many historical controversies. Sparks visited Montpelier in 1830, where he took notes of his extended conversations with JM, and stayed “busy also in copying and abridging curious papers, with which he [JM] has furnished me, relating to the history of the old Congress and other events” (Herbert Baxter Adams, Life and Writings of Jared Sparks Comprising Selections from His Journals and Correspondence [2 vols.; Boston, 1893], 2:31, 554, 556–67). In 1838 Sparks became professor of ancient and modern history at Harvard; from 1849 to 1853 he was president of the university.

2. Jared Sparks, Extracts from an Article in the North American Review, January, 1824, on the American Colonization Society (Princeton, N.J., 1824; Shoemaker description begins Richard H. Shoemaker, comp., A Checklist of American Imprints for 1820–1829 (11 vols.; New York, 1964–72). description ends 18067).