Thomas Jefferson Papers

To Thomas Jefferson from William Fleischer, 8 October 1804

From William Fleischer

Baltimore, 8 Octobre, 1804.

Monsieur le Président

Ne pouvant pas avoir l’avantage de remettre à Votre Excellence la lettre ci-jointe moi-même, à cause de mes occupations, je prends la liberté de l’envoyer en attendant, en me flattant que sous peu de temps je pourroi Vous témoigner mes respects en personne à féderal City.

La lettre de Mr. faujas est bien ancienne; la raison en est, que mon voyage fut retardé, par des circonstances particulières, près d’un an.

Mr. faujas m’a confié un de ses ouvrages dont je suppose qu’il n’est pas encore connu de Votre Excellence. S’il peut Vous convenir, il est à Votre disposition, le prix en est 18 Dollars.

J’ai l’honneur d’être avec le plus profond respéct Votre Excellence très-humble & très-obéissant serviteur

William Fleischer

Editors’ Translation

Baltimore, 8 Oct. 1804

Mister President,

Because of my work, I do not have the pleasure of delivering the enclosed letter to your excellency, but I take the liberty of sending it, hoping and flattering myself that I will soon be able to pay my respects to you in person in the Federal City.

Mr. Faujas’s letter is quite old. That is because my trip was delayed by almost a year because of special circumstances.

Mr. Faujas entrusted me with one of his books, which I assume you have not yet seen. If it suits you, it is at your disposal. The price is 18 dollars.

With deepest respect, your excellency, I have the honor of being your very humble and obedient servant.

William Fleischer

RC (DLC); below signature: “Bookseller, Saint-Patrick’s Row, No. 61”; endorsed by TJ as received 10 Oct. and so recorded in SJL. Enclosure: Barthélemy Faujas de Saint-Fond to TJ, 20 Sep. 1803.

William Fleischer (1767-1820) was a German-born bookseller, author, and proponent of the Enlightenment in Frankfurt am Main in the 1790s when he opened a lending library and reading room. His bookstore catalog, Annuaire de la librairie, was published in Paris in 1802 by Levrault Frères, for whom he worked in France before moving to Baltimore. He continued to import scientific and other books for sale in the firm’s American store (Pamela E. Selwyn, Everyday Life in the German Book Trade: Friedrich Nicolai as Bookseller and Publisher in the Age of Enlightenment 1750-1810 [University Park, Pa., 2000], 161; Baltimore Telegraphe and Daily Advertiser, 24 Nov. 1804; Sowerby, description begins E. Millicent Sowerby, comp., Catalogue of the Library of Thomas Jefferson, Washington, D.C., 1952-59, 5 vols. description ends No 4730; Vol. 41:397-8).

un de ses ouvrages: the first volume of Faujas’s Essai de géologie, ou Mémoires pour servir a l’histoire naturelle du globe (Vol. 41:189n).

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