Thomas Jefferson and Maria Cosway: A Gordian Love Affair

BOOK REVIEW: Thomas Jefferson and Maria Cosway: A Gordian Love Affair by M. Andrew Holowchak (Wilmington, DE: Vernon Press, 2024. $39.00 Paperback)

Maria Cosway, the quickly recognizable name of the woman to whom widower Jefferson became attached, has appeared in many Jefferson works over the years. While scholars have tried to decipher the nature of their relationship, most assert some level of romance and contend that Cosway reciprocated Jefferson’s feelings. However, in the only book to examine the pair’s complete correspondence, author M. Andrew Holowchak offers a critical commentary, arguing that an examination of the entirety of their exchanges demonstrates that, contrary to what previous scholars have contended, Jefferson and Cosway’s relationship was one of feelings twice unrequited, Jefferson’s feelings first going unreciprocated by Cosway, and then the reverse when later in life Cosway’s feelings for Jefferson went unreciprocated (page 113).

Framed by an introduction and conclusion, Jefferson and Cosway’s letters form the bulk of this slim volume. The author’s commentary is interjected between letters, which are separated into chapters based on year—the heaviest years of correspondence between 1786 and 1789 having their own chapters and the later years from 1790 to 1824 divided among the final two chapters. Holowchak places the correspondence within the context of Jefferson and Cosway’s lives and aims to interpret their letters within the context of known personality traits and other bits of evidence from their lives. While most scholars have abandoned analysis of the letters beyond Jefferson’s billet doux, a letter of great length in which he poured forth his feelings for Cosway, Holowchak continues his analysis of their relationship through the end of their correspondence. By examining Cosway’s response to the billet doux and the contents of her letters toward the end of their lives, Holowchak contends that Jefferson’s romantic feelings went unrequited until later in life, at which point Cosway longed to be with Jefferson (p. 114).

During their early correspondence, Holowchak speculates that Jefferson intrigued Cosway but she did not feel immediately attracted to him. Holowchak orients this claim in her other experiences with men to conclude that she would generally see if someone were romantically inclined toward her before reciprocating interest (p. 2). In response to Jefferson’s billet doux, in which his head and heart engaged in a debate that Holowchak contends was Jefferson’s way of hedging his bets, Cosway essentially placed Jefferson in the “friend zone.” As Holowchak observes, Cosway used tools like self-deprecation, writing in Italian, and bringing up trifling matters to create distance–a response that Holowchak asserts is unambiguous (p. 21).

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Holowchak reads subsequent letters and actions by the pair as creating purposeful distance. For example, Jefferson wrote short letters with an injured right hand and Cosway visited Paris but stayed at a residence far from Jefferson. Through this time, however, Cosway continued to write in a flirtatious style, which Holowchak attributes to her need for male attention and efforts to keep Jefferson hooked (p. 24). Moreover, Holowchak identifies a pattern: Cosway turned to Jefferson in times of repentance and remorse (p. 83). Later in her life, as Cosway dealt with the loss of her daughter and worked to establish a convent in Italy, her thoughts turned domestic and she turned to Jefferson (p. 88).

Examining the correspondence in its entirety certainly is of interest to Jefferson aficionados, as is this close-up look into his personal life. Holowchak demonstrates how viewing the correspondence in its entirety is useful in examining the life of the relationship. However, ascertaining feelings from written letters tends at times to lend itself to speculation. It is a very human approach and places the readers in a position to analyze words and actions in context of a person, just as people do with those who surround them in their everyday lives. While Jefferson and Cosway spoke to each other in coquettish phrases and other scholars have recognized the nature of the letters as such, Holowchak views Jefferson as making a real attempt to begin an actual romantic relationship. Furthermore, that the relationship never materialized he attributes to Cosway rebuffing Jefferson’s overtures.

While this book is the only place where the entirety of Jefferson and Cosway’s correspondence has been published in its entirety, the letters are accessible online via the National Archives. Nonetheless, people who value having a hard copy of an entire correspondence might appreciate having the book for that reason alone. Readers who are interested in Jefferson’s personal life and in the women in Jefferson’s life might take a particular interest in the author’s critical commentary on the letters. Ultimately, this book is a brief and entertaining read, the significance of which in the historiography of Jefferson works may depend on how much weight the reader places in understanding the dynamics of a personal relationship in the scheme of Jefferson’s life.

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