An Evening with Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson: Dinner, Wine, and Conversation

Travel back in time to 18th century Paris and spend an evening with two of America's favorite Founding Fathers. In the comfort of Jefferson's residence, you sit down with Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson and they tell you in their own words the most interesting stories of their lives, stories to delight anyone interested in history, wine, food, travel, politics, or the pleasure of a good read. You share their travels through France, England, Italy, Ireland, Scotland, Germany, Holland, and America, their accomplishments, disappointments, embarrassments, opinions of contemporaries and political enemies, women in their lives, spies in their midst, wine, food, social activities, thoughts on religion and slavery, intrigues, unfolding of the French revolution, Jefferson presidential years, and much more. Franklin and Jefferson were wine and food enthusiasts, and wine is a topic of conversation throughout the evening including Jefferson's favorite wines available today, their favorite foods, Franklin's wine ventures, Jefferson's trip through Southern France and Italy visiting the vineyards and Roman antiquities, his visits to the vineyards of Germany and Champagne, Philip Mazzei's vineyard experiment, the "Jefferson wine bottles" fraud, etc. The book's back cover contains encomiums from Walter Isaacson and Robert M. Parker, Jr. "The friendship between Franklin and Jefferson is a delectable part of America's founding, and it was fueled by dinner, wine, and conversation. Jim Gabler captures those aspects and more in this fictional but fact-based imaginative journey. It reminds us of the wisdom and joy these two men brought to their lives" WALTER ISAACSON "James Gabler, taking a page from Jack Kerouac, has constructed a brilliant roman a clef around wine and the lives and travels of Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin. This is a marvelously enlightening book for both historians and wine enthusiasts." ROBERT M. PARKER, JR JAMES GABLER is the author of the award winning biography, Passions: The Wines and Travels of Thomas Jefferson, Wine into Words: A History and Bibliography of Wine Books in the English Language, Be Your Own Wine Expert, and two novels, The Secret Formula and God's Devil. Jim lectures on Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin throughout the United State