My wife and I went back to Monticello for the first time since I wrote "Thomas Jefferson, Rachel & Me." (We are at UVA's Cavalier Inn as I write this - Oct. 19, 2012.)
I was stunned to see no huge tulip poplar tree in the angle of the north terrace.
TJRM readers will recall that this magnificent tree is an important element in the opening scene and in a climactic scene late in the book.
Had I got that totally wrong as I wrote the book back home in Sag Harbor, NY? Had I imagined it being there when in fact I was really remembering another big tree, a cedrela, not a tulip poplar, very near the office at the end of the terrace?
No. I hadn't imagined that unforgettable tree. Turns out they cut the poplar down within the past year, afraid it could destroy the house if it fell in a storm as did two other trees in the east front of the house without hitting anyone or anything.
The old poplar was planted in Jefferson's time, it turns out. The foundation had believed it was a later addition but analysis done after it was felled proved its age. The tree balanced another poplar the foundation had known Jefferson planted (he mentions it in his notes) at the angle of the south terrace.
It was cut down in 2008 because it was sick and a threat to the house.
Now there are two big stumps cut close to the ground where those trees had stood sentry through the centuries. The house looks naked from the west lawn — as it did in TJ's time. He fretted about the absence of majestic trees near the house. They were all too young to be grand then.
Tragic, Those poplars, trees TJ knew himself, grew to a majestic height and size and now they are both gone.
Does it matter in terms of the book? Does it spoil those scenes, which are now even more fictional than they were before?
I don't think so. Not only does TJ survive in TJRM, so does that vanished tree.