Thomas Sleete asked Tristan Donovan:

According to a Wall Street Journal review, you claim in your latest book that Jefferson played backgammon while writing the Constitution. That is impossible since Jefferson was not ever at the Constitutional Convention, he was ambassador to France at the time. He wrote the Declaration but had no role in composing the Constitution. Will you correct your error in future editions? Or, did the Journal misinterpret you?

Tristan Donovan Hi Thomas,

Thank you for alerting me to this. I've rechecked my sources and it's error of mine as it was while writing the Declaration of Independence that he played backgammon, not the constitution.

This will be corrected in reprints and future print editions of the book, and should be fixed in the ebook editions in the near future. Thanks again for pointing this out.

Best
Tristan

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