NEW YORK
LAW SCHOOL Annette Gordon-Reed Professor of Law
July 16, 2001
Mr. John H . Works, Jr. P. 0 . Box 807 Locust Valley, NY 11560
Dear Mr. Works: I received the copy of the letter you sent to Dean Richard Matasar. I write to tell you that your charge that I intentionally altered the text ofEllen Randolph Coolidge' s letter to her husband, Joseph, is flat wrong. Any mistake that appears in my work is just that-- a mistake. You may or may not believe it, but that is the truth. Your characterization of my response upon learning of the error is also wrong. I was not indifferent to it. I immediately decided to provide the correct transcription in the next edition of the book, likely to be printed this coming Fall. That seems the most appropriate response; to fix the problem. And I must note that fixing the transcription will not affect anything I say in the main part of the book, or any of the other information that has come to light since my book was first published. As you say in your letter, the error has been discussed in the Scholars' Commission Report and in the media. Members of the public have been alerted to it. They can now read the Commission' s Report, which I have urged people to do, the report of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, the version of my book that is out currently, and the one that will be out next year. With all that taken together, people can draw their own conclusions.
Very truly yours,
~~-/Lad Annette Gordon-Reed
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