Fred Kaplan

Fred Kaplan approaches biography as a literary scholar, connecting public lives with the habits of reading and writing behind them. His Masterly Pen examines Thomas Jefferson through his work as a writer, treating letters, political documents, notes, and private reflections as evidence of how Jefferson shaped ideas and presented himself. Harper released the study in 2022 with the subtitle A Biography of Jefferson the Writer. Kaplan's earlier subjects include Thomas Carlyle, Charles Dickens, Henry James, Gore Vidal, Mark Twain, Abraham Lincoln, and John Quincy Adams, giving him a long perspective on literary and political biography. He is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of English at Queens College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. In this Jefferson study, Kaplan pays particular attention to language, revision, audience, and contradiction, showing how authorship operated across both public argument and personal record rather than treating political achievement as separate from literary practice.