Dr. Gerald Gawalt, retired curator of presidential papers and early American history specialist at the Library of Congress, will discuss his latest book, "Circle of Friends," a fascinating selection and analysis of Thomas Jefferson's letters to and from women. The lecture will take place at 3 p.m. on Sunday, July 21 in the Nickels-Sortwell House barn.

Although he never remarried after the early death of his wife Martha, Jefferson maintained relationships with a number of very different women throughout his life, many of them almost entirely through these written conversations.

His correspondents included friends like Abigail Adams, Henrietta Bethune Colden and Angelica Schuyler Church, the artists Maria Cosway and Madame Plumard de Bellanger and the Marquise de Brèhan (a former lady-in waiting to Marie Antoinette). Family correspondents included his sisters Martha Jefferson Carr and Mary Jefferson Bolling and his daughters Martha (called Patsy), Mary and Lucy.

Jefferson was one of our most complex founding fathers and presidents: a rebel for freedom yet a willing slave owner; a well-traveled sophisticate yet wilfully simplistic about the French Revolution and other international conflicts; a romantic idealist yet also a canny and perhaps even unscrupulous politician.

Gawalt casts a keen and observant eye on letters that offer an intimate glimpse into Jefferson’s private world and that of his most trusted correspondents, revealing more about the man himself while also revealing the thoughts, feelings and political perspicacity of a wonderful international array of 18th and early 19th century women.

Gawalt is also the author of "First Daughters: Letters between U.S. Presidents and Their Daughters" (2004) and "My Dear President: Letters between Presidents and their Wives" (2005).

Advance registration is suggested. Admission is $5 for members of Historic New England, $10 for nonmembers. To register, call 207-882-7169 or visit www.historicnewengland.org.The Nickels-Sortwell House is located at 121 Main Street in Wiscasset. The entrance to the barn is on Federal Street.

The Nickels-Sortwell House is open for tours, Friday-Sunday through October 15. Tours leave on the half hour from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. with the last tour leaving at 4 p.m. Historic New England is a regional heritage organization with 36 historic house museums across five states.