"Poplar Forest is one of two personal residences that Thomas Jefferson designed for himself, the other (of course) being Monticello. Despite its audacious design-it was the first octagonal residence in America-and the fact that is one of the very few extant Jeffersonian structures, Poplar Forest is not nearly so well-known today as its sibling seventy miles to the northeast. Travis McDonald, director of architectural restoration at Poplar Forest, situates the site in its rightful position as a historically important Virginia house, and documents its story as central to Jefferson's life and approach to architecture, with due consideration of the enslaved community at his western retreat"--