The Lincoln Reader...Live and Times

Of the many books on America's 16th President, Paul Angle's THE LINCOLN READER (first published by Rutgers University Press in 1947) is my favorite. The 24 themed chapters include 179 excerpts from 65 authors-- many of whom knew the man personally. Besides examples from Lincoln biographers Carl Sandburg and Ida M. Tarbell, the "Reader" contains significant contributions from these Lincoln contemporaries (listed alphabetically): Isaac N. Arnold - U.S. Rep. from Illinois (1860-64) George Ashmun - presided over 1860 Republican Convention Edward Bates - U.S. Att'y Gen'l (1861-64) Noah Brooks - journalist Samuel C. Busey - physician Charles Carleton Coffin - Boston journalist Francis Carpenter - artist (Emancipation group portrait) Clark E. Carr - member Illinois delegation Gettysburg Cemetery Commission Salmon P. Chase - U.S. Sec'y of Treasury (1861-64) Lucius E. Chittenden - 1861 Peace Conference delegate, Vermont James A. Connolly - asst. clerk, Illinois State senate (1858-59) Thomas Eckert - Union Army officer Thoma Ford - Illinois governor (1842-46) Elizabeth Todd Grimsley - Mary Lincoln's cousin Murat Halstead - Ohio journalist John Hay - asst. and sec'y to the President William H. Herndon - Lincoln's law partner Elizabeth Keckly - ex-slave, Mrs. Lincoln's White House seamstress Gustav Körner - Lt. Gov., Illinois (1853-57) Ward Hill Lamon - self-appointed bodyguard to Lincoln Stephen D. Lee - general, C.S.A. John H. Littlefield - Illinois att'y Alexander McClure - Pennsylvania journalist Joseph Medill - editor, Chicago Tribune Montgomery C. Meigs - Quartermaster Gen'l, Union Army Helen Nicolay - daughter of John John G. Nicolay - White House private sec'y (1861-65) Richard J. Oglesby - Illinois senator, Union general Donn Platt - Union staff officer David D. Porter - Union admiral Albert G. Riddle - U.S. Rep., Ohio (1861-63) Carl Schurz - amb. to Spain, Union general Frederick K. Seward - Asst. Sec'y of State, son of William (Sec'y of State) William T. Sherman - Union general Julia Taft - playmate of Lincoln children Henry Villard - journalist (Leslie's, NY Tribune, etc.) Elihu B. Washburne - U.S. Rep., Illinois (1853-69) Gideon Welles - U.S. Sec'y of Navy (1861-69) Henry C. Whitney - Illinois att'y A PICTORIAL HISTORY OF THE CIVIL WAR YEARS is another excellent work compiled and edited by Paul Angle. For complete contents, see COMMENT #1. The link to this is directly below.

A tremendous, authentic account of Lincoln's entire life, without modern interpretation. Furthermore a window into the quality people of the time. The authors include cabinet members, personal secretaries, even adversaries. The first parts may be more academic, but as the 179 selected accounts of some 65 period authors progress though the Civil War and to his assassination, the book is a tremendously fascinating chronicle of the tremendous qualities of this man. It only gets better and deeper to the very end; and at the end is a surprise worth reading the entire work for -- the account of his own dream, which presages his assassination. In my opinion, one of the most important books I have ever read. After reading the last chapter several times, I started again from the beginning, with a whole new outlook on the entirety of the work. A great book, providing an indispensable perspective of one of the most troubling times of history.