David Herbert Donald's Lincoln is a

stunningly original portrait of Lincoln's life

and presidency. Donald brilliantly

depicts Lincoln's gradual ascent from humble

beginnings in rural Kentucky to the ever- expanding

political circles in Illinois, and finally to the

presidency of a country divided by civil war.

Donald goes beyond biography, illuminating the

gradual development of Lincoln's character,

chronicling his tremendous capacity for evolution

and growth, thus illustrating what made it possible

for a man so inexperienced and so unprepared

for the presidency to become a great moral leader.

In the most troubled of times, here was a man

who led the country out of slavery and preserved

a shattered Union — in short, one of the greatest

presidents this country has ever seen.

David W. BlightLos Angeles Times"A one-volume study of Lincoln's life that will augment and replace the previous modern standards by Benjamin Thomas (1953) and Stephen Oates (1977). Donald's Lincoln is a scholarly achievement."

Harold HolzerChicago Tribune"Lincoln immediately takes its place among the best of the genre, and it is unlikely that it will be surpassed in elegance, incisiveness and originality in this century. . . . A book of investigative tenacity, interpretive boldness and almost acrobatic balance."

David W. Blight

Los Angeles Times

"A one-volume study of Lincoln's life that will augment and replace the previous modern standards by Benjamin Thomas (1953) and Stephen Oates (1977). Donald's Lincoln is a scholarly achievement."

Arthur Schlesinger, Jr."A grand work--the Lincoln biography for this generation."

The phenomenal national bestseller that is "the Lincoln biography for this generation" (Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.)--now in paperback. Drawing on resources not available until recently--including Lincoln's personal papers, archives, and newspaper reports--two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning author David Herbert Donald presents a masterful account of Lincoln's rise to the presidency and the political and personal challenges he faced while in office.

David Herbert Donald's Lincoln is a stunningly original portrait of Lincoln's life and presidency. Donald brilliantly depicts Lincoln's gradual ascent from humble beginnings in rural Kentucky to the ever- expanding political circles in Illinois, and finally to the presidency of a country divided by civil war. Donald goes beyond biography, illuminating the gradual development of Lincoln's character, chronicling his tremendous capacity for evolution and growth, thus illustrating what made it possible for a man so inexperienced and so unprepared for the presidency to become a great moral leader. In the most troubled of times, here was a man who led the country out of slavery and preserved a shattered Union — in short, one of the greatest presidents this country has ever seen.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [600]-686) and index.

A Note to Readers:

I hesitated for a long time before deciding to write a

biography of Abraham Lincoln. There were already

thousands of books on the subject, and many of them

were excellent. Some were monumental, like the

ten-volume Abraham Lincoln: A History (1890), by John G.

Nicolay and John Hay. A few, like Lincoln the President

(4 vols. 1945-55), by J. G. Randall and Richard N.

Current, were masterworks of historical research.

But most of these books were written before the

publication of The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln,

edited by Roy P. Basler (9 vols.; 1953-55), which provided

the first authentic texts of all of Lincoln's voluminous

personal papers, long sealed in the vaults of

the Library of Congress. These manuscripts included

thousands of letters that came across the desk of the

Civil War president, from other members of the

government, from soldiers in thearmies, and from private

citizens. The opening of these papers in 1947

made it possible to understand just how Lincoln functioned

in the White House. Now, for the first time, a

historian could learn (to borrow a phrase from a later,

unhappy administration) just what the president knew

and when he knew it.

Even more recently it has become possible to

reconstruct Lincoln's career at the bar, which was the

basis both of his income and of his political success.

The Lincoln Legal Papers (an organization of expert

legal researchers) has collected thousands of documents

relating to every legal case in which Lincoln was

involved, and we can now trace the growth of Lincoln's

skill as a lawyer and the evolution of his distinctive

style.

Finding the new sources so plentiful, I concluded

that a new biography was called for. I wanted to write

a narrative account of Lincoln's life, one almost novelistic

in form, though every statement would be buttressed

by fact. My intention was to tell the story of

Lincoln's life as he saw it, making use only of the

information and ideas that were available to him at

the time. My purpose was to explain rather than to

judge.

In telling the story from Lincoln's perspective, I

became increasingly impressed by Lincoln's fatalism.

Lincoln believed, along with Shakespeare, that "there's

a divinity that shapes our ends,/Rough-hew them as we

will." Again and again, he felt that his major decisions

were forced upon him. Late in the Civil War, he

explained to a Kentucky friend: "I claim not to have

controlled events, but confess plainly that events have

controlled me." This does not mean, of course, that

Abraham Lincoln was inactive or inert, nor does it

imply that he was incapable of taking decisive action.

But this view — which is something that began to

emerge from his own words, and not a thesis that I

originally started out with — emphasizes the importance

of Lincoln's deeply held religious beliefs and his

reliance on a Higher Power.

OTHER WORKS BY DAVID HERBERT DONALD:

• Look Homeward: A Life of Thomas Wolfe --

  Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, 1988

• Liberty and Union:

  The Crises of Popular Government

• The Great Republic:

  A History of the American People

• Gone for a Soldier: The Civil War Memories

  of Private Alfred Beard

• Charles Sumner and the Rights of Man --

  Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, 1961

• The Nation in Crisis

• Why the North Won the Civil War

• Charles Sumner and the Coming of the Civil War

• Lincoln Reconsidered: Essays on the Civil/ War Era

• Divided We Fough