Synopses & Reviews
Editor Harold Holzer sifted through nineteenth century letters, diary entries, books, and speeches written by people who actually met Abraham Lincoln and offers up the scoop on America's greatest president.
Turns out that Lincoln was a terrible dresser, loved raunchy stories, and let his kids run all over him. In Lincoln As I Knew Him we learn this and much more about an extraordinary man who made a lasting impression on everyone who met him. From the famous---Nathaniel Hawthorne, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Frederick Douglass, Ulysses S. Grant---to the not-so-famous---White House secretaries, artists, bodyguards, childhood pals, and rejected fiancees---this collection provides an insider's look at the man. The result is a folksy, revealing, and, at times, contradictory view of the President:
Assistant Secretary of War Charles A. Dana:
This unerring judgment, this patience which waited and which knew when the right time had arrived, is an intellectual quality that I do not find exercised...with such absolute precision by any other man in history.
Lady Friend Mary Owens:
Mr. Lincoln was deficient in those little links which make up the great chain of a woman's happiness.
An unusual portrait of a complex and elusive president, here's a book that strips away the myths and legends to uncover the authentic Abraham Lincoln.
Review
"[A] revelatory little book." --
Parade Magazine Review
"There are gems throughout." --
Chicago Tribune Review
"Inspiring . . . A collection that sheds light not only on Lincoln but also on his times." --
Publishers Weekly Review
"Wonderfully thorough . . . even the most well-read of Lincoln lovers is sure to find something they have never read before." --
The Civil War NewsSynopsis
Gossip, tributes, and revelations about the president--from both his best friends and his worst enemies--are collected in this revealing insider's look at Abraham Lincoln.
Synopsis
Forget what you think you know about Abraham Lincoln. Yes, he was a brilliant orator, a shrewd politician, and a determined leader who guided us through the bloodiest war in American history. But he also was a terrible dresser, rarely bothered to comb his hair, annoyed his colleagues by constantly reading out loud, loved raunchy stories, and let his kids run all over him.
Author and Lincoln scholar Harold Holzer sifted through nineteenth-century letters, diary entries, books, and speeches written by people who knew Lincoln and offers up the real skinny on the man who was arguably America's greatest president. From the famous--Nathaniel Hawthorne, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Frederick Douglass, Ulysses S. Grant--to the not-so-famous--White House secretaries, artists, bodyguards, childhood pals, and a rejected fiancée--this collection presents a revealing, and at times contradictory, view of our sixteenth president, from his boyhood through his White House years. These firsthand anecdotes and recollections strip away the myths and legends to uncover the authentic Abraham Lincoln before the history books got hold of him.
Synopsis
What was Lincoln really like?
Depends on whom you ask...
Here are first-hand recollections from the famous (Harriet Beecher Stowe, Frederick Douglass, Nathaniel Hawthorne) to the not-so-famous to the downright infamous (John Wilkes Booth).
Military men on Lincoln's leadership: "The President is nothing more than a well meaning baboon."
--General George McClellan
Journalists on Lincoln's character: "No man living has a kinder heart."
--Noah Brooks
Artists on Lincoln's appearance: "Mr. Lincoln had the saddest face I ever attempted to paint."
--Francis Bicknell Carpenter
Lady friends on Lincoln's courtship manners: "Mr. Lincoln was deficient in those little links which make up the great chain of womans happiness."
--Mary Owens
Advance Praise for Lincoln As I Knew Him:
"Inspiring ... A collection that sheds light not only on Lincoln but also on his times."
--Publisher's Weekly
"A pleasing admixture of the strange and the familiar, of poignance and humor, of iron and irony."
--Kirkus Reviews
About the Author
Harold Holzer is one of the country’s leading authorities on Abraham Lincoln and the political culture of the Civil War era. He has published over thirty books, including
"The New York Times" Complete Civil War (Black Dog and Leventhal), and is the recipient of numerous awards, among them the Lincoln Prize and the National Humanities Medal. He lectures widely, appears on television frequently, and has written for the
New York Times,
American Heritage, and
America’s Civil WarHarold Holzer is one of the country’s leading authorities on Abraham Lincoln and the political culture of the Civil War era. He has published over thirty books, including "The New York Times" Complete Civil War (Black Dog and Leventhal), and is the recipient of numerous awards, among them the Lincoln Prize and the National Humanities Medal. He lectures widely, appears on television frequently, and has written for the New York Times, American Heritage, and America’s Civil War
Table of Contents
Introduction
A Grand Composite Picture
1. Memories from Family
Sarah Bush Johnston Lincoln
Dennis Hanks
John Hanks
Elizabeth Todd Grimsley
William Wallace Lincoln
Mary Lincoln
2. Memories from Personal and Political Friends
Joseph Gillespie
Joshua Fry Speed
Isaac N. Arnold
Mary Owens
Carl Schurz
3. Memories from Fellow Lawyers
Henry Clay Whitney
William H. Herndon
John H. Littlefield
Leonard Swett
4. Memories from Journalists and Humorists
Noah Brooks
Henry Villard
David R. Locke
Sylvanus Cadwallader
Horace Greeley
5. Memories from Foreign Observers
Ernest Duvergier de Hauranne
Edward Dicey
William Howard Russell
The Marquis de Chambrun
6. Memories from Foes
George B. McClellan
Stephen A. Douglas
Alexander H. Stephens
John Wilkes Booth
7. Memories from Military Men
Charles A. Dana
E.W. Andrews
William Tecumseh Sherman
Ulysses S. Grant
8. Memories from Authors
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Walt Whitman
Harriet Beecher Stowe
9. Memories from Artists
Leonard Wells Volk
Thomas D. Jones
Francis Bicknell Carpenter
10. Memories from African-Americans
Sojourner Truth
Frederick Douglass
11. Memories from White House Intimates
John G. Nicolay and John M. Hay
Henry W. Knight
Elizabeth Keckley
Julia Taft (Bayne)
William Osborn Stoddard
Thomas T. Eckert
Salmon P. Chase
William H. Crook
A NOTE ON EDITORIAL METHODS
NOTES FROM THE INTRODUCTION
BIBLIOGRAPHY
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
LINCOLN ILLUSTRATIONS
PHOTOGRAPH AND ILLUSTRATION CREDITS
INDEX