Synopses & Reviews
Acclaimed as the definitive illustrated history of Abraham Lincoln's assassination,
Lincoln's Assassins, by James L. Swanson and Daniel R. Weinberg, follows the shocking events from the tragic scene at Ford's Theatre to the trial and execution of Booth's co-conspirators. For twelve days after the president was shot, the nation waited breathlessly as manhunters tracked down John Wilkes Booth—the story that was brilliantly told in Swanson's
New York Times bestseller,
Manhunt. Then, during the spring and summer of 1865, a military commission tried eight people as conspirators in Booth's plot to murder Lincoln and other high officials, including the secretary of state and vice president. Few remember them today, but once the names Mary Surratt, Lewis Powell, David Herold, George Atzerodt, Edman Spangler, Samuel Arnold, Michael O'Laughlin, and Dr. Samuel Mudd were the most reviled and notorious in America.
In Lincoln's Assassins, Swanson and Weinberg resurrect these events by presenting an unprecedented visual record of almost 300 contemporary photographs, letters, documents, prints, woodcuts, newspapers, pamphlets, books, and artifacts, many hitherto unpublished. These rare materials, which took the authors decades to collect, evoke the popular culture of the time, record the origins of the Lincoln myth, take the reader into the courtroom and the cells of the accused, document the beginning of American photojournalism, and memorialize the fates of the eight conspirators.
Lincoln's Assassins is a unique work that will appeal to anyone interested in American history, Abraham Lincoln, the Civil War, law, crime, assassination, nineteenth-century photographic portraiture, and the history of American photojournalism.
Review
"[A] fascinating book." New York Times Book Review
Review
"Even the most serious Civil War devotee can expect to find something new here." Chicago Tribune
About the Author
James L. Swanson, the author of the
New York Times bestseller
Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer, is an attorney who has held a number of government and think-tank posts in Washington, D.C. Born on Lincoln's birthday, he has studied and collected books, documents, art, and artifacts connected with Abraham Lincoln's life and death since he was ten years old. He has written about history, the Constitution, popular culture, and other subjects for a variety of publications, including the
Wall Street Journal,
American Heritage,
Smithsonian, and the
Los Angeles Times. Swanson is a member of the advisory committee of the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission. He lives in Washington, D.C.
Daniel R. Weinberg has been the owner since 1971 of the Abraham Lincoln Book Shop in Chicago, which for the past sixty years has bought, sold, authenticated, and appraised original autographs, books, photographs, artwork, and ephemera related to Abraham Lincoln, the Civil War, and American history. Besides being an advisor to the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission, Weinberg is a director of the Lincoln Forum, Abraham Lincoln Association, and Manuscript Society. He is on the executive board of the Professional Autograph Dealers Association and is a past president of The Civil War Round Table. He has helped build some of the major collections in the United States and gives lectures to numerous historical groups.