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Zusatztext "Wonderfully thorough . . . even the most well-read of Lincoln lovers is sure to find something they have never read before." - The Civil War News Informationen zum Autor 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 War. Most recently he served as co-chair of the United States Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission and is senior vice president for external affairs at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Find him online at www.haroldholzer.com. Klappentext 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 "A Splendid and Imposing Figure" William H. Herndon (1818-1891) Law Partner Lincoln's last law partner and one of his most important biographers, Herndon devoted the years after the assassination to laborious research, gathering personal reminiscences from his old friend's earliest acquaintances. When it came to firsthand observations of Lincoln, however, Herndon was perhaps the most valuable witness of all. He shared a Springfield law office with his senior (but equal) partner from 1844 until Lincoln departed for Washington to take the oath of office as president in 1861. Their partnership was never formally dissolved; on paper, at least, it survived until Lincoln's death in 1865. Herndon was also one of Lincoln's most ardent admirers. More liberal on the slavery question, he later claimed to have moved Lincoln politically, but probably exaggerated his influence. Herndon experienced no end of difficulty gathering together Lincoln's biography. His book, subtitled The True Story of a Great Life, did not appear until 1889, by which time its author was fighting a losing battle against alcoholism and poverty. Although some scholars have dismissed the effort as sensationalist, and fatally clouded by his hatred for Mary Lincoln, the book does contain incontestably valuable passages-like the following recollections of Lincoln the talented attorney and indulgent father. A Law office is a dull, dry place so far as pleasurable or interesting incidents are concerned. If one is in search of stories of fraud, deceit, cruelty, broken promises, blasted homes, there is no better place to learn them than a law office. But to the majority of persons these painful recitals are anything but attractive, and it is well perhaps that it should be so. In the office, as in the court room, Lincoln, when discussing any point, was never arbi...
