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In this volume, the stories written by John Hay are collected for the first time, with a substantial Introduction by Hay scholar George Monteiro. Included are "The Blood Seedling," "Shelby Cabell," "The Foster Brothers," "Kane and Abel," "Red, White, and Blue," and "The Minstrel," as well as additional manuscript material. Although Hay is best known as private secretary to Abraham Lincoln and Secretary of State under Theodore Roosevelt, he was also a well-known writer whose literary works include the ten-volume Abraham Lincoln: A History (with John G. Nicolay), the novel The Bread-winners, poetry and the stories collected here.
About the author
John Milton Hay (1838-1905) was best known as a statesman and public servant. He was private secretary and assistant to Abraham Lincoln, Ambassador to Great Britain, and Secretary of State under Presidents McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt, known for creating the 'Open Door" policy with China and for negotiating the construction of the Panama Canal. He was also a well-known writer whose works include the ten-volume Abraham Lincoln: A History (1890), co-authored with John Nicolay, for many years the standard Lincoln biography; Castilian Days (1871), a collection of essays about Spain; Pike County Ballads, local-color poetry set in the rural Illinois of his youth (1871); The Bread-winners (1883), a novel, and a number of short stories and poems.
