Lincoln the Lawyer
Brian Dirck
Lincoln lived most of his adult life as a practicing lawyer, and this book explores the origins of the “Prairie Lawyer” and his legal education, his partnerships with John Stuart, Stephen Logan, and William Herndon, and how his legal work influenced his political career.

Lincoln’s Political Generals
David Work
The film Lincoln focuses on the legislative maneuvering to pass the 13th Amendment, but Lincoln also made strategic military appointments. In this book, David Work examines Lincoln’s policy of appointing political generals to build a national coalition to fight and win the Civil War.

Mary Lincoln’s Insanity Case: A Documentary History
Jason Emerson
Sally Field will probably snag awards for her portrayal of the unstable Mary Todd Lincoln, but was the President’s wife and widow truly insane? Emerson provides a documentary history of Mary Lincoln’s mental illness and insanity case, evenhandedly presenting every relevant primary source on the subject to enable a clearer view of the facts.

The Lincoln-Douglas Debates: The Lincoln Studies Center Edition
Edited by Rodney O. Davis and Douglas L. Wilson
The most complete record ever assembled of the landmark Lincoln-Douglas debates, this edition brings readers as close as possible to the original words of these two remarkable men. Meticulously edited and annotated, it provides numerous aids to help the modern reader understand the debates, including extensive introductory material, commentary, and a glossary.

Herndon’s Lincoln
William H. Herndon and Jesse W. Weik
Edited by Douglas L. Wilson and Rodney O. Davis
William H. Herndon was Lincoln’s law partner, a personal friend, and his first biographer. His portrait of Lincoln established itself as a classic, and this recent edition restores the original text and is updated with extensive notes.

“Lincoln’s Humor” and Other Essays
Benjamin P. Thomas
Edited by Michael Burlingame
From colorful tall tales to clever barbs aimed at political opponents, Lincoln used humor to defuse tension, illuminate a point, put others at ease–and sometimes for sheer fun. This collection of essays explores Lincoln’s qualities as a humorist, lawyer, and politician.

Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association
Bryon Andreasen, Editor
The only journal dedicated exclusively to Lincoln scholarship and the official journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association.

Other UIP titles in Lincoln studies

Most of us have seen this cute commercial, but have you ever thought that this little girl might be a teacher some day?  Do you suppose that she is going to spend a year teaching her kids to write cursive, let alone traditional English, when they will hardly ever use it?

Fifty years from now, a national treasure will be lost. Just as very few people know how to use a slide rule today, very few will be able to easily read “cursive” writing.

The National Archives has thousands of reels of Civil War microfilm and literally miles of paper files which desperately need to be transcribed while there is enough people with skills to do it. Let’s organize such a project!

It took me about two years to transcribe twenty of these reels. One man can’t do it alone. Perhaps this would be a perfect project for the Government stimulus package.

*****

William C. Edwards is co-editor of the new book The Lincoln Assassination: The Evidence.

With Lincoln’s 200th birthday passing at the end of the day, most of the coverage of Lincoln literature will likely end. But, the University of Illinois Press will continue to publish books on Lincoln in his 201st year. My license plates will still say Land of Lincoln. And, my work colleagues will still attempt to glue a black beard to my face at Book Expo. That’s definitely not cool.

“Though based on the same basic transcripts that Lincoln and most subsequent scholars have used, Davis and Wilson have corrected the irregular paragraphing, arbitrary punctuation, and occasionally garbled transcriptions in the originals. The result is a definitive new edition that is far more readable and almost certainly more reliable.”

Brian Dirck’s Lincoln the Lawyer was recently awarded the Barondess/Lincoln Award of The Civil War Round Table of New York.  The book, which focuses on Lincoln’s legal career prior to his presidency, has been praised by The New Yorker, Library Journal, and Publishers Weekly, and is included in the Abraham Lincoln Book Shop’s “The Essential Lincoln Book Shelf.”