A Portrait of Abraham Lincoln

Eyewitness Accounts

Author: Edited by Jonathan W. White, Lainey Hostetler, and Alanna Griffin, with a foreword by Michael Burlingame

A collection of reliable eyewitness encounters with the sixteenth president

Cloth – $110

979-8-240-40000-1

Paper – $24.95

979-8-240-40002-5

eBook – $14.95

979-8-240-40003-2

Publication Date

Paperback: 05/04/2027
Cloth: 05/04/2027

Series: The UIS Center for Lincoln Studies Series

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About the Book

Many accounts of Abraham Lincoln come to us via flawed human memory, personal agendas, unreliable sources, or dramatic license. Jonathan W. White, Lainey Hostetler, and Alanna Griffin have compiled a much-needed collection of trustworthy materials to help readers and experts alike create a more accurate image of the sixteenth president. By drawing on materials from eyewitnesses, the editors provide quotes from firsthand, contemporaneous accounts of Lincoln from letters, diaries, and news reports written within hours or, at most, days of the event. Diverse sources from a cross-section of nineteenth-century American society reflect his willingness to mix with the public and capture the humility, authenticity, and complexity that still define Lincoln today.

Deeply researched and accessible, A Portrait of Abraham Lincoln is a valuable collection for anyone interested in a towering historical figure.

About the Author

Jonathan W. White is the Patrick C. Oxford Professor in the School of Civic Leadership at the University of Texas at Austin. He is the author of many books, including the Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize-winning A House Built By Slaves: African American Visitors to the Lincoln White House. Lainey Hostetler and Alanna Griffin are independent scholars.

Reviews

“Abraham Lincoln is among the most written-about figures in history, yet A Portrait of Abraham Lincoln offers something remarkably fresh. Jonathan W. White, Lainey Hostetler, and Alanna Griffin have compiled firsthand accounts recorded within hours or days or weeks of encounters with Lincoln, drawing on observations made before memory and myth could reshape events. The result is an unusually vivid and authentic portrait of Lincoln as his contemporaries saw him: his appearance, mannerisms, humor, humanity, and political genius. Richly researched and clearly presented, this book brings readers closer to the real Lincoln than perhaps any other volume of its kind.”
—Lois Romano, bestselling author of An Inconvenient Widow: The Torment, Trial and Triumph of Mary Todd Lincoln