Abraham Lincoln: His Life in Print

With Contributions by Robert Bray, Joshua Claybourn, Jonathan Earle, Martha Hodes, Harold Holzer, Glenn W. LaFantasie, Chandra Manning, Edna Greene Medford, Lucas E. Morel, David S. Reynolds, Edward Steers Jr., and Ted Widmer

An illustrated study of the historical printings that depict Abraham Lincoln’s life and legacy.

Abraham Lincoln: His Life in Print provides an indispensable overview of the rarely seen books and ephemera from the nineteenth century that made Lincoln a central historical figure. Written for anyone interested in America’s political, publishing, and cultural past, this catalogue presents the world of Lincoln through printed materials that reveal how he rose to prominence, oversaw the nation’s victory in the Civil War, and ended slavery. No person in the last 160 years has been written about more than Lincoln, but before the biographies, there were books, pamphlets, documents, handbills, and periodicals that influenced, informed, or invented Lincoln in his frontier youth, the political maelstroms of the 1850s and early 1860s, the White House, and upon his death.

The over 300 historical printings covered here are from the Americana collection of philanthropist David M. Rubenstein, who has written the preface. Mr. Rubenstein is also the New York Times bestselling author of five books, including The Highest Calling: Conversations on the American Presidency (2024) and The American Story: Conversations with Master Historians (2019). He is joined by twelve leading writers and historians of Lincoln, each of whom has contributed an essay on an aspect of the sixteenth president’s life and legacy, which will bring readers up to date on current trends in understanding Lincoln. Attractively designed and sumptuously photographed, Abraham Lincoln: His Life in Print assembles the print evidence for Lincoln’s greatness and humanity.