ABOUT THIS BOOK

More than any other American before or since, Abraham Lincoln had a way with words that has shaped our national idea of ourselves. Actively disliked and even vilified by many Americans for the vast majority of his career, this most studied, most storied, and most documented leader still stirs up controversy. Showing not only the development of a powerful mind but the ways in which our sixteenth president was perceived by equally brilliant American minds of a decidedly literary and political bent, Harold K. Bush’s Lincoln in His Own Time provides some of the most significant contemporary meditations on the Great Emancipator’s legacy and cultural significance.

The forty-two entries in this spirited collection present the best reflections of Lincoln as thinker, reader, writer, and orator by those whose lives intertwined with his or those who had direct contact with eyewitnesses. Bush focuses on Lincoln’s literary interests, reading, and work as a writer as well as the evolving debate about his religious views that became central to his memory. Along with a star-struck Walt Whitman writing of Lincoln’s “inexpressibly sweet” face and manner, Elizabeth Keckly’s description of a bereaved Lincoln, “genius and greatness weeping over love’s idol lost,” and William Stoddard’s report of the “cheery, hopeful, morning light” on Lincoln’s face after a long night debating the fate of the nation, the volume includes selections from works by famous contemporary figures such as Hawthorne, Douglass, Stowe, Lowell, Twain, and Lincoln himself in addition to lesser-known selections that have been nearly lost to history. Each entry is introduced by a headnote that places the selection in historical and cultural context; explanatory endnotes provide information about people and places. A comprehensive introduction and a detailed chronology of Lincoln’s eventful life round out the volume.

Bush’s thoughtful collection reveals Lincoln as a man of letters who crafted some of the most memorable lines in our national vocabulary, explores the striking mythologization of the martyred president that began immediately upon his death, and then combines these two themes to illuminate Lincoln’s place in public memory as the absolute embodiment of America’s mythic civil religion. Beyond providing the standard fare of reminiscences about the rhetorically brilliant backwoodsman from the “Old Northwest,” Lincoln in His Own Time also maps a complex genealogy of the cultural work and iconic status of Lincoln as quintessential scribe and prophet of the American people.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Harold K. Bush, professor of English at Saint Louis University, is the author ofMark Twain and the Spiritual Crisis of His Age and American Declarations: Rebellion and Repentance in American Cultural History.

REVIEWS

“Harold Bush’s anthology of the writings of Abraham Lincoln and those who knew him creates a portrait of a ‘living, breathing conscience,’ not just a historical figure. Viewed from so many different perspectives, Lincoln emerges in multiple dimensions, beyond the familiar flatness of a Mathew Brady glass negative. A delightful companion for anyone looking to follow in Lincoln’s paths.”—Allen C. Guelzo, Henry R. Luce Professor of the Civil War Era, Gettysburg College

“A representative and well-chosen selection of biographical testimony that helps to demystify the legend and bring the man alive.”—Douglas L. Wilson, Lincoln Studies Center

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents

Introduction: Remembering Lincoln

Chronology

[Autobiographical Statement, 1858]

[Statement to William Herndon, after 1865?]

“Conversation with Hon. S. T. Logan at Springfield” (1875)

“My Childhood Home I See Again” (1846)

From Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln (1884)

From The Life of Abraham Lincoln (1860)

From “Eulogy for Henry Clay” (1852)

From Herndon’s Lincoln (1889)

From The Real Lincoln (1922)

[Autobiographical Statement, 1859]

[Autobiographical Statement, 1860]

“Chiefly about War Matters” (1862)

“Extracts from an UnpublishedManuscript” [1860s?]

From Behind the Scenes (1868)

[Sketch on the Funeral for Willie Lincoln, 1862]

“Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln” (1895)

“Lincoln’s Colonial Scheme” (1862)

From They Knew Lincoln (1942)

“Army Memories of Lincoln:A Chaplain’s Reminiscences” (1913)

[Three Civil War Letters of Consolation,1861–1864]

“Lincoln’s Vigil” (1895)

From Lincoln at Gettysburg (1906)

“Abraham Lincoln” (1864)

From “Abraham Lincoln” (1865)

[Excerpts from Letters about Her Husband,1865–1873]

“Dreams and Presentiments” (1895)

“A Theatrical Manager’s Reminiscences” (1895)

From The Great Funeral Orationon Abraham Lincoln (1865)

From “Abraham Lincoln” (1865)

From “Death of Abraham Lincoln” (1879)

“Lincoln’s Imagination” (1879)

From “Abraham Lincoln: A Speech” (1865)

“Lincoln’s Philosophy of Life” (1886)

From “Abraham Lincoln” (1895)

From Abraham Lincoln: The Evolutionof His Literary Style (1900)

“A Lincoln Memorial” (1907)

“Lincoln as an Orator” (1909)

From “My Tribute to the GreatEmancipator” (1909)

“The Supreme Vision ofAbraham Lincoln” (1909)

From “Abraham Lincoln:An Appreciation” (1913)

Selected Bibliography

Index

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