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This Library of America Paperback Classic edition brings together the most essential writings of America's heroic Civil War president, complete with detailed notes, a chronology of Lincoln's life and political career, and an introduction by the novelist Gore Vidal. Ranging from finely honed legal argument to wry and some sometimes savage humor to private correspondence and political rhetoric of unsurpassed grandeur, the writings collected in this volume are at once a literary testament of the greatest writer ever to occupy the White House and a documentary history of America in Abraham Lincoln's time. They record Lincoln's campaigns for public office; the evolution of his stand against slavery; his electrifying debates with Stephen Douglas; his conduct of the Civil War; and the great public utterances of his presidency, including the Emancipation Proclamation and the Gettysburg Address. Library of America Paperback Classics feature authoritative texts drawn from the acclaimed Library of America series and introduced by today's most distinguished scholars and writers. The contents of this Paperback Classic are drawn from Abraham Lincoln: Speeches and Writings 1832- 1858 and Abraham Lincoln: Speeches and Writings 1859-1865, volumes number 45 and 46 in the Library of America series. They are joined in the series by a companion volume, number 192s, The Lincoln Anthology: Great Writers on his Life and Legacy from 1860 to Now.… (more)
User reviews
The only thing missing is a serviceable introduction that provides a basic guide to understanding the politics and issues addressed in these works. The brief and historically feeble introduction by Gore Vidal really only addresses the quality of Lincoln's prose and even then in such a rambling and random way as to provide but an inkling of why that is so. A better introduction would have provided some understanding of the qualities that made Lincoln a first rate political theorist and practical politician in addition to his qualities as prose writer. But Vidal is a fiction writer not a historian, so don't expect too much of him.
As an affordable and accessible volume of the most essential works of Lincoln, this book is a successful offering. For more context in understanding Lincoln's substance, the reader is advised to supplement this volume with 'The Impending Crisis' by David Potter, 'Battle Cry of Freedom' by James McPherson, and 'Lincoln's Constitution' by Daniel Farber.