Abraham Lincoln: The True Story of a Great Life, Volume 1 (of 2)

William Henry Herndon knew Abraham Lincoln for twenty years. As his law partner in Springfield, Illinois, he observed Lincoln at his desk, in court, in conversation, in the quiet hours of work. This is not the marble statue or the carvedMount Rushmore face. This is the living, struggling, ambitious man who emerged from Kentucky log cabins and Illinois prairie courts to become one of history's defining leaders. Herndon deliberately set out to strip away the Victorian reverence that was already calcifying around Lincoln's memory. He wanted to present a human being, with all the complexity, doubt, and rough-edged ambition that entailed. Volume One traces Lincoln's origins: the Hanks family lineage, his mother Nancy's profound influence, the poverty and displacement of his childhood, his almost accidental education, and the formation of a mind that would eventually command armies and issue emancipation. This is primary source material from someone who was there, and it remains the most influential biography of Lincoln ever written.