{"product_id":"herndons-informants-9780252023286","title":"Herndons Informants","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWinner of the Abraham Lincoln Institute Book Award More than 600 letters and interviews providing information about Abraham Lincoln's prepolitical and prelegal careers are included in this volume, a priceless collection never before available in one place. Women to whom Lincoln proposed marriage, political allies and adversaries, judges and fellow attorneys, longtime comrades, erstwhile friends--all speak out here in words first gathered by William H. Herndon, Lincoln's law partner, between 1865 and 1890. Historian David Herbert Donald has called Herndon's materials the basic source for Abraham Lincoln's early years.Some of those Herndon questioned were illiterate; others could read but barely write. Completion of this undertaking took the editors to three major collections for the mammoth task of transcribing documents that often were nearly illegible.   Invaluable to Lincoln scholars and intriguing to anyone curious about Lincoln and his times, the book includes an introduction, scho\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWinner of the Abraham Lincoln Institute Book Award given by the Abraham Lincoln Institute of the Mid-Atlantic.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"[Wilson and Davis] have done a service of inestimable value to historians by the complete, accurately transcribed, indexed, and annotated edition of the written accounts of Herndon's interviews with 264 people. . . . It is a monumental achievement of scholarship. That is true not simply because of the editorial skill and effort required to complete it, but mainly because this material is the basis for most of what we know about the first half of Lincoln's life.\"\u003cbr\u003e --James M. McPherson, \u003ci\u003eNew York Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePreface vii\u003cbr\u003e Acknowledgments ix\u003cbr\u003e Introduction xiii\u003cbr\u003e Editorial Note xxv\u003cbr\u003e Short Citations and Abbreviations xxix\u003cbr\u003e Herndon’s Informants: The Texts\u003cbr\u003e 1. Letters, Interviews, and Statements Collected by\u003cbr\u003e William H. Herndon and Jesse W. Weik, 1865–92 3\u003cbr\u003e 2. Informant Testimony Reported in Herndon’s Lincoln:\u003cbr\u003e The True Story of a Great Life (1889) 707\u003cbr\u003e 3. Informant Testimony Reported in William H. Herndon’s\u003cbr\u003e Letters to Jesse W. Weik 713\u003cbr\u003e 4. Informant Testimony Reported in Jesse W. Weik’s\u003cbr\u003e The Real Lincoln (1922) 725\u003cbr\u003e Register of Informants 737\u003cbr\u003e Appendix: Brief Outline of the Joseph Hanks Family,\u003cbr\u003e by Paul H. Verduin 779\u003cbr\u003e Index 785","brand":"University of Illinois Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51742173430103,"sku":"9780252023286","price":44.1,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/herndons-informants-9780252023286","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}