Abraham Lincoln Book Acquisitions for 2015

DACOR Bacon HouseI’m still far short of the 15,000+ books published about Abraham Lincoln, but did make several great acquisitions for my collection in 2015. The following list shows 59 new additions, almost exactly the number I added last year.

Seven of the books are brand new 2015 publication dates, including Looking for Lincoln in Illinois: Lincoln’s Springfield, which I’ll use to prepare for next September’s Lincoln Group of DC trip to Illinois. Another 2015 issue is Kathryn Canavan’s Lincoln’s Final Hours: Conspiracy, Terror, and the Assassination of America’s Greatest President. Kathryn will be the Lincoln Group’s guest speaker during one of LGDC’s March 15, 2016 dinner meeting.

Nine of the books are signed by the author. That includes my 2015 “Harold Holzer Book of the Year” (though he often has several new books come out in any given year). A Just and Generous Nation is co-written by Holzer and economist Norton Garfinkle, and Harold was nice enough to sign it for me during the annual Lincoln Forum in Gettysburg in November. You can read my review on Goodreads.

The coolest book I obtained this year is probably Villianous Compounds: Chemical Weapons and the American Civil War by Guy R. Hasagawa. Given my science and toxicology background, this especially grabbed my attention. The oldest book was published in 1894. Abraham Lincoln: The First American by D.D. Thompson was a gift by the Lincoln Group of DC after my October 2015 presentation on “Lincoln and the March of Technology.”

There are several classic books on the list, including those by Paul Angle, Noah Brooks, and the first and second supplements to the famous Roy Basler Collected Works. Some of the books examine specialty areas of Lincoln research. There’s even one by William F. Petersen that claims the lives of Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas were foretold by the weather. [I haven’t read this one yet, but am eager to get the scoop.]

One never-ending problem always attends new acquisitions – where to put them. I’ve reached the point where creative rearranging of bookshelves, combined with strategic sales and library donations, are simply not enough. So my big question for 2016 is “where do I put more bookcases?”

See the list of books below my signature blurbs.

David J. Kent has been a scientist for thirty-five years, is an avid science traveler, and an independent Abraham Lincoln historian. He is the author of Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity (now in its 5th printing) and two e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate. His book on Thomas Edison is due in Barnes and Noble stores in spring 2016.

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Here is the 2015 list:

A Portion of That Field: The Centennial of the Burial of Lincoln 1967
Andreasen, Bryon C. Looking for Lincoln in Illinois: Lincoln’s Springfield 2015
Angle, Paul M. The Lincoln Reader 1947
Angle, Paul M. A Portrait of Abraham Lincoln in Letters By His Oldest Son 1968
Baber, Adin A. Lincoln With Compass and Chain 2002
Basler, Roy P. (ed) The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln: First Supplement 1832-1865 1990
Basler, Roy P. and Basler, Christian O. (ed) The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln: Second Supplement 1848-1865 1990
Brookhiser, Richard Founder’s Son: A Life of Abraham Lincoln 2014
Brooks, Noah Abraham Lincoln: The Nation’s Leader in the Great Struggle through which was Maintained the Existence of the United States 1909
Brown University Books at Brown Volumes XXXI-XXXII 1985
Canavan, Kathryn Lincoln’s Final Hours: Conspiracy, Terror, and the Assassination of America’s Greatest President 2015
Carnahan, Burrus M. Lincoln On Trial: Southern Civilians and the Law of War 2010
Charles River Editors The Transcontinental Railroad: The History and Legacy of the First Rail Line Spanning the United States no date
Current, Richard N. Lincoln’s Loyalists: Union Soldiers From the Confederacy 1994
Di Bella, Anna and Chapman, Sandy (eds) Happy Birthday, Mr. Lincoln: A Commemorative Collage 2009
Donald, David Herbert Lincoln’s Herndon 1948
Donald, David Herbert Lincoln’s Herndon 1948
Farley, Jeremy The Civil War Out My Window: Diary of Mary Henry 2014
Fornieri, Joseph R. and Gabbard, Sara Vaughn Lincoln’s America: 1809-1865 2008
Hasagawa, Guy R. Villainous Compounds: Chemical Weapons & The American Civil War 2015
Hightower, C.L. Sr. (Editor-in-Chief) Hood County History in Pictures and Story 1978 1978
Hodges, Robert R., Jr. American Civil War Railroad Tactics 2009
Holden, Raymond Abraham Lincoln: The Politician and the Man 1929
Holzer, Harold and Garfinkle, Norton A Just and Generous Nation 2015
Horgan, Paul Citizen of New Salem 1961
Horwitz, Tony Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War 1998
Illinois Historic Preservation Agency On Lincoln’s Mind: Leading the Nation to the Gettysburg Address 2013
Illinois Historic Preservation Agency On Lincoln’s Side: Reelecting a Leader 2014
Jewell, Scott (Editor) Ipswich in the Civil War 2012
Kempf, Edward J. Abraham Lincoln’s Philosophy of Common Sense: An Analytical Biography of a Great Mind 1965
Knorowski, Carla (Ed.) Gettysburg Replies: The World Responds to Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address 2015
Magliocca, Gerard N. American Founding Son: John Bingham and the Invention of the Fourteenth Amendment 2013
Mansfield, Stephen Lincoln’s Battle With God: A President’s Struggle With Faith and What It Meant for America 2012
McGinty, Brian Lincoln’s Greatest Case: The River, The Bridge, and the Making of America 2015
McPherson, James M. and McPherson, Patricia R. Lamson of the Gettysburg: The Civil War Letters of Roswell H. Lamson, U.S. Navy 1997
Miller, Richard Lawrence Lincoln and his World: The Early Years: Birth to Illinois Legislature 2006
Oates, Stephen B. Abraham Lincoln: The Man Behind The Myths 1984
Peet, Tom and Keck, David Reading Lincoln: An Annotated Bibliography 2014
Peraino, Kevin Lincoln in the World: The Making of a Statesman and the Dawn of American Power 2013
Petersen, William F. Lincoln Douglas: The Weather as Destiny 1943
Quercia, Jacopo Della The Great Abraham Lincoln Pocket Watch Conspiracy 2014
Rayner, William Horace and Schmidt, Milton O. Elementary Surveying 1957
Reck, W. Emerson A. Lincoln: His Last 24 Hours 1987
Rothenberg, Marc (Ed) The Papers of Joseph Henry, Volume 10: January 1858-December 1865, The Smithsonian Years 2004
Sandburg, Carl Storm Over the Land: A Profile of the Civil War 1995
Shively, Carol A. (Ed.) Asians and Pacific Islanders and the Civil War 2015
Songini, Marc The Lost Fleet: A Yankee Whaler’s Struggle Against the Confederate Navy and Arctic Disaster 2007
Spencer, J. Ronald (Ed) A Connecticut Yankee in Lincoln’s Cabinet: Navy Secretary Gideon Welles Chronicles the Civil War 2014
Temple, Wayne C. Abraham Lincoln From Skeptic to Prophet 1995
Temple, Wayne C. Lincoln’s Connections With the Illinois Michigan Canal, His Return From Congress in ’48, and His Invention 1986
The Heritage Press The Literary Works of Abraham Lincoln 1942
Thompson, D.D. Abraham Lincoln, The First American 1894
Williams, Frank J. and Pederson, William D., eds. Lincoln Lessons: Reflections on America’s Greatest Leader 2009
Winkle, Kenneth J. Lincoln’s Citadel: The Civil War in Washington, DC 2013
The Invisible General 2004
Lust for Love and Battle 1984
Lee Faces Up to Gettysburg 2002
Eyewitness Account Gettysburg 2003
A.P. Hill’s Bloody Bristol Assault 2003