Abraham Lincoln Book Acquisitions for 2013

There are over 15,000 books that have been written about Abraham Lincoln. At least that’s the number that is bandied about whenever someone talks about Lincoln books. Whether that number includes books about the Civil War or just books focused on Lincoln himself is also in question. In any case, I have over 800 titles, with more than 95% specific to the man, not the war.

Over the course of this past year I’ve obtained 98 titles. A few more than usual are Civil War-centric because of research I’ve been doing for a forthcoming book, along with random availability. The books represent a wide range of publication dates and topics of study. General Halleck’s definitive 1862 treatise, Elements of Military Art and Science, which Lincoln rabidly consulted, and an 1895 edition of John A. Logan’s The Great Conspiracy (in which he argues the South had long planned secession), are both new acquisitions this year. More recent tomes include the 2013 books: Lincoln ‘by littles,’ by Lewis E. Lehrman; Lincoln Unbound, by Rich Lowry; and Congressman Lincoln, by Chris DeRose.

Classic Lincoln scholars like William Herndon, Herbert Mitgang, Ida Tarbell, and Carl Sandburg are represented, as are modern experts like Harold Holzer, Gabor Boritt, Catherine Clinton, and Douglas L. Wilson.

The latter, Douglas L. Wilson, and his colleague Rodney O. Davis, have done Abraham Lincoln scholars an invaluable service by editing Herndon’s Lincoln. Along with their companion works, Herndon’s Informants and a forthcoming book on Herndon’s letters, Wilson and Davis have not only presented the classic book by Lincoln’s law partner, they’ve enhanced its value as a research tool. Herndon’s Lincoln is the subject of our Lincoln Group of the District of Columbia book club reading right now, so I’ll have more on this topic later.

I have plans for a major undertaking that I’ll discuss in the future, but for now I’ve appended the full list of 2013 acquisitions to the bottom of this post for those who want to take a look.

David J. Kent is currently working on a book about Abraham Lincoln’s interest in science and technology. He is also the author of Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity. You can order a signed copy directly from me, download the ebook at barnesandnoble.com, and find hard copies exclusively at Barnes and Noble bookstores.

Here’s the list!

Anderson, Dwight G.	Abraham Lincoln: The Quest for Immortality	1982
Barber, Lucius W.	Army Memoirs of Lucius W. Barber, Company “D,” 15th Illinois Volunteer Infantrym May 24, 1861 to Sept. 30, 1865	1894
Berg, Scott W.	38 Nooses: Lincoln, Little Crow, and the Beginning of the Frontier’s End	2012
Boritt, Gabor	The Gettysburg Gospel: The Lincoln Speech That Nobody Knows	2006
Boritt, Gabor S. (ed)	The Lincoln Enigma: The Changing Faces of an American Icon	2001
Boothe, F. Norton	Great Generals of the Civil War and Their Battles	1986
Bowman, John S.	The Civil War Day By Day: An Illustrated Almanac of America’s Bloodiest War	1989
Brandt, Nat	The Town That Started the Civil War	1990
Briggs, John Channing	Lincoln’s Speeches Reconsidered	2005
Brown, William Wells	The Negro in the American Rebellion: His Heroism and His Fidelity	1971
Brownstein, Elizabeth Smith	If This House Could Talk	1999
Brownstein, Elizabeth Smith	Lincoln’s Other White House: The Untold Story of the Man and His Presidency	2005
Bush, Bryan S.	Lincoln and the Speeds: The Untol Story of a Devoted and Enduring Friendship	2008
Cannan, John	The Crater: Burnside’s Assault on the Confederate Trenches, June 30, 1864	2002
Campbell, R. Thomas	Gray Thunder: Exploits of the Confederate States Navy	1996
Catton, Bruce	The American Heritage Picture History of the Civil War	1960
Catton, Bruce	The Army of the Potomac: Mr. Lincoln’s Army	1962
Catton, Bruce	The Army of the Potomac: Glory Road	1952
Catton, Bruce	The Army of the Potomac: A Stillness at Appomattox	1953
Catton, Bruce	Gettysburg: The Final Fury	1974
Clinton, Catherine	Mrs. Lincoln: A Life	2009
Cooling, Benjamin Franklin, III and Walton H. Owen, II	Mr. Lincoln’s Forts: A Guide to the Civil War Defenses of Washington	1988
Cornwell, Bernard	Battle Flag	1995
Cromie, Alice	A Tour Guide to the Civil War: The Complete State-by-State Guide to Battlegrounds, Landmarks, Museums, Relics, and Sites (3rd Edition, Revised)	1990
Davis, William C.	Rebels & Yankees: The Commanders of the Civil War	1990
Delbanco, Andrew (Ed)	The Portable Abraham Lincoln	1992
DeRose, Chris	Congressman Lincoln: The Making of America’s Greatest President	2013
Deutsch, Kenneth L. and Fornieri, Joseph R. (Eds)	Lincoln’s American Dream: Clashing Political Perspectives	2005
Duffy, James P.	Lincoln’s Admiral: The Civil War Campaigns of David Farragut	2006
Ecelbarger, Gary	The Great Comeback: How Abraham Lincoln Beat the Odds to Win the 1860 Republican Nomination	2008
Eliot, Alexander	Abraham Lincoln: An Illustrated Biography	1985
Eliot, Alexander	Abraham Lincoln: An Illustrated Biography	1985
Epstein, Daniel Mark	The Lincolns: Portrait of a Marriage	2008
Findley, Paul	A. Lincoln: The Crucible of Congress	1979
Fletcher, George P.	Our Secret Constitution: How Lincoln Redefined American Democracy	2001
Gary W. Gallagher (Ed)	Fighting for the Confederacy: The Personal Recollections of General Edward Porter Alexander	1989
Gary, Ralph	Following in Lincoln’s Footsteps: A Complete Annotated Reference to Hundreds of Historical Sites Visited by Abraham Lincoln	2001
Halleck, Henry Wager	Elements of Military Art and Science	1862
Hartwig, D. Scott	To Antietam Creek: The Maryland Campaign of September 1862	2012
Haythornthwaite, Philip	Unforms of the Civil War in Color	1990
Henderson, G.F.R., C.B.	Stonewall Jackson and the American Civil War	1993
Henig, Gerald S. and Niderost, Eric	Civil War Firsts: The Legacies of America’s Bloodiest Conflict	2001
Herndon, William H. and Weik, Jesse William	Herndon’s Life of Lincoln	1943
Hicks, Brian and Kropf, Schuyler	Raising the Hunley: The Remarkable History and Recovery of the Lost Confederate Submarine	2002
Hirsch, David and Van Haften, Dan	Barack Obama, Abraham Lincoln, and the Structure of Reason	2012
Holzer, Harold	Lincoln: President-Elect: Abraham Lincoln and the Great Secession Winter 1860-1861	2008
Holzer, Harold and the New York Historical Society	The Civil War in 50 Objects	2013
Illinois Central Railroad Company	Abraham Lincoln As Attorney for the Illinois Central Railroad Company	1905
Jahns, Patricia	Matthew Fontaine Maury & Joseph Henry: Scientists of the Civil War	1961
Jahns, Patricia	Joseph Henry: Father of American Electronics	1970
Jordan, Robert Paul	The Civil War	1969
Keneally, Thomas	Abraham Lincoln	2003
Knauer, Kelly (Ed)	Abraham Lincoln An Illustrated History of His Life and Times	2012
Kostyal, K.M.	Field of Battle: The Civil War Letters of Major Thomas J. Halsey	1996
Kushner, Tony	Lincoln: The Screenplay	2012
Lachman, Charles	The Last Lincolns: The Rise & Fall of a Great American Family	2008
Lamon, Ward H.	The Life of Abraham Lincoln; From His Birth to his Inauguration as President (Illustrated Edition)	2013
Lee, Richard M.	Mr. Lincoln’s City: An Illustrated Guide to the Civil War Sites of Washington	1981
Lehrman, Lewis E.	Lincoln “by littles”	2013
Lewis, Lloyd	The Assassination of Lincoln: History and Myth	1994
Lind, Michael	What Lincoln Believed: The Values and Convictions of America’s Greatest President	2004
Livingston, Mary P. (Ed)	A Civil War Marine at Sea: The Diary of Medal of Honor Recipient Miles M. Oviatt	1998
Logan, John A.	The Great Conspiracy: Its Origin and History	1895
Long, E.B. with Barbara Long	The Civil War Day By Day: An Almanac: 1861-1865	1971
Lowry, Rich	Lincoln Unbound: How an Ambitious Young Railsplitter Save the American Dream – And How We Can Do It Again	2013
Marvel, William (ed)	The Monitor Chronicles: One Sailor’s Account: Today’s Campaign to Recover the Civil War Wreck	2000
MCPherson, James M.	Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era	1988
McPherson, James M.	The Negro’s Civil War: How American Blacks Felt and Acted During the War for the Union	1991
Menge, W. Springer and Shimrak, J. August	The Civil War Notebook of Daniel Chisholm: A Chronicle of Daily Life in the Union Army 1864-1865	1989
Meredith, Roy	Mr. Lincoln’s Camera Man: Mathew B. Brady	1974
Milton, George Fort	Abraham Lincoln and the Fifth Column	1942
Mitgang, Herbert	The Fiery Trial: A Life of Lincoln	1974
Mitgang, Herbert (ed)	Abraham Lincoln: A Press Portrait	1971
Monaghan, Jay	The Man Who Elected Lincoln	1956
Moore, Edward A.	The Story of a Cannoneer Under Stonewall Jackson	1907
Morse, John T.	On Becoming Abraham Lincoln: From the 1893 Biography	2008
Musicant, Ivan	Divided Waters: The Naval History of the Civil War	1995
Neely, Mark E. Jr.	The Last Best Hope of Earth: Abraham Lincoln and the Promise of America	1993
Nesbitt, Mark	Ghosts of Gettysburg: Spirits, Apparitions and Haunted Places of the Battlefield	1991
Nofi, Albert A. (Compiler)	A Civil War Journal: A Fascinating Collection of Facts, Episodes & Anecdotes	1995
Prokopowicz, Gerald J.	Did Lincoln Own Slaves? And Other Frequently Asked Questions About Abraham Lincoln	2008
Redkey, Edwin S. (Ed)	A Grand Army of Black Men	1992
Sandburg, Carl	Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years and the War Years	1954
Sandburg, Carl	Storm Over the Land: A Profile of the Civil War	1939, 1942
Schwartz, Gerald (Ed)	A Woman Doctor’s Civil War: Esther Hill Hawks’ Diary	1984
Scripps, John Locke	Vote Lincoln! The Presidential Campaign Biography of Abraham Lincoln, 1860	2010
Simson, Jay W.	Naval Strategies of the Civil War: Confederate Innovations and Federal Opportunism	2001
Spiegel, Allen D.	A. Lincoln: Esquire: A Shrewd, Sophisticated Lawyer in His Time	2002
Splaine, John	A Companion to the Lincoln Douglas Debates	1994
Still, William N., Jr., Taylor, John M., and Delaney, Norman C.	Raiders and Blockaders: The American Civil War Afloat	1998
Styple, William B. (Ed)	Tell Me of Lincoln: Memories of Abraham Lincoln, the Civil War & Life in Old New York by James E. Kelly	2009
Swanson, James L.	Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer	2006
Tarbell, Ida M.	The Life of Abraham Lincoln	1924
Wert, Jeffry D.	The Sword of Lincoln: The Army of the Potomac	2005
Wideman, John C.	Naval Warfare: Courage and Combat on the Water	1997
Wilson, Douglas L.	Herndon’s Informants: Letters, Interviews, and Statements about Abraham Lincoln	1998
Winkler, H. Donald	Lincoln’s Ladies: The Women in the Life of the Sixteenth President	2004
Wynalda, Stephen A.	366 Days in Abraham Lincoln’s Presidency: The Private, Political, and Military Decisions of America’s Greatest President	2010