"The secret of Lincoln's success is simple," he wrote then: "He was an astute and dexterous operator of the political machine." This distinctly unsentimental view caused a considerable stir at the time - in those days the sitesĪssociated with the Emancipator in Springfield, Ill. This will come as no surprise to those who remember his "Lincoln Reconsidered," a book of elegant essays, published in 1955, in which he stressed his subject's Grittier than those produced by most of his predecessors. Donald's portrait of Lincoln is nonetheless a good deal Master of English prose and amateur military strategist, Man of Sorrows and life-long champion of what he called "cold, calculating, unimpassioned reason." But Mr. Donald is too scrupulous ever to push the evidence farther than it should go - and all of Lincoln's familiar avatars are present: the awkward youth and canny lawyer, grieving father and tormented husband, There are no startling revelations here - Mr. Offered to him by his fellow Whigs as a consolation prize when he left Congress in 1849? Or had his enthusiastic friends succeeded in winning for him the Republican Vice-Presidential nomination in 1856, only to see him go down to defeat How might American history have been altered, for example, had Lincoln decided to become a blacksmith instead of a lawyer, as he almost did at the outset of his political career? Or if he had accepted the governorship of the far-off Oregon Territory, Donald's life of Lincoln is different and therefore more rewarding it unrolls, as Lincoln's real life did, as a series of abrupt twists and turns, triumphsĪnd setbacks, after any one of which, had he made the wrong choice, he would never have had his chance at greatness. Through his life in search of clues to how he got that way.
But the authors of all but a handful of them began by assuming that he was a Great Man, then dutifully worked their way back
No one knows how many books have been written about Lincoln - one prominent collector estimates there have been more than 7,000. Is so lucid and richly researched, so careful and compelling, that it is hard to imagine a more satisfying life of our most admired and least understood President, at least for the foreseeable future. To belong to him the way Herndon does, of course no biography of the 16th President can ever be definitive each new generation will insist on redefining him, just as all its predecessors have. Now, nearly half a century later, after writing, editing or collaborating on 15 more volumes and winning two Pulitzer Prizes for biography, he has produced a life of Lincoln himself. $35.ĭAVID HERBERT DONALD began his distinguished career in 1948 with "Lincoln's Herndon," a life of Abraham Lincoln's law partner and early biographer, William Herndon, so comprehensive - and so entertaining - that no one has ever bothered
October 22, 1995, Sunday, Late Edition - Finalīy David Herbert Donald.
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