Lincoln's Boys: John Hay, John Nicolay, and the War for Lincoln's Image

✍ Scribed by Zeitz, Joshua

• Book ID: 108019032
• Publisher: Penguin
• Year: 2014
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 603 KB
• Category: Fiction
• ISBN-13: 9781101638071

✦ Synopsis

A timely and intimate look into Abraham Lincolns White House through the lives of his two closest aides and confidants

Lincolns official secretaries John Hay and John Nicolay enjoyed more access, witnessed more history, and knew Lincoln better than anyone outside of the presidents immediate family. Hay and Nicolay were the gatekeepers of the Lincoln legacy. They read poetry and attendeded the theater with the president, commiserated with him over Union army setbacks, and plotted electoral strategy. They were present at every seminal event, from the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation to Lincolns delivery of the Gettysburg Addressand they wrote about it after his death.

In their biography of Lincoln, Hay and Nicolay fought to establish Lincolns heroic legacy and to preserve a narrative that saw slaverynot states rightsas the sole cause of the Civil War. As Joshua Zeitz shows, the image of a humble man with uncommon intellect who rose from obscurity to become a storied wartime leader and emancipator is very much their creation.

Drawing on letters, diaries, and memoirs, Lincolns Boys is part political drama and part coming-of-age talea fascinating story of friendship, politics, war, and the contest over history and remembrance.

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