?“Alone among American Presidents, it is possible to imagine
Lincoln, grown up in a different milieu, becoming a distinguished
writer of a not merely political kind.?”
--Edmund Wilson
Ranging from finely honed legal argument to wry and some
sometimes savage humor to private correspondence and political
rhetoric of unsurpassed grandeur, the writings collected in this
volume are at once a literary testament of the greatest writer ever
to occupy the White House and a documentary history of America in
Abraham Lincoln?’s time. They record Lincoln?’s campaigns for
public office; the evolution of his stand against slavery; his
electrifying debates with Stephen Douglas; his conduct of the Civil
War; and the great public utterances of his presidency, including
the Emancipation Proclamation and the Gettysburg Address.
Library of America Paperback Classics feature authoritative texts
drawn from the acclaimed Library of America series and introduced
by today?’s most distinguished scholars and writers. Each book
features a detailed chronology of the author?’s life and career,
and essay on the choice of the text, and notes.
The contents of this Paperback Classic are drawn from Abraham
Lincoln: Speeches and Writings 1832- 1858 and Abraham Lincoln:
Speeches and Writings 1859-1865, volumes number 45 and 46 in the
Library of America series. They are joined in the series by a
companion volume, number 192s, The Lincoln Anthology: Great Writers
on his Life and Legacy from 1860 to Now.