The Life of Abraham Lincoln

There are many identities that can define Abe Lincoln. A young country lawyer who asked questions in order to figure out his own thinking on an issue, as much as to argue the case. A hands-on Commander in Chief who commandeered a boat and ordered an attack on Confederate shore batteries at the tip of the Virginia peninsula. A man who struggled with the immorality of slavery and as president acted publicly and privately to outlaw it forever. And finally, a President involved in a religious crusade who wrote, for his eyes only, a profound meditation on "the will of God" in the Civil War that would become the basis of his finest address. Most enlightening, the Abraham Lincoln who comes into focus in this stellar biography is a person of intellectual curiosity, comfortable with ambiguity, unafraid to "think anew and act anew." In this book there is no attempt to write a history of the times in which Lincoln lived and worked. Such historical events as have been narrated were selected solely because they illustrated some phase of the character of Lincoln. In this biography, the single purpose has been to present the living man with such distinctness of outline that the reader may have a sort of feeling of being acquainted with him.