He devotes roughly half of the biography to the period leading up to 1861, with results that will gratify most readers,while admittedly frustrating some military buffs. Where predecessors like Thomas and Oates racethrough Lincoln’s formative years, relying heavily on secondary sources, Donald demonstrates care and abundant primaryresearch. The evidence of Donald’s superior command of the material comes early. Donald, a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer and long-time student of Lincoln and hiscontemporaries, is perfectly matched for the challenge of writing original and engaging material about the Great Subject. The distinguished historian David Herbert Donald has produced by far the finest single volume on Lincoln’s life yetattempted, a work that is a monumental achievement in scholarship.ĭonald’s Lincoln will undoubtedly displace popular Lincoln biographies by Benjamin P. The latest effort is definitelysuccessful.

Of course, ever since then, biographers have tried diligently to prove their subject wrong. When approached for information about his life, Abraham Lincoln warned a would-be biographer to look up Thomas Gray’sElegy Written in a Country Churchyard (“The short and simple annals of the poor”), claiming playfully, “That’s my life, andthat’s all you or any one else can make of it.” Book Review: Lincoln (David Herbert Donald) : CWT Close

Lincoln by David Herbert Donald