Before Abraham Lincoln Was President

Before he was president Abraham Lincoln, he was a lawyer in a large hat. Following his rise to the presidency offers readers an inside look at how the signer of the Emancipation Proclamation came to run the nation. From Lincoln's birth in a one-room log cabin to his early days practicing law and working in politics, his life is full of triumphs and tragedy. The places he lived and the people he loved are all chronicled in this exciting work, filling in the blanks in the life story that often starts for many when he assumed the role as America's 16th president.

The Address was delivered at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, on the afternoon of Thursday, November 19, 1863, during the American Civil War, four and a half months after the Union armies defeated those of the Confederacy at the decisive Battle of Gettysburg. In just over two minutes, Lincoln invoked the principles of human equality espoused by the Declaration of Independence and redefined the Civil War as a struggle not merely for the Union, but as "a new birth of freedom" that would bring true equality to all of its citizens, and that would also create a unified nation in which states' rights were no longer dominant. Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves - and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives - and destroyed them. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization and helped make us who we are.

Rev. ed. of: A commitment to honor: a unique portrait of Abraham Lincoln in his own words. Nashville, Tenn.: Rutledge Press, c2000.

Annotation Six Months at the White House was written by Francis Bicknell Carpenter after the unexpected popularity of a series of articles published in the New York Independent relating to Abraham Lincoln following his assassination. Carpenter, a Civil War portrait painter, was originally hired to capture President Lincoln in the picture, "First Reading of the Emancipation Proclamation before the Cabinet." During the six months occupied in painting this picture, Carpenter enjoyed constant interaction with the President, as well as the various members of his Cabinet. Lincoln was enthusiastic in helping Carpenter, even letting him use the state dining room as his studio.

The collected letters, speeches, etc. written by Abraham Lincoln.

In 1940, author and historian Philip Van Doren Stern produced this volume as a guide to Lincoln's life through his writings. Stern's "Life of Abraham Lincoln" is a full biography of the man and includes a detailed chronology. Stern has collected all the essential texts of Lincoln's public life, from his first public address--a stump speech in New Salem, Illinois, in 1832 for an election he went on to lose--to his last piece of public writing, a pass to a congressman who was to visit the president the day after Lincoln went to Ford's Theater on April 14, 1865. Some 275 such documents are collected and placed in their historical context. Together with the "Life" and the Introduction, "Lincoln in His Writings," by noted historian Allan Nevins, they give a full and vivid picture of Abraham Lincoln

"[The authors] have selected the best of Lincoln's writings on himself and the tremendous issues of his day. By their skillful editing, letters, speeches, and documents are fused into an intimate self-portrait. Here is, in effect, Abraham Lincoln's autobiography, from his early years in Springfield, through the upheavals of his Presidency, tho the day before he died"--Front jacket flap