Herndon's Informants: Letters, Interviews, and Statements about Abraham Lincoln

More than 600 letters and interviews providing information about Abraham Lincoln's pre-political
and pre-legal careers are included in this volume, a priceless collection
never before available in one place.
Women to whom Lincoln proposed
marriage, political allies and adversaries, judges and fellow attorneys,
longtime comrades, erstwhile friends--all speak out here in words first
gathered by William H. Herndon, Lincoln's law partner, between 1865 and
1890. Historian David Herbert Donald has called Herndon's materials "the
basic source for Abraham Lincoln's early years."
Some of those Herndon questioned
were illiterate; others could read but barely write. Completion of this
undertaking took the editors to three major collections for the mammoth
task of transcribing documents that often were nearly illegible.
Invaluable to Lincoln scholars
and intriguing to anyone curious about Lincoln and his times, the book
includes an introduction, scholarly annotations, a registry of the informants,
and a detailed topical index.