For someone who claimed he had been educated by "littles"-a little now and a little then-Abraham Lincoln displayed a remarkable facility in his use of the written word. The simple yet memorable eloquence of his speeches, proclamations and personal correspondence is recorded here in a representative collection of 16 documents. This volume contains, complete and unabridged, the Address Before the Young Men's Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois (1838), which...

Uses more than 275 documents placed in their historical context to chronicle the life and political career of Abraham Lincoln.

A collection of writings includes images of a variety of handwritten speeches, letters, and childhood notebooks, accompanied by commentary by James M. McPherson, Ken Burns, Doris Kearns Goodwin, John Updike, Toni Morrison, and other notables.