This UIS Center for Lincoln Studies Book Series, in partnership with University of Illinois Press, publishes significant monographs and documentary editions dealing with Abraham Lincoln and his legacy. Publication of books about Lincoln remains important as scholars continue to refine their understanding of Lincoln and the public continues to be fascinated by the 16th president. We welcome projects that are grounded in history, but also those that cross disciplinary boundaries throughout the humanities and social sciences.
Series Editor: Michael Burlingame
Christopher Sullivan’s engaging exploration focuses on the role of poetry in Lincoln’s life and thought. As Sullivan shows, the poetic prose of Lincoln’s most famous writings and oratory drew on an ear for verse he began to cultivate during his frontier youth. Full versions of Lincoln’s own published and unpublished poetry provide fascinating context for his work before and during his political career while shedding light on his state of mind during the crisis of an existential war. Sullivan also considers Lincoln’s relationship with poetry against a backdrop of what poetry is, how it operates, and how it may resurface in prose.
A journalistic look at the crossroads of art and leadership, Lincoln’s Poetry adds a surprising yet vital dimension to our perceptions of the sixteenth president.
Christopher Sullivan is an independent researcher, editor, and writer.
Order Lincoln's Poetry from the University of Illinois Press.
Published in 1863, William M. Thayer’s The Pioneer Boy, and How He Became President fictionalized Abraham Lincoln’s younger years to serve as a moral and religious model for adolescent readers.
This new edition of Pioneer Boy reprints the text with extensive annotations by Steven K. Rogstad. In his reappraisal of the work, Rogstad taps the factual history woven into the plot and dialogue to illuminate how the young Lincoln presented by Thayer compares with historical documents and credible reminisces of the future president. Rogstad’s chapter-by-chapter analysis reveals the work as an astute biography while reevaluating Thayer as a source worthy of consideration within Lincoln scholarship. An introduction offers an in-depth consideration of Lincoln’s own presentations of his youth, Thayer’s career, and the book’s long life.
Steven K. Rogstad is an independent scholar. He is the author of Lincoln Among the Badgers: Rediscovering Sites Associated with Abraham and Mary Lincoln in Wisconsin and coeditor of The Many Faces of Lincoln: Selected Articles from the Lincoln Herald.
Order The Pioneer Boy from the University of Illinois Press.
Lincoln the Citizen offers a rare character study and insightful biography of Lincoln before he became president. Michael Burlingame restores material cut by editors of the original 1907 publication to present Henry Clay Whitney’s work in full.
Whitney reveals the legal and political spheres where Lincoln moved while providing eyewitness accounts and intimate stories shared by Lincoln himself. Burlingame places Whitney’s contributions within Lincoln studies but also weighs criticisms of the book and disputes over what information the author may or may not have invented.
A restored edition of an invaluable memoir, Lincoln the Citizen presents a wealth of overlooked biographical detail by one of the people who knew Lincoln best.
Michael Burlingame is a professor of history and the Lynn Distinguished Chairperson at the University of Illinois Springfield. He has written and edited twenty-one Lincoln books.
Order Lincoln the Citizen from the University of Illinois Press.