This bibliography of Abraham Lincoln is a comprehensive list of written and published works about or by Abraham Lincoln, the 16thpresident of the United States. In terms of primary sources containing Lincoln's letters and writings, scholars rely on The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, edited by Roy Basler, and others.[1] It only includes writings by Lincoln, and omits incoming correspondence. In the six decades since Basler completed his work, some new documents written by Lincoln have been discovered. Previously, a project was underway at the Papers of Abraham Lincoln to provide "a freely accessible comprehensive electronic edition of documents written by and to Abraham Lincoln".[2] The Papers of Abraham Lincoln completed Series I of their project The Law Practice of Abraham Lincoln in 2000. They electronically launched The Law Practice of Abraham Lincoln, Second Edition in 2009,[3] and published a selective print edition of this series.[4] Attempts are still being made to transcribe documents for Series II (non-legal, pre-presidential materials) and Series III (presidential materials).[2]
There have been 16,000 books and articles published on Lincoln—125 on the assassination alone[5]—more than any other American.[6] This listing is therefore highly selective and is based on the reviews in the scholarly journals, and recommended readings compiled by scholars. [citation needed]
Burlingame, Michael. Abraham Lincoln: A Life (2 vols. 2008); the most detailed life. Manuscript. One-volume edition edited and abridged by Jonathan W. White (2023).
Burlingame, Michael. The Inner World of Abraham Lincoln (1994). Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
Holland, Josiah Gilbert (1866). Holland's Life of Abraham Lincoln. Springfield, Massachusetts: Gurdon Bill. Published in 1998 with introduction by Allen C. Guelzo. Lincoln, Nebraska, and London, UK: University of Nebraska Press.
Neely, Mark E. (1984). The Abraham Lincoln Encyclopedia. Da Capo Press. ISBN978-0306802096. detailed articles on many men and movements associated with Lincoln.
Nicolay, Helen (1913). Personal Traits of Abraham Lincoln, New York: The Century Co. (based on material that the author's father John George Nicolay had collected but been unable to use in the biography of Lincoln that he wrote with John Hay)
Randall, James G.Lincoln the President (4 vols., 1945–55; reprint 2000). Fourth volume: Randall, J. G. and Current, Richard N., Last Full Measure: Lincoln the President, New York: Dodd, Mead & Company (1955). Randall had died in 1953 and Current completed the book.
Sandburg, Carl. Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years (2 vols. 1926) vol. 1 online (Subscription required.) vol. 2 online (Subscription required.); The War Years (4 vol 1939). Pulitzer Prize–winning biography by the famous poet
Smith, Harvey H. (1931). Lincoln and the Lincolns. Pioneer Publications, Inc.
Striner, Richard (2020). Summoned to Glory: The Audacious Life of Abraham Lincoln. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. ISBN978-1538137161
Gerleman, David J. Representative Lincoln at Work: Reconstructing a Legislative Career from Original Archival Documents (2017) Lincoln's congressional career The Capitol Dome - 2017 Dome 54.2
Kashatus, William C. Abraham Lincoln, the Quakers and the Civil War: A Trial of Principle and Faith. Praeger, 2014. ISBN978-1440833199.
Kunhardt Jr., Phillip B., Kunhardt III, Phillip, and Kunhardt, Peter W. Lincoln: An Illustrated Biography. Gramercy Books, New York, 1992. ISBN051720715X
Laxner, James, Staking Claims to a Continent: John A. Macdonald, Abraham Lincoln, Jefferson Davis, and the Making of North America (2016). Anansi Press ISBN978-1770894303
Lind, Michael. What Lincoln Believed. The Values and Convictions of America's Greatest President (2004). Anchor Books, a division of Random House, Inc. New York ISBN978-1400030736
McPherson, James M.Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era (1988). Pulitzer Prize winner surveys all aspects of the war
Neely, Mark E.The Fate of Liberty: Abraham Lincoln and Civil Liberties (1992). Pulitzer Prize winner. online version
Neely, Mark E. Lincoln and the Triumph of the Nation: Constitutional Conflict and the American Civil War (2011)
Oakes, James. The Radical and the Republican: Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, and the Triumph of Antislavery Politics. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. 2007. ISBN0393061949. review
Ostendorf, Lloyd, and Hamilton, Charles. Lincoln in Photographs: An Album of Every Known Pose, Morningside House Inc., 1963, ISBN0890290873.
Paludan, Phillip S.The Presidency of Abraham Lincoln (1994), thorough treatment of Lincoln's administration
Polsky, Andrew J. "'Mr. Lincoln's Army' Revisited: Partisanship, Institutional Position, and Union Army Command, 1861–1865." Studies in American Political Development (2002), 16: 176–207
Prokopowicz, Gerald J. (2008). Did Lincoln Own Slaves?. Vintage Books. ISBN978-0307279293.
Randall, James G. (1945–1955). Lincoln the President (4 volumes). Dodd, Mead. OCLC4183070.
Richardson, Heather Cox. The Greatest Nation of the Earth: Republican Economic Policies during the Civil War (1997)
Scott, Kenneth (September 1948). "Press Opposition to Lincoln in New Hampshire". The New England Quarterly. 21 (3): 326–341. doi:10.2307/361094. JSTOR361094.
Shenk, Joshua Wolf. Lincoln's Melancholy: How Depression Challenged a President and Fueled His Greatness (2005)
Tagg, Larry (2009). The Unpopular Mr. Lincoln: The Story of America's Most Reviled President. Savas Beatie. ISBN978-1932714616., a survey of contemporary criticism and polemic directed at Lincoln
White, Jonathan W. Abraham Lincoln and Treason in the Civil War: The Trials of John Merryman (2011). review
White, Jonathan W. Emancipation, the Union Army, and the Reelection of Abraham Lincoln (2014)
White, Jonathan W. Lincoln on Law, Leadership, and Life (2015). review
White, Jonathan W. My Day with Abe Lincoln (2024) Children's book based on facts of Lincoln's childhood.
Barr, John M. "Holding Up a Flawed Mirror to the American Soul: Abraham Lincoln in the Writings of Lerone Bennett Jr.," Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association 35 (Winter 2014), 43–65.
Barr, John M. Loathing Lincoln: An American Tradition from the Civil War to the Present (LSU Press, 2014).
Boritt, Gabor S., ed. The Historian's Lincoln U. of Illinois Press, 1988
Kunhardt III, Philip B. et al. Looking for Lincoln: The Making of an American Icon (2012).
Manning, Chandra, "The Shifting Terrain of Attitudes toward Abraham Lincoln and Emancipation", Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association, 34 (Winter 2013), 18–39.
Neely, Mark E. "The Lincoln Theme since Randall's Call: The Promises and Perils of Professionalism." Papers of the Abraham Lincoln Association 1 (1979): 10–70. in JSTOR
Pinsker, Matthew. "Lincoln Theme 2.0." Journal of American History 96.2 (2009): 417–440. online
Pinsker, Matthew. "Lincoln Theme 2.0." Journal of American History 96.2 (2009): 417–440. online
Randall, James G. "Has the Lincoln Theme Been Exhausted?." American Historical Review 41#2 (1936): 270–294. online
Reinhart, Mark S. (2008). Abraham Lincoln on Screen. McFarland. ISBN978-0786435364.
Schwartz, Barry. Abraham Lincoln and the Forge of National Memory (2003) excerpt and text search
Schwartz, Barry. Abraham Lincoln in the post-heroic era: history and memory in late twentieth-century America (2008) excerpt and text search
Smith, Adam I.P. "The 'Cult' of Abraham Lincoln and the Strange Survival of Liberal England in the Era of the World Wars", Twentieth Century British History, (Dec 2010) 21#4 pp.486–509.
Smith, A. I. P. (2010). "The 'Cult' of Abraham Lincoln and the Strange Survival of Liberal England in the Era of the World Wars". Twentieth Century British History. 21 (4): 486–509. doi:10.1093/tcbh/hwq023. S2CID145087013.
Spielberg, Steven; Goodwin, Doris Kearns; Kushner, Tony. "Mr. Lincoln Goes to Hollywood", Smithsonian (2012) 43#7 pp.46–53.
Lauriston, Bullard. F. (1952). Lincoln in Marble and Bronze. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press.
Ferguson, Andrew (2008). Land of Lincoln: Adventures in Abe's America. Grove Press. ISBN978-0802143617.
Mead, Franklin B. (1932). Heroic Statues in Bronze of Abraham Lincoln: Introducing The Hoosier Youth by Paul Manship. The Lincoln National Life Foundation.
Moffatt, Frederick C. (1998). Errant Bronzes: George Grey Barnard's Statues of Abraham Lincoln. Newark, DE: University of Delaware Press.
Murry, Freeman Henry Morris (1972) [1916]. Emancipation and the Freed in American Sculpture. Books For Libraries Press.
Petz, Weldon (1987). Michigan's Monumental Tributes to Abraham Lincoln. Historical Society of Michigan.
Redway, Maurine Whorton; Bracken, Dorothy Kendall (1957). Marks of Lincoln on Our Land. New York: Hastings House, Publishers.
Savage, Kirk (1997). Standing Soldiers, Kneeling Slaves: Race War and Monument in Nineteenth Century America. Princeton University Press.
Tice, George (1984). Lincoln. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press.
Primary sources
Angle, Paul McClelland; Earl Schenck Miers (1992). The Living Lincoln: the Man, his Mind, his Times, and the War He Fought, Reconstructed from his Own Writings. Barnes & Noble Publishing. ISBN978-1566190435.
Marshall, John A. American Bastile: A History of the Arbitrary Arrests and Imprisonment of American Citizens in the Northern and Border States, on Account of Their Political Opinions, During the Late Civil War (1883)