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Lincoln as I Knew Him: Gossip, Tributes and Revelations from His Best Friends and Worst Enemies

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Harold Holzer has done it again. Talk about consistency. This Lincoln scholar has created probably the most readable and intimate portrait of Abraham Lincoln to have come around in quite some time. While the excerpts are telling, the best part of the experience are the introductions to each excerpt. This is very much akin to getting a private guided tour to an extraordinary man and his era. It reminds me of the audiocassettes one gets at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (where Mr. Holzer also works) -- with the director of the museum providing an intimate portraits of the works of art before us. What is most telling at a time when we begin our own quest for our next president, is to learn that a man like Lincoln was just that -- a man -- but one with an extraordinary gift to connect to other men and women in a way that even today most politicians fail to understand or perhaps to mimic. I would have loved to have known Mr. Lincoln, but at least Harold Holzer gives us the next best thing -- recollections from those who did. And we're all better for it as a result. Pick this book up when you become dismayed at today's political discourse or the lack thereof -- and learn something about the failings and triumphs of the human spirit.

As soon as I saw Harold Holzer on bookTV I immediately went out and bought this book. It is such a joy! I feel closer to Lincoln and feel I can summon him up more fully in my mind. The observations of those who knew him, especially before his assassination and deification are so telling, about the observer as much as the observed. It is clear that many focused on all that was unimportant about a person - physical appearance, clothing, sophistication and the like. In these categories Lincoln was clearly deficient. However, most saw through that and were touched by the power of this incredible man. Thank you, Harold, for this delicious book.

As a person who has spent much time studying Lincoln and the Civil War, I found this book to be one of the most interesting books I've read. The author has done an excellent job of finding short, concise accounts of Lincoln. This is a book which you can go back to many times and re-read. This would be a great read for high school American History classes.

I have about 100 books on Lincoln and this is one of the best, it draws on stories from some others but it is an easy and very good read for those who want incites into perhaps or greatest President as told by those who knew him and heard him speak.

Lots of books have been written about Lincoln. Most tackled this subject through Presidential Papers. Few took the time to look at those who knew Lincoln. Holzer does this by reading all the available material about Lincoln and getting together the writings of those people who knew Lincoln. This book is a summary of some of those people remembering Lincoln. It is great reading.
One is struck by the Lincoln in this book. He comes across as a very human person. He was ugly and not very cultured. He was smart, friendly, and did not take on an attitude with his high position. He was approachable and easy to talk with. A baby sitter reveals his humanity with her encounters. He was not a racist, in a age when most white people were. He was ready to forgive a people who broke the nation apart. He was a rare human being. This comes across in the writting.
For those interested in the real Abe Lincoln, this is a great book.

I enjoy Harold Holzer's books about Abraham Lincoln because he lets Lincoln's contemporaries speak about him, whether it be praise or criticism. For example, some of the comments by Gen. McClellan regarding Lincoln are really obnoxious, but revealing. "Lincoln as I knew him" is another success. I find this format more interesting than the usual Lincoln biographies that are published every six months or so, often with a weird and inaccurate thesis.

One of the challenges one faces when studying the life of Abraham Lincoln is the rampant deification that began virtually when John Wilkes Boothe fired his fatal shot on the evening of April 14, 1865.

Since that day biographies have abounded that have, in most instances painted the venerable president in the most friendly and adoring hues possible, making it difficult, if not impossible to have a true look at one of the greatest men to ever live. Where can one go who wants a quick and accurate overview?

This small book, Lincoln as I Knew Him: Gossip, Tributes and Revelations from His Best Friends and Worst Enemies, edited by Harold Holzer, offers a solution.

The book offers excerpts from the personal writings of many who knew him best. These memoirs offer views of a complex individual who suffered from fits of nearly overpowering depression and doubt, was one of the tallest figures of his time and extremely down-to-earth and accessible. These personal accounts provide detail about his numerous idiosyncrasies regarding personal grooming, and diet.

Lincoln As I Knew Him is a wonderful book, offering and up close and personal look a man whose life and impact on the United States will be remembered for forever. If you've read numerous Lincoln biographies as I have you still won't want to miss this one.

Douglas McAllister

for this little delight of a book.

Since I was in elementary school, Honest Abe has been one of my (political) heroes. (My other political heroes are Thomas Jefferson, Eleanor Roosevelt, Adlai Stevenson, Golda Meir, and Rudy Giuliani.)

Here are my two absolute favorite parts:

The story about how Lincoln and some friends were riding on a country road after a very severe windstorm. He saw two little birds who had been blown from their nest and were too young to fly. The mother bird, naturally, was in great distress.
My beloved Mr. Abraham Lincoln spent an hour, with the two baby birds in his hand, hunting down the nest. His compatriots laughed at him. This man with "the tenderest heart for anyone in distress, whether man, beast or bird," responded to their laughter by saying, "Gentlemen, you may laugh, but I could not have slept well to-night if I had not saved those birds. Their cries would have rung in my ears."

The other story is about what a wonderfully indulgent, patient, loving parent he was. His kids could come to his office and mess up the entire place, and it didn't bother him. In fact, his fellow lawyer writes, "Had they (the kids) s--t in Lincoln's hat and rubbed it on his boots, he would have laughed and thought it smart...." While I was roaring with laughter at that sentence, my heart was filled to overflowing with love for the wonderful man that Abraham Lincoln was.

Order this book now. It's a winner!

I received this book as a gift when it first came out. I had always admired this great president, but hadn't read anything else on Lincoln prior to this book. I found that I couldn't put it done and read it in like 3 days. I almost would describe the book as a picture album full of snapsnots taken by Lincoln's friends, family, and acquaintances. I write this review nearly 4 years later because I picked it up again to read after a recent Lincoln program on PBS aired on television. I fell in love with the book and the man once again. One does not have to be a history or political buff to admire and treasure this small book.

I have just read this book and I would say that the contents bring out the human side of the man most people do not know. Things that are not generally taught. I found it entertaining, full of interesting facts told by firsthand accounts. Read it & you will agree, I am sure....(VLS)