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Stephenson's biography of Lincoln is not perfect – some of his conclusions don't match the objective view of the evidence looking back over the decades. Still his personal attachment to the subject and his access to materials that have been since lost to time, make his a valuable addition to our knowledge of the 16th – and perhaps greatest – president.
THE LIFE, CRIME, AND CAPTURE OF JOHN WILKES “The time will come when remarkable incidents of these our times will be a staple of as great curiosity as the issue of Waterloo. It is an incident without a precedent on this side of the globe, and never to be repeated.
“Assassination has made its last effort to become indigenous here. The public sentiment of Loyalist and Rebel has denounced the world has remarked it with uplifted hands and words of execration. Therefore, as long as history shall hold good, the murder of the President will be a theme for poesy, romance and tragedy. We who live in this consecrated time keep the sacred souvenirs of Mr. Lincoln's death in our possession; and the best of these are the news letters descriptive of his apotheosis, and the fate of the conspirators who slew him.
“I represented the World newspaper at Washington during the whole of those exciting weeks, and wrote their occurrences fresh from the mouths of the actors.”
586 pages, Paperback
Published June 18, 2018