JJM, I was delighted to see your posting, and to go to Hey Miller for more. You made me recall one of my favorite books of all time: the 1952 biography of Lincoln by Benjamin P. Thomas. I wrote something about it several years ago — in 2004. I said, “This is not only one of the great works on that president, it is also one of the great works of American history, and one of the great works of biography. Thomas is staggering in his scholarship, understanding, and literary power.”

Tell you how I heard of this book. When David Herbert Donald’s Lincoln biography came out — this was in the mid-1990s — I read a review in the Washington Post. The review was of particular interest to me, because Donald had been a teacher of mine, and I, of course, was keenly interested in Lincoln. The review said (I paraphrase), “Fine book, but the standard remains Thomas.” Couple of days later, I was in a bookstore, and I overheard a lady ask for the Thomas book. It had long been out of print. But the lady and I were on the same beam: We wanted to read that book.

I simply tucked the idea of it away. And I read the book years later: in 2004. Well worth the wait, as you might guess from my encomium. This Thomas bio is not a book for those who want Lincoln taken down a peg or two, or more. It is not hagiographic. It simply tells essential truths about its subject: and the subject comes out towering.