"If I did not laugh occasionally I should die," Lincoln is said to have told his cabinet, "and you need this medicine as much as I do." Now in paperback, this volume gathers the best unpublished and uncollected work on Lincoln by Benjamin P. Thomas, widely regarded as the greatest Lincoln historian of his generation. This diverse collection is enhanced by an introduction by Michael Burlingame, himself a leading biographer of Lincoln, who provides a balanced portrait of Thomas and his circuitous path toward writing history.

Long considered a classic, Benjamin P. Thomas's Abraham Lincoln: A Biography takes an incisive look at one of American history's greatest figures. Originally published in 1952 to wide acclaim, this eloquent account rises above previously romanticized depictions of the sixteenth president to reveal the real Lincoln: a complex, shrewd, and dynamic individual whose exceptional life has long intrigued the public.

Thomas traces the president from his hardscrabble beginnings and early political career, through his years as an Illinois lawyer and his presidency during the Civil War....