WINTER 2013-2014
LINCOLNIANA
BY
FRANK J. WILLIAMS
Gettysburg
Gettysburg: The word is a looking glass for America. Not even Abraham Lincoln could fix Gettysburg for all time. The 150th anniversary of the battle and President Lincoln’s address, commemorated in 2013, brought forth a plethora of books and commentary. Here are some: On November 15, Alexandra Petri wrote “Searching for Gettysburg” for the Washington Post; the Chicago Tribune, on November 15, discussed its own report of the dedication exercises in November 1863; the Associated Press, on November 17, offered “Gettysburg Address is a sacred, but Elusive Text.” It appeared in the Sun-Gazette of Williamsport, PA; The New York Times editorial on November 18, “Lincoln at Gettysburg Long Ago,” remarked that, “…Almost everything we think about the Civil War, about the ‘new birth of freedom’ it was meant to bring, is merely an extension of Lincoln’s words…. He was there not only to speak our thoughts aloud but to give them language so moving that they could continue to resound all these years later. And so they still do;” Allen C. Guelzo’s “Lincoln’s Soundbite: Have Faith in Democracy” appeared in the November 18 New York Times Op-Ed section; Megan Garber wrote “Newspaper Corrects 1863 Editorial Calling the Gettysburg Address ‘Silly’”—about a retraction of its original criticism by The Harrisburg Patriot-News (Atlantic Monthly, November 18); Drew Gilpin Faust discussed, in the November 18 Washington Post, “150 Years After the Gettysburg Address, Is Government By the People in Trouble?”; Ronald C. White wrote “The Gettysburg Address: Much Noted and Long Remembered” for the Los Angeles Times on November 19; Bramhall’s World illustrated the audience reaction as if Abraham Lincoln was delivering the address today, prompting outcries of “You lie!,” “Hey, bean pole, dedicate this!” (with a hand gesture), and “Yer wife’s a freakin’ loon!” The cartoon appeared in the New York Daily News on November 19; and Steve Vogel described the dedicatory event at Gettysburg on November 19 with reenactor James Getty portraying Abraham Lincoln and keynoter James M. McPherson in the November 20 Washington Post.
The Spoken Word and Group Activities
Thomas Horrocks was a guest on Civil War Talk Radio on October 30 (www.voiceamerica.com/show/2205/civil-war-talk-radio).
The 18th annual Lincoln Forum symposium, Lincoln at Midstream: Gettysburg and Beyond, was held November 16-18. Valley Forge Military Academy & College opened the ceremonies with a presentation of the colors. James M. McPherson was the keynote speaker on November 16 with “High Water Marks in the Gettysburg Campaign.” On November 17, Barnet Schecter described “The New York City Draft Riots,” John Stauffer presented “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” with music, and Edna Greene Medford delivered “The U.S. Colored Troops to the Rescue.” Harold Holzer moderated. The second session, moderated by Burrus Carnahan, featured Michelle Krowl and her powerpoint presentation of “Lincoln Treasures at the Library of Congress: A Visual Tour.” Harold Holzer presided over the panel, Lincoln the Orator: Gettysburg and Beyond, with James M. McPherson, Jared Peatman, and Martin P. Johnson. That evening, the Wendy Allen Award, for groups or associations that distinguish themselves in the study of Lincoln and the Civil War, went to the Ulysses S. Grant Association and Presidential Library, Mississippi State University. John Marszalek, Executive Director, accepted the award. Lincoln interpreter George Buss delivered a portion of Abraham Lincoln’s “Conkling letter” speech, and James Oakes presented “Anti-slavery in the Civil War.” On Monday, November 18, Frank J. Williams moderated the morning session with Walter Stahr (“Seward and Lincoln”), and John Fabian Witt (“Lincoln’s Code and the Laws of War”). Williams also moderated the panel, The North vs. The South and The East vs. The West: Which Theater of the War Made the Big Difference in 1863?, with William C. (“Jack”) Davis, John Marszalek, Richard McMurry, and Craig Symonds. Breakout sessions featured authors of the “Concise Lincoln” Series from Southern Illinois University Press: Brian Dirck (Lincoln and the Constitution) with John Marszalek as facilitator, Kenneth J. Winkle (Abraham and Mary Lincoln) with Harold Holzer as facilitator, Michael Green (Lincoln and the Election of 1860) with Sylvia Frank Rodrigue as facilitator, Richard Striner (Lincoln and Race), with Craig Symonds as facilitator, and Guy Fraker (Lincoln’s Ladder to the Presidency) with Thomas Horrocks as facilitator. That evening, James Getty, as Abraham Lincoln, delivered “Lincoln’s Two Gettysburg Addresses.” The Richard Nelson Current Award of Achievement was presented to playwright Tony Kushner for his Lincoln screen script. Kushner and Harold Holzer then conversed about “Making Spielberg’s Lincoln.”
The PBS documentary Lincoln @ Gettysburg on November 19 examined the president’s use of the newest technology of his period—the telegraph, with Harold Holzer, Tony Kushner, and General Colin Powell. In April, filmmaker Ken Burns premiered a new film, The Address, about boys in a Vermont school learning and reciting the Gettysburg Address.
Frank J. Williams delivered the first lecture at the organizational meeting of the Lincoln Forum of Eastern Connecticut in Norwich on November 21. For information about this new Lincoln group, contact Dale Plummer at cityhistorian@norwichct.org. On November 25, Frank J. Williams presented “Abraham Lincoln: Lawyer in the White House” and “Judging Lincoln as a Judge” to judges attending the New Jersey Judicial College. Frank J. Williams also delivered the keynote address, “Abraham Lincoln at Midpoint: Emancipation in Gettysburg,” at the Providence Public Library for the opening of the national traveling exhibition, Lincoln: the Constitution and the Civil War, on December 2.
William F. Howard gave a presentation to the New York State Association of Counties at the Fort Orange Club of Albany, NY, “272 Words: The Legacy of Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address” on December 5.
Stephen Engle presented a day-long symposium, Abraham Lincoln and Northern States’ Rights, on March 8 for Smithsonian Associates. Smithsonian Associates also presented “An Evening with Ed Bearss in Conversation with James M. McPherson” on December 3 at the Natural History Museum, Washington, DC.
Frank J. Williams presented “Gettysburg at 150” at the Westerly, RI, Babcock-Smith House Museum on January 5.
HistoryMiami, and the Florida International University College of Law co-sponsored Abraham Lincoln and the Constitution with the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Foundation on January 25 at HistoryMiami. James M. McPherson was the keynote speaker, followed by a panel, “Lincoln and the Constitution,” which included Thomas Campbell, Ediberto Roman, Noah Weisbord, and Frank J. Williams. Foundation Chairman Harold Holzer moderated.
Tom Wheeler discussed how President Lincoln presided over the first modern war as the keynote speaker for the 82nd Annual Watchorn Lincoln Dinner on February 12 in Redlands, CA.
Thomas F. Schwartz was the 2014 banquet speaker at the annual dinner of the Abraham Lincoln Association, Springfield. The former Illinois State Historian presented “‘Everything is Darkness and Doubt and Discouragement’: Lincoln and the Election of 1864.”
One Day University will host historian Louis Masur on February 27, March 27, and April 24, 2014, for The Civil War: A Concise History.
International Legacy
David L. Wells (International Lincoln Center) delivered “Lincoln: Hero Unbound” for the annual Frank and Virginia Williams Abraham Lincoln Lecture at Louisiana State University Shreveport on November 27.
The German Historical Institute in Washington, DC, concluded its Fall lecture series on “Ending Slavery: 19th Century Emancipations in a Transatlantic World” with Peter Kolchin (University of Delaware), “The ‘Other’ Emancipation of the 1860s: Freeing Russia’s Serfs,” on November 7, and Ursula Prutsch (University of Munich) “Emancipation Through Colonization: Brazil and Cuba.”
Kevin Peraino’s Lincoln in the World was reviewed by Stephen Budiansky in the December 29 Washington Post.
Stephen Sawyer and William J. Novak, “Emancipation and the Creation of Modern Liberal States in America and France,” appeared in the December 2013 Journal of the Civil War Era.
William D. Pederson and Samuel D. Goode (International Lincoln Center) presented “Translating the World’s Only Epic Poem from Farsi to English,” at the Forum on Contemporary Theory conference held in Mysore, India, on December 15-18.
The International Lincoln Center organized two panels on Lincoln’s legacy in the Third World during the 150th Anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation at the annual Association of Third World Studies conference on December 28-30 held at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. Presentations included Kimberly Jensen (LSU Shreveport), “Lincoln’s Legacy in Ecuador”; Manzur Alam (East West University, Bangladesh) and William Pederson (International Lincoln Center), “The Lincoln School and Society in Bangladesh”; Norman W. Provizer and Jennifer Provizer (Metropolitan State University, Denver), “Leo Tolstoy on Lincoln and Hadji Murad”; William B. Horton (LSU Shreveport), “Lincoln’s Legacy in Niger”; Elizabeth Kemp (LSU Shreveport), “Lincoln’s Legacy in Mauritius”; Shelly Jyoti (Gurgaon, Haryana, India), “Lincoln, Gandhi and Obama: Visual Translation in Miniature Painting”; Manda Kini Jha (M.S. University of Baroda), “Painting Lincoln: Sociological Theory, Art and Artists”; Saresh Chandra Duby (University of Allahabad), “Reading Lincoln”; and Piyush Raval (Sardar Patel University, India), “Images of Lincoln in Third World Vernacular Print Media.” The panels were chaired by Norman W. Provizer and Jennifer Provizer (Metropolitan State University Denver). Dwivedi, an Indian poet, delivered one of his new poems on Abraham Lincoln during the keynote session.
The International Lincoln Center has acquired two new paintings of Lincoln (including one of Gandhi, Lincoln and Obama) by Shelly Jyoti from Gurgaon and New Delhi, India. A visual artist, fashion designer, poet and independent curator, Jyoti’s work references the cultural context of India history. Her recent shows have appeared at the Gandhi Memorial Centre in Washington, DC, and the Chicago Cultural Center. The paintings are on permanent exhibit.
Arts & Entertainment
In “Flashbacks” by Patrick M. Reynolds, the September 15 Washington Post told in cartoon/caricature-style “The Dred Scott story.” It continued on October 6, 13, 27, and November 3.
A Civil War Christmas: an American Musical Celebration by Paula Vogel was performed at Center Stage, Baltimore, from December 20-22. She and her play were profiled by Nelson Presley in the November 17 Washington Post.
Exhibits
The exhibition, Lincoln: From History to Hollywood, will be hosted by the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, at Union Station, Springfield, in early 2014. The exhibit will feature props and costumes from Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln. Artifacts from Lincoln’s office and Mary Lincoln’s bedroom will also be featured.
Awards and Prizes
Film producer and director Steven Spielberg received the Seventh Lincoln Leadership Prize on March 19 from the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation.
Auctions
The New York Times reported “…a Tepid Market for Fine Art” on December 7, despite high prices for some items—$105.4 million for an Andy Warhol silk-screen print, Silver Car Crash. Other works of art are not doing so well. For example, New York’s Union League Club’s Sunday Morning in the Camp of the Seventh Regiment, a masterpiece by Sanford Robinson Gifford—which hung in the Oval Office of the White House for 20 years—did not sell at Christie’s. It was estimated to fetch $3 million to $5 million.
But Lincoln manuscripts continue to hold, if not increase, in price. The Swann autographs auction on November 26 featured Lincoln endorsements, one signed, “A. Lincoln,” submitted to the Secretary of Interior for an appointment, sold for $6,500. It was estimated at between $3,500 and $5,000.
Collections
The Illinois State Journal-Register profiled Lincoln College’s new Lincoln Heritage Museum on November 7, in a story that featured director Ron Keller.
James M. Cornelius wrote “The Triumph and Trivia of the Gettysburg Address” for the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library & Museum, Springfield, on November 8, in which he discussed how the historic speech, 150 years later, demonstrates how “trivial” matters can have a huge impact including Lincoln’s altering words in the five manuscript copies of the Address.
Kerry Lester described how Illinois school children in the 1940s were asked to save their nickels to buy, for $60,000, one of the original copies of the Gettysburg Address (The Register-Guard, November 17, 2013).
Part of the Smithsonian’s effort to create 3D models of key objects representing the breadth of the collection include 3D scans of casts of President Abraham Lincoln’s life masks. (Associated Press, November 19.
Dan Weinberg has published his Catalog 173, Americana—Lincolniana, the Civil War, U.S. Presidents, Personalities, for the Abraham Lincoln Book Shop, Chicago.
In anticipation of the 150th anniversary of President Abraham Lincoln’s death, Illinois is spending $633,000 to repair and restore the interior of the Lincoln Tomb in Springfield’s Oak Ridge Cemetery. Work began December 1, 2013. The interior of the tomb will be closed until March 2014.
The United States Postal Service has announced that in June 2014, the two latest Civil War commemorative “forever” stamps will consist of panes of 20 stamps each relating to the Battles of Petersburg and Mobile Bay.
The “On Lincoln’s Mind…” series in the State Journal-Register, Springfield, featured “Discussing Strategy After Vicksburg” on October 3, “Clearing Charleston Harbor by any means” on October 31, “Kidnapping of Free Blacks in St. Louis,” and “Invitation to Gettysburg.”
Greg Toppo reported in the December 26 USA TODAY that the Living Legacy Project is planting 620,000 trees to honor the total deaths of the Civil War (though now estimated to be 750,000) along a 180-mile path from Charlottesville, VA to Gettysburg, PA. When completed, the $65 million project will be the largest man-made pathway of trees on the globe.
James M. Cornelius, Curator of the Lincoln Collection at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library & Museum, reported in issue three of Four Score and Seven that Betty Hickey had donated 77 items from her late husband Jim Hickey’s personal collection to the museum. Included are photos of 10 different Lincoln family members: Robert T. Lincoln, Mary Harlan Lincoln, their daughter Jessie, and her second husband, Robert Randolph, Jessie’s son Bob Beckwith and his wife Hazel, Bob’s sister Peggy, and Robert’s grandson—Lincoln Isham and his wife Lea.
Books and Pamphlets
The third volume of the best of Civil War History, On Lincoln, edited by John T. Hubbell, has been published by Kent State University Press. Contents include “Abraham Lincoln as Revolutionary” by Otto H. Olsen, “Lincoln and Van Buren in the Steps of the Fathers” by Major L. Wilson, “On the Verge of Greatness: Psychological Reflections on Lincoln at the Lyceum” by Charles B. Strozier, “Abraham Lincoln, Ann Rutledge, and the Evidence of Herndon’s Informants” by Douglas L. Wilson, “Lincoln and the Mexican War: An Argument by Analogy” by Mark E. Neely, Jr., “Lincoln as Military Strategist” by Herman Hattaway and Archer Jones, “Jefferson Davis and Abraham Lincoln as War Presidents: Nothing Succeeds Like Success” by Ludwell H. Johnson, “To Suppress or Not to Suppress: Abraham Lincoln and the Chicago Times” by Craig D. Tenney, “‘A Catholic Family Newspaper’ Views the Lincoln Administration: John Mullaly’s Copperhead Weekly” by Joseph George, Jr., “Abraham Lincoln on Labor and Capital” by James A. Stevenson, “Lincoln’s Calvinist Transformation: Emancipation and War” by Nicholas Parrillo, “Only His Stepchildren: Lincoln and the Negro” by Don E. Fehrenbacher, “Defending Emancipation: Abraham Lincoln and the Conkling Letter, 1863” by Allen C. Guelzo, and “The Historian as Gamesman: Otto Eisenschiml, 1880-1963” by William Hanchett.
Lincoln and Leadership: Military, Political, and Religious Decision-making, edited by Randall M. Miller, has been published by Fordham University Press.
Collaborators For Emancipation: Abraham Lincoln and Owen Lovejoy, by William F. Moore and Jane Ann Moore, has been published by the University of Illinois Press.
John David Smith’s Lincoln and the U.S. Colored Troops and William C. Harris’s Lincoln and the Union Governors are the latest additions to the Concise Lincoln Series of Southern Illinois University Press.
Civil War Sesquicentennial and Related Books
Frank J. Williams and Patrick T. Conley are the editors of The Rhode Island Home Front in the Civil War Era (Taos Press). Chapters include “Rhode Islanders in Conflict” by Frank J. Williams, “Rhode Island’s Civil War Economy” by Maury Klein, “Politics, Prejudice, Patriotism, and Perseverance: Rhode Island’s Catholic Irish Confront the Civil War” by Patrick T. Conley, and “Rhode Island Responds to the Civil War in Story, Song, and Speech” by James Tackach. Mackubin Owens wrote the introduction.
Smithsonian Civil War: Inside the National Collection (Smithsonian Books) features objects from twelve different Smithsonian museums and archives, presenting readers with an unprecedented behind-the-scenes look at the Smithsonian’s vast Civil War collections. Jon Meacham provided the Foreword.
Periodicals
The Spring 2013 Lincoln Herald included “With Malice Toward Some—The Holt-Johnson Conundrum” by Randal Berry, and Mary C. Kerr’s “The Lincoln Rental Home at 214 South 4th Street.”
The latest edition of the Washington Post series, Civil War 150, Chapter VII: “Fall of 1863,” was published on September 15. This special section included “The War in the West,” “Last-Minute Words For the Ages” by Michael E. Ruane, “Maryland’s Slow Road to Emancipation” by Miranda S. Spivack, “Path to Glory” by Sally Jenkins, “Hope Amid Despair” by Linda Wheeler, and “At Gettysburg, a Grisly but Noble Task” by Michael E. Ruane.
Steve Stephens wrote about Abraham Lincoln and Illinois with “Honest About Abe” for the September 29 Columbus Dispatch.
Katherine Slover wrote “The Gettysburg Address: A Political Transformation Throughout Time” for the Fall Lincoln Memorial Association Newsletter. Larry E. Burgess reviewed the film Twelve Years A Slave in the same issue.
Dennis J. Curran and Emma Kingdon wrote “Abraham Lincoln: An Early Champion of ADR” for the November 27 Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly.
The November-December Illinois Heritage included Jim Siberell’s remarks from the dedication of the Thomas Lincoln memorial plaque in Shiloh Cemetery near Charleston, IL.
Clay Mountcastle wrote “Bitter Allies: Then and Now, Wartime Relationships Between Generals and Politicians Are Often Less Than Friendly” for the Winter 2013 Civil War Monitor. This issue also included “The 25 Most Influential Politicians, Civilians, Inventors, Spies and Soldiers of the Civil War,” featuring George Henry Sharpe, who created the Bureau of Military Intelligence, Charles Dana, a journalist who was sent by Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton to check on stories of General Ulysses S. Grant’s drinking. Also included were Robert Smalls, a slave who stole the Confederate military transport ship CSS Planter, to surrender it to a vessel of the Union blockade, Francis Lieber, who authored General Orders 100 (Lieber’s Code) codifying the laws of war; and John Bigham. who served as one of the prosecutors in the trial of the conspirators by military tribunal following President Lincoln’s assassination and was the author, as Ohio Congressman, of Article I of the Fourteenth Amendment, guaranteeing due process. Montgomery Meigs, Lincoln’s quartermaster general, was listed as number one.
Richard E. Hart wrote “Elizabeth Jane Todd Grimsley and the Illinois Todds” for the Winter For the People (A Newsletter of the Abraham Lincoln Association).
Reviews
Concise Lincoln Library, Southern Illinois University Press, Gregory A. Borchard (Abraham Lincoln and Horace Greeley), Michael Burlingame (Lincoln and the Civil War), Michael S. Green (Lincoln and the Election of 1860), and Kenneth J. Winkle (Abraham and Mary Lincoln), rev. by Stewart Winger, The Journal of Southern History (November 2013).
Rodney O. Davis and Douglas L. Wilson, editors, The Lincoln-Douglas Debates (The Knox College Lincoln Studies Center Series), rev. by John C. Waugh, The Lincoln Herald (Spring 2013).
Abram J. Dittenhoefer, How We Elected Lincoln: Personal Recollections, rev. by Michael Burkhimer, The Lincoln Herald (Spring 2013).
Paul M. Engle, editor, with the assistance of Richard G. Case, A Portrait of Abraham Lincoln in Letters by His Oldest Son, rev. by Michael Burkhimer, The Lincoln Herald (Spring 2013).
Guy C. Fraker, Lincoln’s Ladder to the Presidency: The Eighth Judicial Circuit, rev. by Frank J. Williams, The Lincoln Herald (Spring 2013).
Allen C. Guelzo, Gettysburg: The Last Invasion, rev. by William G. Shepherd, For the People (Winter 2013).
Randall M. Miller, editor, Lincoln and Leadership: Military, Political, and Religious Decision Making, rev. by William D. Pederson, PMHB (October 2013).
John Stauffer and Benjamin Soskis, The Battle Hymn of the Republic: A Biography of the Song That Marches On, rev. by Richard J. Blumberg, Civil War News (December 2013).
Kenneth J. Winkle, Lincoln’s Citadel: The Civil War in Washington, D.C., rev. by Scott W. Berg, the Washington Post (October 10, 2013).
People
Nearly half of the 79 living recipients of the Medal of Honor attended the Medal of Honor Society annual convention in Gettysburg on September 18 where some of the first recipients fought 150 years ago.
Indiana Tech Law School in Fort Wayne has developed a writing competition for law students on Abraham Lincoln, the lawyer. In honor of Sara Vaughn Gabbard, Executive Director of the Friends of the Lincoln Collection of Indiana, Inc., the law school has established the Sara Vaughn Gabbard Prize Endowment Fund to present prizes to the winners.
Jake Boritt’s documentary, The Gettysburg Story, which was broadcast on PBS stations in November 2013, will be screened for troops overseas by the Department of Defense. The film shows the Gettysburg battlefield as never seen before with time-lapse digital photography, aerial drone and helicopter images, geolocation graphic maps and other cutting-edge technology. It premiered in New York City on November 21 at an event featuring actor Stephen Lang, the film’s narrator, who joined for a question and answer after the showing.
Lincoln and Political Culture
Daniel Henninger strongly criticized President Obama’s decision not to appear at Gettysburg to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s declaration there (“Obama’s Gettysburg Bypass: Lincoln’s View of Individual Freedom is at Odds with the Current President’s,” Wall Street Journal, November 13, 2013). No explanation for the decision was either offered by the White House. According to Henninger, “And maybe it’s just as well we won’t hear Mr. Obama’s thoughts on the Gettysburg Address. Those words were about a renewal of the nation’s unity, and five years into the Obama presidency, the United States is about as politically divided as it can get.”
In the November 19 Wall Street Journal, Bret Stephens’ “President Obama’s stupendously shallow rhetoric betrays a remarkably superficial mind. Superficial minds designed ObamaCare. Superficial minds are now astounded by its elementary failures, and will continue to be astounded by the failures to come. Is there a remedy? Probably not. Then again, the President’s no-show at Gettysburg suggests he might be trying to follow Old Abe’s council in a fruitful way: ‘better to remain silent and be thought a fool,’ the Great Emancipator is reported to have said, ‘than to speak and to remove all doubt.’”
The “Op-Chart” of the December 26 New York Times, “The Year in Questions,” asked the reader to fill in some of President Lincoln’s words from the Bliss copy of the Gettysburg Address.
Assassination
W.C. Jameson is the author of John Wilkes Booth: Beyond the Grave (Taylor).
Works in Progress
James M. McPherson’s new book, Embattled Rebel: Jefferson Davis as Commander-in-Chief, is expected to be published in Spring 2014.
On October 7, Simon & Schuster will publish Harold Holzer’s new book, Lincoln and the Power of the Press: The War for Public Opinion.
Frederick Hatch’s The Lincoln Assassination Conspiracy Trial and Its Legacy will be published by McFarland Books in Fall 2014.
New and forthcoming are Joan Waugh’s Surrender, Richard Wightman Fox’s Lincoln’s Body, Gregory Dunns’ Reconstruction as Occupation, Adam Goodheart’s 1865, Elizabeth Varon’s Appomattox, and Michael Vorenberg’s Appomattox Myth: the Struggle to Find an End of War.
William C. (“Jack”) Davis is at work on Grant and Lee: The War They Fought, The Peace They Forged, to be published in Spring 2015 by Da Capo Press.
Barnet Schecter is at work on a book about the American militia.
Walter Stahl is at work on a biography of Lincoln’s Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton. It is expected to be published in 2016.
Necrology
Carl W. Volkmann, 79, died on October 11, after a 15-year struggle with cancer. He is remembered for the many Lincoln and other stories that he wrote for Illinois Heritage, the magazine of the Illinois State Historical Society.
Art Loux, a founding member of the Lincoln Group of New York and its first secretary, passed on December 30. His just-completed volume, John Wilkes Booth Day by Day, will be published this fall by McFarland.
Author’s Note
I want to thank Thom Bassett, Randal Berry, Roger Billings, Kenneth L. Childs, Aaron Crawford, Harold Holzer, Richard Sloan, Tom Lapsley, William D. Pederson, Dennis E. Stark, Joseph Fornieri, Thomas Horrocks, Wayne C. Temple, Edward Steers, Jr., David J. Stiller, Jo Dzombak, Guy Fraker, Malcolm Garber, Mike Marlow, Ralph S. McCrea, William K. Miller, Tracey Minkin, David Warren, John Schildt, Philip W. Stichter, Thomas J. Trimborn, Justice William P. Robinson III, Judges W. Dennis Duggan and Dennis Curran, Frank and Virginia Musgrave, and Virginia Williams for providing information for this column. I welcome news concerning Abraham Lincoln. Please contact me at 300 Switch Road, Hope Valley, RI 02832; fax (401) 364-3642; e-mail alincoln@courts.ri.gov.