Lincoln's Biographer
Following Lincoln’s assassination, Herndon began to collect stories of Lincoln’s life from those who knew him. Herndon aspired to write a faithful portrait of his friend and law partner, based on his own observations and on hundreds of letters and interviews he had compiled for the purpose. He was determined to present Lincoln as a man, rather than a saint, and to reveal things that the prevailing Victorian era conventions said should be left out of the biography of a great national hero. In particular, Herndon believed that Lincoln's "official" biographers, John Nicolay and John Hay, would tell the story of Lincoln "with the classes as against the masses."
Read more about this topic: William Herndon (lawyer)
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