Abraham Lincoln Book Acquisitions for 2017

Another year and another set of acquisitions for my Abraham Lincoln book collection. This was a decent year for new books – 59 new additions. In contrast, last year I only acquired 43 new books, but 2017 was in line with the 59 and 60 books obtained in 2015 and 2014, respectively. My big year was the 98 books in 2013. So this year was about average, but acquisitions didn’t stop at books. I also purchased four new 7-shelf bookcases to set up a new office library.

Nine of the new books were published in 2017. By far the most important one was my own book, Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, which came out in August and has been enjoying good sales in Barnes and Noble stores nationwide.

Other 2017 released books include the second volume of Sidney Blumenthal’s “Political Life of Abraham Lincoln” called Wrestling With His Angel (which I reviewed in the Lincolnian) and on Goodreads. There were also new books by Lincoln scholars Brian Dirck, James Conroy, Guy Fraker, and Jonathan W. White.

Two books looked at the importance of legendary photographers Alexander Gardner and Mathew Brady to our memory of the Civil War. Shooting Lincoln by J.C. Pistor came out this year while Richard Lowry’s The Photographer and the President came out in 2015. Both delve into the rivalry between Gardner and Brady and their relationship with helping make Lincoln great as well as document the destruction of the war.

On the flip-side, the oldest new acquisition was Henry Ketcham’s The Life of Abraham Lincoln, published in 1901. Close behind was Emanuel Hertz’s 1939 book, Lincoln Talks: A Biography in Anecdote.

Other great books include Charles Strozier’s Your Friend Forever: The Enduring Friendship of Abraham Lincoln and Joshua Speed, and the four-volume set of Legal Documents and Cases coming out of the Papers of Abraham Lincoln Project, edited by Daniel Stowell. I was also fascinated by Robert O’Harrow Jr.’s The Quartermaster about Montgomery C. Meigs.

As Vice President of Programs for the Lincoln Group of DC, I’ve had the privilege of inviting many of these authors to speak to us in person. Between the Lincoln Group, the Lincoln Forum, and other Lincoln organization events I’ve been lucky enough to get many of my acquisitions signed by the authors. Sixteen of my new acquisitions are signed, most directly to me.

I will admit that finding books is getting harder. New books tend to be expensive and older books tend to be either impossible to find or in terrible condition or priced out of my reach. With over 1100 titles in my collection, the number of books available that I already have also puts a cap on new acquisitions.

One last note: I’ve begun something I call the Abraham Lincoln Bibliography Project in which I plan to catalog the known books about Abraham Lincoln. I’ll include only actual books, not other documents and not pamphlets. As the website develops I’ll add a searchable database, book reviews, lists of books by topic (e.g., assassination, general biography, law career), and summary papers for those topics. The idea is to create a useful resource for both Lincoln researchers and the general public. Check out the blog and stay tuned.

See the 2017 list showing author/title/publication date below my signature blurb below.

David J. Kent is the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, now available. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World (both Fall River Press). He has also written two e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

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Here is the 2017 list: