Product Description

Lincoln's Men is the first narrative portrait of the three young men who served as Lincoln's secretaries during the Civil War. John Nicolay and John Hay lived in the White House, across the hall from the president's office, and they and William Stoddard spent more time with Lincoln than anyone else outside his immediate family.

Lincoln used these three intelligent, articulate young men as a sounding board; they were the first audience for much of his writing from the period. From their unique vantage point, they had a front-row seat on the drama of war, but they also had a good time. Washington under siege was a city of endless receptions and parties. Daniel Mark Epstein captures the drama in each life. We see Nicolay, balancing his obligations to Lincoln with a long-distance engagement to his childhood sweetheart; Hay, the poet/amanuensis, in love with a famous and married actress; and Stoddard, a little too obsessed with gambling in the gold market.

The secretaries left significant diaries, letters, and memoirs about Lincoln. Nicolay and Hay went on to distinguished careers in the Foreign Service after the war and later wrote the classic “authorized” biography of Lincoln, published in 1890 in ten volumes.

An intimate and moving portrait of the Civil War White House, Lincoln's Men gives a vivid sense of what it was like to work for America's most brilliant president at the pivotal moment in the country's history. It is essential reading for fans of American history.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #308759 in Books
• Published on: 2009-02-01
• Released on: 2009-02-03
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 272 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780061565441
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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From Publishers Weekly
This meticulous triple biography looks at Lincoln's three private secretaries, John Nicolay, John Hay and William O. Stoddard. Closer to Lincoln than almost anyone else, these trusted confidantes and advisers handled all of the president's correspondence, acted occasionally as spies and, between Nicolay and Hay, penned the most famous "authorized" biography of Lincoln. Though their experiences in Lincoln's administration cast a poignant, personable light on the great president's working life, Epstein's work is far from accessible. The level of detail regarding the three secretaries is exhaustive beyond the interest of anyone but devoted American history scholars. Author and historian Epstein (Lincoln and Whitman, The Lincolns: Portrait of a Marriage) has intimate knowledge of his subjects but little to drive the story beyond the chronological push of history; meandering from man to man, his narrative isn't cohesive enough to hook casual history readers. Though obsessive Lincoln enthusiasts in search of a new perspective may be fascinated, any number of Lincoln books will offer casual history buffs a more engaging examination.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review
"Lincoln, like most presidents, worked long hours. Really, really long hours. So it makes sense the folks who knew him best-and who offer possibly the freshest perspective on his well-documented life-were the guys he worked with every day of his presidency." (Chicago Tribune )

"A fresh view." (Albuquerque Journal )

Working at close quarters with Lincoln at the White House was an education in itself, as Daniel Mark Epstein observes" (Wall Street Journal )

"Daniel Mark Epstein's LINCOLN'S MEN is no book of dry facts and figures. Instead, it is an intimate portrait of Lincoln, so well-drawn that he seems to come alive on the page." (Charleston Post & Courier )

"Epstein brings something of an outsider's perspective to the hothouse world of Lincoln scholarship." (New York Times Book Review )

"An insider's view of the [Lincoln] presidency...Nicolay and Hay wrote the diaries Lincoln never did, witnessing key moments from enviable vantage points." (Courier-Journal )

"Sheds light on the remarkable young men who served at Lincoln's side." (Washington Times )

"This is not your typical work of history. Epstein, a poet, employs a dreamy, novelistic tone in describing these young men and their tormented boss." (USA Today )

"Captures the lives of Lincoln's secretaries" (BookPage )

About the Author

Daniel Mark Epstein has written more than fifteen books of poetry, biography, and history, including Lincoln and Whitman, which received an Academy Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and The Lincolns: Portrait of a Marriage, named one of the top ten books of 2008 by the Wall Street Journal and Chicago Sun-Times. He lives in Baltimore.

Customer Reviews

Lincoln's Three Buddies
John George Nicolay and John Hay and William Stoddard were Lincoln's secretaries, and their duties covered everything from handling the President's huge mail to herding the masses that had free access to the White House to handling the tempermental and infuriating Mrs. Lincoln to arranging the protocol at White House functions.

Incredibly, Nicolay was 27 years old when Lincoln took office, Hay was 23. and Stoddard was 26. The youth of these three men so close to the seat of power is mind-boggling to a modern reader. Nicolay was Bavarian-born and spoke with a Teutonic accent, not formally educated, but smart, and utterly loyal to the President. Hay went to Brown University, was a poet, and commanded respect even though he was just 5 feet 4 inches tall. Handsome, wily Stoddard was a journalist before he undertook his White House duties.

Part of Lincoln's genius was seeing into a man's character correctly. He sized up these three young men and entrusted them with enormous responsibilities. Although Stoddard was not above self-aggrandisement, he was invaluable to Lincoln as a sounding board for his speeches, and he was usually able to get along with the intensely volatile Mrs. Lincoln, a help to the beleaguered President. In contrast, Nicolay and Hay both detested Mary Lincoln, calling her the "Hellcat." Nicolay and Hay did not like Stoddard. But Lincoln was genuinely fond of all three men who were more his friends than employees, and it's evident that they gave him emotional ballast.

Because Abraham Lincoln has become larger than life, "Lincoln's Men" is refreshing in that the biography is written from the standpoint of the three young men. They revered Lincoln, all right, calling him affectionately "The Tycoon" but in this book we come back to earth and see the development of the Civil War through the secretaries' eyes, a much, much humbler and earthier level than that of the President. We learn of their love affairs, their seemingly endless illnesses, their concern for the President's health, their skirmishes with Mrs. Lincoln, their contempt for the totally inept and cowardly General McClellan.

We see Washington as it was in those days- fetid, dank, pestilent. Mr. Epstein writes beautifully, and he will take you there with the young men so that you're present right there right at that fragile time in history. The constant drama within the White House is vividly portrayed as are the battle scenes North and South, the sheer horror and carnage of this war. Conflicts, conflicts between individual men and between armies, no peace, no equanimity anywhere, except perhaps in the mind of Abraham Lincoln.

Interestingly, Mr. Epstein tells us that a large portion of John Hay's diary, the part including the death of the Lincolns' favorite son, Willie, of typhoid, has been ripped out. Perhaps the extreme grief of Lincoln, who nevertheless was in emotional control in contrast to the total collapse of Mary Lincoln, who was not- appeared too volatile and personal for Hay's ancestors to allow the public to see. Somehow, this omission, because you instinctively supply details yourself becomes all the more poignant. Thus, you have a pretty good idea of what Hay actually said.

This book is highly recommended, and if you haven't read Epstein's "The Lincolns: Portrait of a Marriage" you're in for a treat.

The Office Help
A pleasantly written, intelligent book about the three principal personal secretaries to President Lincoln.

Mr. Epstein tells of the White House service of Nicolay, Hay and Stoddard and its effects on their respective private lives. While avoiding the overly academic, the author still provided this Lincoln reader with new insights on several important events, such as the change in vice-president for the second term. However, the focus, rightfully, is kept on the secretaries and their lives as influenced by the Civil War and their Tycoon.

John Hay is clearly the author's favorite, and for good reason. I suggest a future book by the accomplished Mr. Epstein be a new life biography of Mr. Hay, a young office secretary to President Lincoln who ended his own fascinating life as Secretary of State for President Theodore Roosevelt.

Four and a half stars...
I have read quite a few Abraham Lincoln books recently on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of his birth. Lincoln's Men: The President and His Private Secretaries by Daniel Mark Epstein is one of the most engaging of all the books I've read. Epstein also wrote The Lincolns: Portrait of a Marriage which was just reprinted in January 2009.

Most Lincoln books mention his private secretaries, John Nicolay and John Hay. There was also a third secretary, William Stoddard, who gets less notice. But what most books fail to reveal is how important these men were to Lincoln and also, how close he was to them on a personal level. All three had a front row seat to history. In fact, Hay's diary has "become, arguably, the most important and eloquent source of information about Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War--apart from Lincoln's own writings." Hay and Nicolay actually lived on the second floor of the White House.

Both Nicolay and Hay followed Lincoln to Washington DC from Illinois. Nicolay was a journalist who started reading law with Lincoln in his late 20s. The younger Hay was a poet who was also studying the law. The two became fast friends. When Nicolay was tapped to be Lincoln's private secretary after his election, Nicolay convinced Lincoln to hire Hay as his assistant. In their jobs as private secretaries, they also served as Lincoln's emissaries, helped negotiate treaties, served as unofficial spies, handled the president's personal finances, transported confidential letters and messages, and served as his public relations men. Throughout Lincoln's presidency, all three secretaries wrote articles for various newspapers. Eventually, they would all write books about Lincoln, the most ambitious being Nicolay and Hay's 10 volume authorized biography of our 16th president. For us, what makes these three men so important are the many writings that they left. All of them kept journals and wrote copious letters. While Hay and Nicolay were apart, they always communicated with each other what was happening back at the White House. Lincoln trusted them completely and they were privy to much confidential information.

Each man brought a special talent to the job. Nicolay was a pit bull whose fierce loyalty protected the president. He also had to learn the difficult job of chief of protocol in his first six days in the White House. Washington insiders were aghast that Lincoln gave this job to someone so inexperienced. "But with Hay's help, dog-eared manuals, and a few mossy State Department veterans, Nicolay made a go of it." Hay was the poet, and used his prodigious writing talents to good effect. In describing the Gettysburg Address, Hay writes that Lincoln "'then delivered his address, which, though short, glittered with gems, evincing the gentleness and goodness of heart peculiar to him, and will receive the attention and command and admiration of all of the tens of thousands who will read it."' Stoddard was not in league with Nicolay and Hay and "was not so much aloof from his office as he was disassociated from it and failed to give it due respect." But where Stoddard excelled was in his handling of the difficult and moody Mary Lincoln. While Hay and Nicolay called her "the hellcat" or "Her Satanic Majesty," the charming Stoddard could usually placate Mary.

Three things would have made this book just about perfect. Epstein describes in great detail several portrait sittings of Lincoln where his secretaries were present. At one of them, they were even photographed with Lincoln. Why aren't these photos in the book (with the exception of the cover)? Also, Epstein talks about the many places in Washington these men visited (usually walking). There should have been a map of DC in the early 1860s. Finally, one minor error is that when Nicolay finally married, Epstein writes that "John Hay served as bridegroom." That should have read best man. But otherwise, Lincoln's Men is a fine book and covers an aspect of his presidency that I have not seen elsewhere.