LINCOLN'S HERNDON

A biography of a biographer which not only traces Herndon's life but investigates the pattern that made him write of Lincoln as he did. His exuberance, his political meddling, the kettle of politics that Illinois knew in Lincoln's time, Herndom's intemperance, the sources of his peculiar loyalty, his antagonism to Mary Todd Lincoln, and, with the President's death, his dedication of time and money in becoming a Boswell for his old friend. How the lack of training for such a job affected the job itself, how Herndon, in unearthing the story of Lincoln's life, became the myth-maker that influenced others, and what of the Herndon record, according to modern scholarship, is best -- and worst. A critical survey that will be of interest to all followers of Lincolniana, that sheds much light on an extremely controversial figure.