William Henry Herndon
The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition
William Henry Herndon 1818-91, friend, law partner, and biographer of Abraham Lincoln , b. Greensburg, Ky. In 1844 he became the junior member of the Springfield, Ill., law firm of Lincoln and Herndon, a partnership that was never dissolved. The two became close friends, and Herndon played a major role in Lincoln's early political career, managing the 1858 campaign against Senator Stephen Douglas. After Lincoln's assassination Herndon collected reminiscences of Lincoln's boyhood and youth from those who had known him and in his old age wrote, with Jesse Weik, Herndon's Lincoln: The True Story of a Great Life (3 vol., 1889). In it, Herndon presented a picture of Lincoln intended to counteract the heroic, almost mythical, view of him held by the public. The focus on Lincoln's personal life led to many distortions, however, and in the case of the Ann Rutledge romance, serious inaccuracies. Although his work has been largely discredited, Lincoln scholars owe Herndon a large debt for his assiduous collection of materials relating to Lincoln's life.
Bibliography: See D. H. Donald, Lincoln's Herndon (1948).
Find more facts and information related to the .
The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Copyright 2008 Columbia University Press
Related newspaper, magazine, and trade journal articles from HighBeam Research
(Including press releases, facts, information, and biographies)
|
Herndon's Lincoln.(Book review)
; Herndon's Lincoln. By William H. Herndon and Jesse W...Paul M. Angle's venerable edition of Herndon's Lincoln when consulting the most influential...the prose and style. The result was Herndon's Lincoln, a biography that in 1889 met mixed...
Read more
|
|
Following Lincoln's footsteps
; ...sole visitors to the Lincoln and Herndon law office. Their...to the annoyance of Herndon. We had never learned of Lincoln's habit of reading...enhanced his retention. Herndon also would become agitated when Lincoln's rambunctious youngsters...
Read more
|
|
The Life of Abraham Lincoln: From His Birth to His Inauguration as President
; ...Lamon providing the Lincoln material. To better...acquired William Herndon's "Lincoln Record," a fund...war. Black took Herndon's material and molded...volume, which takes Lincoln's life up to the...controversial elements of Herndon's research. As Albert...space was devoted to ...
Read more
|
|
Blue beard: a revealing look at why Lincoln's depression didn't cost him politically.(On Political Books)(Lincoln's Melancholy: How Depression Challenged A President and Fueled His Greatness)(Book Review)
; ...partner, William Henry Herndon, once said that melancholy dripped from Lincoln, and the stories...and later wrote Lincoln's biographical entry...Britannica, begged Herndon to tell him what the skeleton was with Lincoln that gave him that peculiar melancholy? Herndons best guess was ...
Read more
|
|
Lincoln's Rise to the Presidency
; ...better accounting of the hesitant months President-Elect Lincoln spent in limbo, waiting for his inauguration. What is missing from this account of Lincoln's rise is a larger sense of what shoulders Lincoln rose upon. Lincoln, as William H. Herndon once remarked, did not merely sit and ...
Read more
|
|
Lincoln's Rise to the Presidency.(Book review)
; ...better accounting of the hesitant months President-Elect Lincoln spent in limbo, waiting for his inauguration. What is missing from this account of Lincoln's rise is a larger sense of what shoulders Lincoln rose upon. Lincoln, as William H. Herndon once remarked, did not merely sit and ...
Read more
|
|
Lincoln's Christianity
; ...The debate over Lincoln's faith began shortly...partner William Herndon announced that he...important in revealing Lincoln's youthful skepticism...character of his belief, Herndon's account requires...which claimed that Lincoln had made an explicit...faith. Moreover, Herndon's own ...
Read more
|
|
|
"We are Lincoln Men": Abraham Lincoln and His Friends.(Book Review)
; ...focuses on six of Lincoln's closest friends...Speed, William H. Herndon, Orville H. Browning...with him. Speed, Herndon, and Browning had...associations with Lincoln. Speed knew Lincoln...as 1837, and the Lincoln-Browning friendship dated from 1838. Herndon had known ...
Read more
|
|
|
"We are Lincoln Men": Abraham Lincoln and His Friends
; ...focuses on six of Lincoln's closest friends...Speed, William H. Herndon, Orville H. Browning...with him. Speed, Herndon, and Browning had...associations with Lincoln. Speed knew Lincoln...as 1837, and the Lincoln-Browning friendship dated from 1838. Herndon had known ...
Read more
|
|
Final book on Lincoln not yet written.(Saturday)(The Civil War)
; ...interviews collected by Lincoln's law partner and biographer, William H. Herndon. Exploring this...such difficulties, Lincoln scholars had for years been giving Herndon's materials a wide...guided in part by Lincoln's distinctive views...history and biography. Herndon liked to tell ...
Read more
|
For more facts and information,
see all related premium articles
Related entries from encyclopedias, dictionaries, and thesauruses
|
Herndon, William Henry
Herndon, William Henry (1818–91), Kentucky‐born...influenced Lincoln, whose political career Herndon is also said to have encouraged. With Jesse W. Weik he wrote Herndon's Lincoln: The True Story of a Great...
Read more
|
|
Meta Warrick Fuller
...Encouraged as a Young Artist William H. Warrick, Jr., was a master...years younger than her brother William and sister Blanche. Another...of Fuller's uncle, painter Henry Ossawa Tanner, had agreed...accomplished pianist; Alonzo Herndon; Adrian McNeal Herndon, an actress who taught at...
Read more
|
