Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike L
The Gore Vidal novel is excellent. But if you want a definitive biography, I would agree with Jerseyman and recommend the one by James M. McPherson.
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The McPherson biography is very good but far from
definitive. The only two Lincoln biographies that have been properly labeled as definitive are the biographies by Michael Burlingame and Carl Sandburg, both of which are multivolume. Many historians believe that prior to the publication of Burlingame's biography, the Sandburg biography was the standard, even though the volumes were published decades ago.
Of course, if you combine the McPherson volume with several other single-volume Lincoln books, you get a more complete picture of Lincoln, perhaps even more complete than Burlingame's biography, although I personally think that the single-volume works act more like more in-depth explorations of parts of Burlingame's book rather than rounding out a perspective of Lincoln.
You can't go wrong with McPherson's biography of Lincoln, just don't view it as definitive.