Best remembered as one of the president's few true intimates, Brooks was also a nationally recognized man of letters, who mingled with the likes of Mark Twain and Bret Harte. Temple draws on archives and papers long thought lost to re-create Brooks's colorful life and relationship with Lincoln. Brooks's closeness to the president made him privy to Lincoln's thoughts on everything from literature to spirituality. Their frank conversations contributed to the wealth of journalism and personal observations that would make Brooks's writings a much-quoted source for historians and biographers of Lincoln.
A carefully researched and well-documented scholarly resource, Lincoln's Confidant is the story of an extraordinary friendship by one of the luminaries of Lincoln scholarship.
| Cover Title Page Copyright Contents Series Editors' Preface Introduction Acknowledgments I. From Maine's "Aristocracy of the Sea" II. Paint and Printer's Ink III. Five Years in the Midwest IV. "The Plains Across" V. "Washington in Lincoln's Time" VI. Companion to Lincoln VII. "The Close of Lincoln's Career" VIII. Naval Officer and Newspaper Editor IX. Night Editor in New York X. A Club Man in New York XI. The Fruitful Years Notes Editors' Acknowledgments Index | "By getting to know Noah Brooks, readers will learn a great deal about Abraham Lincoln, thanks to the careful attention of the devoted scholar, Wayne C. Temple."—Samuel Wheeler, Illinois State Historian"Temple's biography of Brooks is first-rate. The density and breadth of his primary source research is unmatched. Nobody else has presented as thorough a portrait of Brooks from such a wide array of sources."—Matthew Pinsker, author of Lincoln's Sanctuary: Abraham Lincoln and the Soldiers' Home
"The complete story of a reporter's interesting life . . . with dutiful attention to detail." —Wall Street Journal
|Wayne C. Temple worked at the Illinois State Archives from 1964 to 2016. The latest in his long list of Lincoln publications is Lincoln's Surgeons at His Assassination. Douglas L. Wilson is the director of the Lincoln Studies Center at Knox College, in Galesburg, Illinois. Rodney O. Davis (d. 2019) was co-director of the Lincoln Studies Center at Knox College. They are coeditors of Herndon's Informants: Letters, Interviews, and Statements about Abraham Lincoln; Herndon on Lincoln: Letters; The Lincoln-Douglas Debates; and Herndon's Lincoln.