Who is this person?

[AussieMick]

Lincoln Steffens?

[Rob Wick]

Sorry Mike, but it isn't Steffens. I will say this person has no connection to Tarbell or Sandburg.

Best
Rob

[RJNorton]

Jesse W. Weik?

[Rob Wick]

Sorry Roger, it isn't Weik.

Next clue. He was a close friend of Allan Nevins.

Best
Rob

[Rob Wick]

Next clue. Even though he taught mainly in America, he did a stint at a university in Pakistan.

Best
Rob

[Steve]

Reinhard Luthin

[Rob Wick]

That's it, Steve. As for what Luthin and I have in common, we both had articles published on Lincoln and Indiana in the Indiana Magazine of History.

His most famous book is "The Real Abraham Lincoln."

Best
Rob

[AussieMick]

Who is this?

   

[GustD45]

A young William Henry Seward or possibly Frederick?

[AussieMick]

No, sorry, Gus ... neither of them. This person was born about 20 years before William Seward.

[RJNorton]

Sir Walter Scott?

[AussieMick]

No, not him Roger.

---

This man was American (born 1777). His involvement with "Commerce" took him a long way. Until it ended in disaster.

[L Verge]

The way you capitalized and quoted "Commerce," made me think that I might know at least the basics of this. It appears that it refers to a ship. That was a pretty common name for trade ships in the early years, but there was one history that ended in tragedy, and the captain and crew were used as slaves in the Sahara. I think the captain was named Riley??? I remember this because I once saw a list of books that Lincoln supposedly read and commented on, and the book written by the captain was one of them.

[AussieMick]

Laurie, you are a champion. A veritable Sherlock. Collect your prize (a smile) from the next visitor to the Museum.
Captain James Riley was for a time the most well known person in the US (I know that as a fact from the Internet). A book about him was written by a friend of Washington Irving. Lincoln drew inspiration ( or you could say 'made use of it') from his story during the 1860 campaign.

https://sites.williams.edu/searchablesea...ley-james/

https://www.jstor.org/stable/27786655?se...b_contents

[Gene C]

A good trivia question.

Available on Internet Archive (copyright 1818)
This later edition has larger print

https://archive.org/details/authenticnar..._0/page/n7

"To The Reader
The following Narrative of my misfortunes and sufferings, and my consequent travels and observations in Africa,
is submitted to the perusal of a candid and an enlightened public, with much diffidence, particularly as I write
without having had the advantages that may be derived from an Academic education, and being quite unskilled
in the art of composing for the press. My aim has been merely to record, in plain and unvarnished language,
scenes in which I was a principal actor, of real and heartappalling distresses. The very deep and indelible
impression made on my mind by the extraordinary circumstances attending my late shipwreck, and the
miserable captivity of myself and my surviving shipmates, and believing that a knowledge of many of
these incidents might prove useful and interesting to the world, as well as peculiarly instructive to my
sea-faring brethren; together with the strong and repeated solicitations of many of my valuable friends,
among whom was the honourable James Monroe, Secretary of State, and several distinguished members of Congress :
these considerations, together with a view of being enabled by my labours to afford some relief to the surviving sufferers,
and the desti- tute families of that part of my late crew, whose lot it was to perish in Africa,
or who are still groaning out the little remains of their existence in the cruel
bonds of barbarian slavery, have induced me to un- dertake the very arduous and difficult task of preparing
and publishing a work so large and expensive. "