I'm looking forward to reading "All the Great Prizes: The Life of John Hay from Lincoln to Roosevelt" by John Talliaferro. It comes out in May. I have never found a good, modern, comprehensive bio of Hay. I hope I'm not disappointed with this one.

Roger, m'dear -

You are much too kind. Thank you all so very much.

Look for the 2nd Edition of Alias Paine coming this summer - also in Ebook format -

Richter's wonderful Last Confederate Heroes is coming within the next week in Kindle format as well.....

(01-08-2013 08:55 PM)Sally Wrote:  I'm looking forward to reading "All the Great Prizes: The Life of John Hay from Lincoln to Roosevelt" by John Talliaferro. It comes out in May. I have never found a good, modern, comprehensive bio of Hay. I hope I'm not disappointed with this one.

Dear Sally
What existing book on John Hay would you suggest I read? BTW John Hay's granddaughter, Joan Whitney Payson, was the original owner of of the New York Mets which proves Lincoln would have been a Met fan.

Are there any Lincoln baseball quotes? Baseball was played in Civil War military camps.
Tom

Tom, I do not know about baseball, but he did play a form of handball.

From The Real Lincoln: A Portrait by Jesse W. Weik:

"On a vacant lot south of the building which housed the office of the "Springfield Journal," John Carmody had leveled and smoothed the surface of the ground and maintained there a ball alley a place where the lawyers sought amusement and exercise by playing at "fives" a game in which the contestants would throw a ball against a brick wall and catch it when it rebounded, also known as hand-ball. The game was to keep the ball going. If the player failed to catch it on the rebound, he lost a point, and twenty-one points constituted the game. William Donnelly, a boy employed by Carmody, had charge of the alley, kept the floor in proper condition and collected the fees. Several years ago I visited Donnelly, then living in Springfield, and interviewed him regarding the enterprise. Lincoln, he said, was very fond of the game and was one of the most active and skillful players; his success being due to his agility and large hands, enabling him to catch the ball almost every time. Donnelly reported that during the week of the Chicago Convention Mr. Lincoln was about the place a good deal, indulging freely in the game."

P.S. Abraham Lincoln would have been a Chicago Cubs' fan. The 1969 New York Mets would have broken his heart.

Speaking of baseball....

http://www.pressherald.com/life/1865-bas...ction.html

(is that JWB in the back row?)

What a find! The serious collectors will have a good time bidding on that one.

In response to Thomas Thorne:

What existing book on John Hay would you suggest I read?

I've read "The Life of John Hay" by William Roscoe Thayer. But that was published in like 1906 or 1910 or somewhere around then, so the style is a little dry and what one would expect from that era. Also, it is dedicated to Hay's three children, who evidently helped the author quite a bit. So as I recall, it's not an especially impartial account of his life.

Then there's "Lincoln's Men: The President and His Private Secretaries" by Daniel Mark Epstein (who also wrote "The Lincolns: Portrait of a Marriage") It's is about both Hay and John Nicolay. This one was okay. It's not a very weighty tome, but it covers the basics. However, there's something about Epstein's style I don't care for. I can never put my finger on exactly why I'm not crazy about his work, but I'm not. Still, I would recommend his book as a start on Hay.

These are the best suggestions I can make. Neither of them are stellar. That's why I have high hopes for the new bio that's due in May.

I am currently reading Reveille in Washington 1860 - 1865 by Margaret Leech. It's very good.

That is an EXCELLENT book, Maddie -

One of the first I ever read on Washington, 1865.... I re-read it this past summer when it came out as a reissue.

(01-10-2013 10:30 AM)BettyO Wrote:  That is an EXCELLENT book, Maddie -

Yep; I may need to re-read that one. One of the amazing benefits of being older is that old books now seem brand new. I'm enjoying the Nero Wolfe series again now, after going through all the Raymond Chandler, Ngaio Marshs and Dorothy Sayers books late last year.

I'll take my fun where I can get it.

--Jim

One book that I have been wanting to read for the last year or so is Stanley Kimmel's Mr. Davis' Richmond. I found a nice hardback copy at a used bookstore in South Carolina last year but have not even cracked the binding yet! Another book that I want to read is Thomas Turner's Beware the people weeping. Looks like a good read! The new Seward bio is on my list also.

Craig

Just bought a new book tonight by Harold Holzer called Emancipating Lincoln: The Proclamation in Text, Context and Memory. Not sure how soon I'll read it though.

Also bought a biography of Robert Ingersoll called The Great Agnostic by Susan Jacoby. I loved Jacoby's Freethinkers so I think her work on Ingersoll will be very good.

Best
Rob

(01-11-2013 07:57 PM)Rob Wick Wrote:  Just bought a new book tonight by Harold Holzer called Emancipating Lincoln: The Proclamation in Text, Context and Memory. Not sure how soon I'll read it though.

Also bought a biography of Robert Ingersoll called The Great Agnostic by Susan Jacoby. I loved Jacoby's Freethinkers so I think her work on Ingersoll will be very good.

Best
Rob

Rob,
Have you ever read Ingersoll's lecture called Thomas Paine's Vindication? He had a certain fascination with Paine, probably because of his similar views on religion. He is an interesting individual that is not too well known today.

Craig

A while back I downloaded Ingersoll's published papers off Google Books but haven't gotten much further with them. I'll definitely have to look it up. Ingersoll also did a lecture on Lincoln which is available at the Internet Archive.

Best
Rob

I just started reading Father Abraham: Lincoln's Relentless Struggle To End Slavery by Richard Striner. So far, I'm wanting to shout "Amen!" as Striner develops the case for Lincoln's role in the extinction of slavery.