Can I have some feedback?

[Joe Di Cola]

Rob,

Your idea of starting with Ida Tarbell intrigues me because she had some access to primary sources in the people she contacted. I see a possible progression in your research and publications: Tarbell, Sandburg, Benjamin Thomas. They are the people who come to my mind when I think of Lincoln biographers from the late 19th and into the mid-20th centuries. This would give you a veritable trifecta on Lincoln biographers (perhaps trilogy would have been the better word!).
Contending with cost issues in order to conduct research is antithetical to scholarship but, I have been advised, is a necessary evil in order for archives to maintain their collections, etc. With ready access to Tarbell material at less cost you can perhaps build the resources needed later to delve into the Sandburg materials.
For more years than I wish to remember I have wanted to do a history of Chicago's 1893 World's Fair--a manageable and portable volume instead of a coffee table tome. Well, it will be out in October. So, even though it might take time, don't give up the dream of ariting about Sandburg.