My latest book (8-24): Lincoln's Rise to Eloquence

[D. Leigh Henson]

(03-07-2025 02:27 AM)Steve Wrote:  I didn't see this post when it originally came out, but I will definitely check out your book!

Thank you.

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D. Leigh Henson to ChatGPT (12-16-25): Identify and rank books from most to least informative that explain how Lincoln's growth and development as a writer prepared him for presidential discourse and literary distinction.

Response:
Below is a ranked, “most-to-least informative” list of books that explain how Lincoln’s growth as a writer (habits, models, revision practices, genres, and rhetorical aims) prepared him for presidential discourse and—ultimately—literary distinction. I am weighting explanatory power about development over general Lincoln biography or simple anthologizing.

1. D. Leigh Henson, Lincoln’s Rise to Eloquence: How He Gained the Presidential Nomination (University of Illinois Press, 2024). Most directly organized around pre-presidential rhetorical formation—how Lincoln’s speeches and writings functioned as deliberate instruments of political ascent, with attention to method, purpose, and the rhetorical process that culminates in national leadership discourse. University of Illinois Press+1

2. Douglas L. Wilson, Lincoln’s Sword: The Presidency and the Power of Words (2006). A sustained argument that Lincoln’s presidency cannot be understood apart from his maturity as a working writer—treating writing as a “presidential asset,” and closely attending to how Lincoln composed and deployed key texts as instruments of governance. PenguinRandomhouse.com+1

3. Daniel Kilham Dodge (intro. James Hurt), Abraham Lincoln: The Evolution of His Literary Style (University of Illinois Press ed., 2000). A compact but conceptually focused study that explicitly tracks “evolution” in Lincoln’s style by identifying the literary sources and reading-world that shaped his writing across forms (law, politics, poetry, print culture). Among the most “developmental” books in the strict sense. Google Books+1

4. Douglas L. Wilson, Honor’s Voice: The Transformation of Abraham Lincoln (1998). While broader than “writerly development” alone, it is unusually strong on formation—how Lincoln becomes the sort of person who can speak (and write) with authority, and how that authority is inseparable from voice, discipline, and self-making (a key bridge between growth and later presidential discourse). PenguinRandomhouse.com+1

5. • Ronald C. White Jr., Lincoln’s Greatest Speech: The Second Inaugural (2002).
A deep dive into Lincoln’s mature literary-religious artistry through the Second Inaugural, with an explicit concern for “development” and influences—excellent for showing what Lincoln’s writerly growth produced at its highest level, even though the lens is one primary text. Ronald C. White+1

6. • Garry Wills, Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remade America (1992). Not chiefly a “growth narrative,” but extremely informative on literary distinction—why the Gettysburg Address works as language, how it re-situates national meaning, and why Lincoln’s rhetoric becomes culturally canonical (a strong “literary achievement” book). Amazon+1

7. • Harold Holzer, Lincoln and the Power of the Press: The War for Public Opinion (2014). Less about stylistic evolution per se, more about the communications ecosystem in which Lincoln wrote—how he leveraged (and sometimes supplied) print journalism to shape public sentiment. Valuable for understanding the infrastructural conditions that made presidential discourse effective. simonandschuster.com+1

8. • Harold Holzer, Abraham Lincoln, the Writer: A Treasury of His Greatest Speeches and Letters (2000). Useful as a guided “Lincoln-as-writer” presentation with contextual framing, but it is primarily a curated treasury rather than an analytic account of development; best used alongside the explanatory studies above. Biblioguides+1