What are your top five Lincoln books?

[Joe Di Cola]

It comes so much alive that you feel like you are a fly on the wall at history's great events. The only trouble I had with the volumes was the price paid for books that were so shoddy in the quality of the bindings. They "fell apart" and I had to have them fixed by a librarian friend. I mentioned this in a review and Johns Hopkins Press got quite defensive.
Benjamin Thomas I feel has written the best-to-date one-volume biography. David Donald's and Carl Sandburg's I would pick for 2nd place in the one-volume bio category--Sandburg for the sheer joy of reading his prose. I think the 6-volume Sandburg is one I would also rank high. In spite of the shoddy bindings, the Burlingame 2-volume will set the standard for years to come. Since I am most interested in Lincoln's earlier life and the people, events, and forces that shaped him (especially the New Salem Years), Thomas' New Salem, Wilson's Honor's Voice, and Wilson and Davis Herndon's Informants are two of my favories. Finally, a must for Lincoln libraries are Lincoln Day by Day and the Collected Works.

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One more...If one wishes to get a cross-section of biographers on Lincoln's Life, Paul Angle's THE LINCOLN READER is an old but sure source.