A Lincoln - Prairie Lawyer

[Gene C]

An excellent book.

Written in 1960 by attorney John Duff, with 370 pages of text, good footnotes and bibliography.

Well organized covering just about every aspect in Lincoln's legal career from beginning to end. Not too full of legal terms and "lawyer technical talk". It's not to difficult to follow, although it does have an occasional few dry pages. It is nice to have a lawyers perspective of his life and career.

Separate chapters on Lincoln and his law partners, and the author is not overly fond of Herndon. The most interesting of Lincoln's law cases, including the murder trials, are given enough detail to leave you wanting to know just a little more. A few of the other chapter headings are; The Truett Murder Case, The Matson Slave Case, Lincoln's Law Clerks, Lincoln's Pardon Petitions, Lincoln as a Judge and Prosecuting Attorney, The Effie Afton Case, and many others.

The author points out that over the years, courthouse fires have destroyed many of the records regarding trials that Lincoln was involved with. In addition, people looking for documents, autographs, and collectors have stolen court house records relating to Lincoln.

In my opinion, this is probably one of the best, if not the best, book looking at Lincoln's total career as a lawyer.
It's only available to borrow from Internet Archives for now.

You can find good used copies out there. I purchased my very good copy for $15 about two years ago at a used book store in Springfield.
Well worth it. This is one book I hope to read again

Amazon has copies at
https://www.amazon.com/Lincoln-Prairie-L...765&sr=8-4

[RJNorton]

(04-03-2020 03:36 PM)Gene C Wrote:  Not too full of legal terms and "lawyer technical talk".

(04-03-2020 03:36 PM)Gene C Wrote:  In my opinion, this is probably one of the best, if not the best, book looking at Lincoln's total career as a lawyer.

I agree with you, Gene. When there is a question about Lincoln's legal career this is often the first source I check.