The Lincoln Studies Center at Knox College will mark the publication of the first book in its multi-volume series about Abraham Lincoln with a special celebration at 4 p.m., Friday, September 8, in the Lincoln Room, Seymour Union, on the Knox campus in Galesburg, Illinois. The event is free and open to the public.

The featured speaker is Jennifer Fleischner, professor of English at Adelphi University, who will give a talk, "Mrs. Lincoln and Mrs. Keckly." Fleischner's talk is based on her book, "Mrs. Lincoln and Mrs. Keckly: The Remarkable Story of the Friendship Between a First Lady and a Former Slave." The critically acclaimed book, published in 2003, details the relationship between Abraham Lincoln's widow, Mary Todd Lincoln, and her dressmaker, Elizabeth Keckly.

Prior to Fleischner's lecture, several speakers will present remarks celebrating the forthcoming publication of "Herndon's Lincoln," the inaugural volume in a series of books from the Lincoln Studies Center and the University of Illinois Press. The speakers will include Willis Regier, director of the University of Illinois Press; Roger Taylor, president of Knox College; Lawrence Breitborde, vice president and dean of Knox College; and Julie Cellini, a member of the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission and chair of the board of trustees of the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency.

The celebration is sponsored by the Lincoln Studies Center at Knox College, in conjunction with the annual meeting of the center's board of advisors.

"Herndon's Lincoln" is co-edited by Douglas Wilson and Rodney Davis, co-directors of the Lincoln Studies Center. The book is scheduled for release this fall by the University of Illinois Press. Additional books are planned for release during 2008, the 150th anniversary of the Lincoln-Douglas debates; and 2009, the bicentennial of Lincoln's birth.

"Since its original publication in 1889, 'Herndon's Lincoln' has been the most widely circulated Lincoln biography, and has been especially influential in the views that we have of Lincoln's pre-presidential years," Davis said. Herndon became Lincoln's law partner in Springfield, Illinois in 1844. After Lincoln's assassination in 1865, Herndon collected extensive reminiscences from people who had known Lincoln, material that Wilson and Davis co-edited in the award-winning book "Herndon's Informants."

"Herndon was more interested in writing essays and interpretations of Lincoln's life, and he wasn't up to the task of writing a historical narrative," Davis said. "Herndon's collaborator and co-author, Jesse Weik, understood that the public wanted a full narrative of Lincoln's life before going to Washington, and that's what Weik was able to write. One of the things that Doug and I have discovered is the extent to which Weik was a very significant collaborator. Herndon gathered the material, but essentially Weik wrote the book."

Future books in the series include the first-ever critical edition of the texts of the Lincoln-Douglas debates and a collection of Herndon's writings about Lincoln, both co-edited by Wilson and Davis. Two additional books planned for the series are being edited by other Lincoln scholars. They are the diary of Horatio Nelson Taft, a Washington insider and neighbor of Lincoln's in White House; and the diary of Gideon Welles, secretary of the navy in Lincoln's cabinet.

Lincoln Studies Center at Knox College

External Sites
University of Illinois Press on Herndon's Lincoln
Lincoln Bicentennial Commission