Lincoln’s Boys: John Hay, John Nicolay, and the War for Lincoln’s Image
When the newly elected Abraham Lincoln moved from Springfield, Illinois, to the White House, he took with him as his secretaries two young men: former newspaperman John Nicolay and aspiring poet and reluctant lawyer John Hay. Fast friends despite their different temperaments, Nicolay and Hay would become intimates of the President as well.
While in Lincoln’s Boys, Zeitz tells of the secretaries’ White House years and their later distinguished careers, the most compelling part of the book deals with their collaboration to produce a biography of Abraham Lincoln. Dismayed by the myth-making of his father’s former law partner, Robert Lincoln granted the President’s trusted aides access to the presidential papers, a privilege no one else would enjoy during Robert’s lifetime and for twenty-one years thereafter. The result was a 10-volume work that continues to influence Lincoln scholars today. Writing a book about someone writing a book does not always make for lively reading, but Zeitz brings much of the energy and excitement to his project that Nicolay and Hay must have brought to theirs.