Abraham Lincoln: Speeches and Writings 1832-1858 -- Speeches, Letters, and Miscellaneous Writings, The Lincoln-Douglas Debates / Abraham Lincoln: Speeches and Writings 1859-1865 -- Speeches, Letters, and Miscellaneous Writings, Presidential Messages and Proclamations

N.p.: The Library of America, 1989. Hardcover. Notes and texts by Don E. Fehrenbacher. Complete 2-volume set in slipcase. 8vo. Blue cloth with gilt spine lettering, pictorial dust jackets, glossy printed paper-over-boards slipcase. xix, 898pp; xxxiii, 787pp. Sewn-in silk page markers, decorative endpapers. Fine/fine/fine. A tight and wonderfully pristine third printing of this generous selection from Roy Basler's 1953 definitive "Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln." Tipped to inner flyleaf of first volume is a meaty Typed Letter Signed from Fehrenbacher, 1p, 7 3/4" X 11", Stanford, CA, 6 January 1980. Addressed to "Ralph" (Ralph G. Newman, 1912-2000, founder of Chicago's noted Abraham Lincoln Book Shop). Near fine. On "Stanford University" letterhead, Fehrenbacher sends this old friend "Thanks for your generous and interesting letter about 'The Minor Affair.' I had a great deal of fun working on the subject, which I first worked on as a graduate student at the University of Chicago in the very early 1950's. At that time my only manuscript resource was the Barton papers, but I also interviewed Paul Angle about the affair." (The Minor Affair" was a lecture Fehrenbacher gave exploring the Ann Rutledge legend as the Second Annual R. Gerald McMurtry Lecture at the Louis A. Warren Lincoln Library and Museum in Fort Wayne, Indiana.) He then chats in great detail about Rutledge forgeries and other fascinating details about the whole affair. Signed boldly in full in black ballpoint at the close. Don E. Fehrenbacher (1920-97) was a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and scholar on Lincoln and slavery.