Probably the best recent, detailed, one-volume biography of Lincoln. When busy people ask us what single book to read on Lincoln, this is the book we always recommend. In less-skilled hands, this would be a three-volume work, but in Donald’s, it is just one – giving us virtually everything we need to know about the 16th President in readable, highly engaging prose.

Doris is not the Lincoln scholar that Donald is, as she would readily admit, but she has done an excellent job of essentially combining, in one very readable book, five biographies woven together in the Lincoln Cabinet. It is a very good overview of Lincoln in the White House, as he manages both the talents and the egos of his disputatious Cabinet secretaries, some of whom thought - at least at first - that they would make a better President than their boss.

Abraham Lincoln: Speeches and Writings, 1832-1858
ed. by Don E. Fehrenbacher
Library of America 1989

Here is Lincoln in his own words, from his earliest days in public life to his failed 1858 campaign against Stephen Douglas for the U.S. Senate. It is not enough just to read about Lincoln, you also have to read Lincoln himself – a master thinker and wordsmith. To get the full effect, many of his pieces really need to be read aloud.

Lincoln: An Illustrated Biography
by Philip B. Kunhardt Jr. et al.
Knopf 1997

Lincoln’s life and times, along with a great collection of pictures. We would also include a second book by the same writing team, Looking for Lincoln. They offer valuable perspectives on Lincoln and his times in very readable segments, along with some striking images. These look like coffeetable books but are much more.

Reelecting Lincoln: The Battle for the 1864 Presidency
by Joseph Waugh
Crown 1997

A fascinating book about the topsy-turvy 1864 campaign, which pitted Lincoln against his former top general, George McClellan, to whom the President thought he would almost certainly lose. Waugh is an excellent writer on the tangled, hardball politics of that time.

Honor's Voice:
The Transformation of Abraham Lincoln
by Douglas L. Wilson
Knopf 1998

This very well-researched book focuses on the years 1831-42 as Lincoln develops from a store clerk into a skilled politician, overcoming many problems along the way. These were the years that made him the man he was.

Lincoln at Gettysburg:
The Words that Remade America

A Pulitzer Prize-winning analysis of the Gettysburg Address, taking it apart almost word by word and putting it back together again. Wills is a brilliant thinker and writer. He notes how Lincoln drew from classical Greek funeral oratory in redefining the Constitution, and goes on to rebut the most common misconceptions about the Address. Wills may overanalyze a bit, but overall, this is a fine and very insightful book.

A. Lincoln And Me
by Louise Borden, illustrated by Ted Lewin
Scholastic 1999

A great kids’ book on the 16th President, as told in the present day by a boy who shares Lincoln’s birthday and wants to learn more about him. An ideal introduction to Lincoln for younger readers.

Abraham Lincoln
by James McPherson
Oxford University Press 2009

A very short, extremely concise overview of Lincoln's life which, although lacking virtually any humanizing detail, is still well worth a read. This book is a good way to get started on Lincoln. It makes you want to learn more about him, which is probably the highest praise that can be given to any brief biography.

Lincoln and the Civil War:
In the diaries and letters of John Hay
by John Hay
Greenwood 1972

This is an "inside the White House" kind of book which gives us an up-close-and-personal look at Lincoln. This is one of the best; a great way to learn what Lincoln the man was really like.

Yes, a novel, but a very good one that was edited by David Herbert Donald, giving the reader added confidence in its historical accuracy. Vidal is good with politics and the language – this makes for a good read on a great man.

Lincoln on Leadership:
Executive Strategies for Tough Times
by Donald T. Phillips
Warner Books 1992

This management guide may almost be called "Applied Lincoln." Among other things, it is a good companion book to Team of Rivals as we see Lincoln’s unique skills in getting people to do what was needed. (Most of noted Lincoln portrayer Jim Getty’s appearances these days are for corporations with him, as Lincoln, speaking on leadership.)

No library on Lincoln is complete without a book on his tragic and momentous assassination. This very well researched and documented book has become the "go to" source on its subject since its publication.