Lincoln's Boys: John Hay, John Nicolay, and the War for Lincoln’s Image Audiobook

A timely and intimate look into Abraham Lincoln’s White House through the lives of his two closest aides and confidants Lincoln’s official secretaries John Hay and John Nicolay enjoyed more access, witnessed more history, and knew Lincoln better than anyone outside of the president’s immediate family. Hay and Nicolay were the gatekeepers of the Lincoln legacy. They read poetry and attendeded the theater with the president, commiserated with him over Union army setbacks, and plotted electoral strategy. They were present at every seminal event, from the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation to Lincoln’s delivery of the Gettysburg Address—and they wrote about it after his death. In their biography of Lincoln, Hay and Nicolay fought to establish Lincoln’s heroic legacy and to preserve a narrative that saw slavery—not states’ rights—as the sole cause of the Civil War. As Joshua Zeitz shows, the image of a humble man with uncommon intellect who rose from obscurity to become a storied wartime leader and emancipator is very much their creation. Drawing on letters, diaries, and memoirs, Lincoln’s Boys is part political drama and part coming-of-age tale—a fascinating story of friendship, politics, war, and the contest over history and remembrance.

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“This audiobook isn’t about Abraham Lincoln but about the two men most responsible for the Lincoln we know today. Narrator Malcolm Hillgartner offers a steady reading that makes the work flow along nicely. Lincoln’s private secretaries had a front-row seat on history, from Springfield, Illinois, to the White House. After Lincoln’s death, John Hay and John Nicolay wrote the definitive biography, based on official papers no one else had access to. The author liberally uses direct quotes, and Hillgartner pauses ever so slightly before each, suggesting quotation marks with his silence. He also occasionally gives speakers a regional accent. Both actions are effective.”

— AudioFile