LINCOLN, Abraham - NICOLAY, John G., & John HAY.

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Abraham Lincoln: A History. First edition, abundantly extra-illustrated with over 650 letters, photographs, prints, and ephemera, crowned by an autograph letter signed by Lincoln as President: an extraordinary collection of signatures from the military and political leaders who shaped the nation in its greatest existential struggle.The authors, Lincoln's private secretaries, "shared a room at the White House and had an exceptionally close relationship with Lincoln, though they stood somewhat in awe of the president. Lincoln and his two secretaries had a good deal of mutual affection... They served Lincoln for four years, performing a wide variety of political and personal duties and remaining close friends throughout, a working friendship that became the foundation for an important literary collaboration in later years" (ANB). Their monumental History remains one of the grandest narratives of Lincoln's life, presidency, and legacy. The original 10 volumes have here been expanded to 20 and luxuriously bound by Whitman Bennett of New York in blue morocco, emblazoned with the American eagle, Lincoln's signature, and patriotic insignia. The first item is an apparently unpublished autograph letter signed by Lincoln as President, dated 2 August 1861 and written from the Executive Mansion to his Secretary of War: "My dear Sir, Let Charles S. Hamilton, of Wisconsin, be a Brigadier General of volunteers". Hamilton (1822-1891), a West Point classmate of Ulysses S. Grant, served in the

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