Rensselaer Republican, Volume 19, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 November 1886 — The November Century [ARTICLE]

The November Century

The, November Century marks a new era in tlie history magazine, in beginning the publication of “The Life of Lincoln, by his private secretaries, John G. Nicolay and Colonel John Hay. Two prefaces, one editoral and the other by the writer s, give ample account of the work, and call attention to the exceptional opportunities which these gefitleman have had to prepare what is certain to be the fullest and most authoritative work oil the subjet. Its authors were, in a sense, the chosen biographers of Lincoln, by whose aid they were reenforced in the Colection of material during the war. From an historical point of view the value of the work — largely., resting on documentary evidence not attainable by other writers —must be ranked high. In fact, the inner history of the war waits upon this w-ork. The first part is concerned with the Lincoln family as pioneers, including their relations with Boone in Kentucky, and their subsequent life in Indiana and Illinois down to the Black Hawk War, Bml a picture of the society and surroundings of young Lincoln, involving a concise history of the Western States of that day. On the pictorial side there is a frontispiece portrait of Lincoln in 1860, from a remarkably fine and unhackneyed photograph, a portrait of Boone from Sully’s painting from life, and the traditions of the Lincoln homes and localities are carefully gathered up pictorially to supplement the text A sac-simile of a passage of Mr. Lowell’s “Commemoration Ode,’’ referring to Lincoln, is printed at the beginning of the magazine, and certain other sac-similes throw new light upon the early history of the Lincolns.