Wilson, Douglas L., ed.; Davis, Rodney O., ed.; Greene, William G. 'Introduction' in 'Herndon's Informants: Letters, Interviews, and Statements About Abraham Lincoln' . Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1998. [format: book], [genre: letter]. Permission: University of Illinois Press
Persistent link to this document: http://lincoln.lib.niu.edu/file.php?file=herndonr13.html

Note from page xiii: 1. Charles B. Strozier, Lincoln’s Quest for Union: Public and Private Meanings (New York: Basic Books, 1981), xvi.

Note from page xiii: 2. See the letters of John L. Scripps (§1) and Horace White (§32).

Note from page xiv: 3. WHH to Josiah G. Holland, May 26, 1865, Holland Papers, NYPL.

Note from page xiv: 4. John L. Scripps to WHH, May 9, 1865 (§1).

Note from page xiv: 5. T. W. McNeely to WHH, Nov. 28, 1866 (§313).

Note from page xiv: 6. WHH to Josiah G. Holland, June 8, 1865, Holland Papers, NYPL.

Note from page xiv: 7. Ibid.

Note from page xv: 8. See, for example, the testimony solicited by John Miles (§3), Erastus Wright (§16), and J. W. Wart-mann (§62).

Note from page xv: 9. WHH to G. U. Miles, Dec. 1, 1865, HW.

Note from page xv: 10. G. U. Miles to WHH, Mar. 23, 1866 (§178).

Note from page xvi: 11. Herndon’s lecture, "ABRAHAM LINCOLN. MISS ANN RUTLEDGE. NEW SALEM. PIONEERING AND THE POEM" was delivered on November 16, 1866, and distributed as a broadside. It has been reprinted in William H. Herndon, Lincoln and Ann Rutledge and the Pioneers of New Salem (Herrin, Ill.: Trovillion Private Press, 1945).

Note from page xvi: 12. WHH to Isaac N. Arnold, Nov. 20, 1866, in Hertz, 38 — 39. For a fuller treatment of Herndon’s doctrine of "necessary truth," see Wilson, 37 — 52.

Note from page xvi: 13. See Wilson, 40 — 41, 46 — 47.

Note from page xvi: 14. WHH to Charles H. Hart, Dec. 12, 1866, Lamon Papers, HL.

Note from page xvi: 15. WHH to Charles H. Hart, Dec. 28, 1866, Lamon Papers, HL.

Note from page xvii: 16. See Donald, 250 — 53.

Note from page xvii: 17. The story of the Herndon-Weik collaboration is told in detail in ibid., 296 — 321.

Note from page xviii: 18. Albert J. Beveridge, "Lincoln as His Partner Knew Him," Literary Digest International Review 1:33 (Sept. 1923), cited in Donald, 193.

Note from page xviii: 19. Donald, 195.

Note from page xviii: 20. Ibid., 252.

Note from page xviii: 21. See CW 1:227 — 28. Had other rare issues of early Illinois newspapers suffered a similar fate, such things as Lincoln’s speech to the Young Men’s Lyceum, his temperance address, his Clay eulogy, and his speech before the Scott Club would still survive in Springer’s transcripts.

Note from page xix: 22. See the memorandum appended to an interview with James H. Matheny (§472).

Note from page xix: 23. For Oliver R. Barrett’s unsuccessful attempt at purchase, see Sandburg, 28 — 29; Joseph Fort Newton, Lincoln and Herndon (Cedar Rapids: Torch Press, 1910); Horace White, The Life of Lyman Trumbull (Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1913).

Note from page xix: 24. A portion of Weik’s papers, including some of his Herndon material, ended up in the Illinois State Historical Library.

Note from page xx: 25. See Julian P. Boyd, "Some Animadversions on Being Struck by Lightning," Daedalus 86 (May 1955): 49 — 56.

Note from page xxi: 26. See Paul M. Angle, "Lincoln’s First Love?" Lincoln Centennial Association Bulletin 9 (Dec. 1, 1927): 1 — 8; J. G. Randall, "Appendix: Sifting the Ann Rutledge Evidence," Lincoln the President: Springfield to Gettysburg, 2 vols. (New York: Dodd, Mead and Co., 1945), 2:321 — 42.

Note from page xxi: 27. Donald, 195.

Note from page xxi: 28. WHH to JWW, Dec. 13, 1888, HW.

Note from page xxi: 29. Randall, "Appendix: Sifting the Ann Rutledge Evidence," 325.

Note from page xxii: 30. See Wilson, 21 — 36.

Note from page xxii: 31. The substance of oral history may be defined as testimony about events and situations that occurred during the lifetime of the informants. See Jan Vansina, Oral Tradition as History (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1985), 12.

Note from page xxii: 32. Michael Frisch, A Shared Authority: Essays on the Craft and Meaning of Oral and Public History (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990), xviii — xx; Barbara Allen and Linwood Montell, From Memory to History: Using Oral Sources in Local History Research (Nashville: American Association for State and Local History, 1981), 19 — 22; Cullom Davis, Kathryn Back, and Kay MacLean, Oral History: From Tape to Type (Chicago: American Library Association, 1977), 2 — 3.

Note from page xxii: 33. Allen and Montell, From Memory to History, 26 — 29, 35 — 36, 76 — 77; Vansina, Oral Tradition as Histo-ry, 158 — 59.

Note from page xxii: 34. Ronald Grele, "Can Anyone over Thirty Be Trusted? A Friendly Critique of Oral History," in Envelopes of Sound: The Art of Oral History, ed. Ronald Grele and Studs Terkel (Chicago: Precedent Publishing, 1975), 206; Grele, "Private Memories and Public Presentation: The Art of Oral History," in ibid., 244, 260 — 63.

Note from page xxii: 35. See, for example, WHH’s queries reflected in letters from Dennis F. Hanks: §§143, 160, 161, 165.

Note from page xxiii: 36. WHH to Ward Hill Lamon, Mar. 6, 1870, Lamon Papers, HL.

Note from page xxiii: 37. WHH to JWW, Nov. 10, 1888, HW.

Note from page xxiv: 38. Don E. Fehrenbacher, Lincoln in Text and Context: Collected Essays (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1987), 281.

Note from page xxiv: 39. CW 3:362.