{"product_id":"a-friend-of-mr-lincoln-thorndike-historical-fiction","title":"A Friend Of Mr. Lincoln (Thorndike Historical Fiction)","description":"The author of the best-selling \"The Gates of the Alamo\" now gives us a galvanizing portrait of Abraham Lincoln during a crucially revealing period of his life, the early Springfield years, when he risked both his sanity and his ethical bearings as he searched for the great destiny he believed to be his.\nIt is Illinois in the 1830s and 1840s. Abraham Lincoln is a circuit-riding lawyer, a member of the state legislature, a man of almost ungovernable ambition. To his friends he is also a beloved figure, by turns charmingly awkward and mesmerizingly self-possessed a man of whom they, too, expect big things. Among his friends and political colleagues are Joshua Speed, William Herndon, Stephen Douglas, and many others who have come to the exploding frontier town of Springfield to find their futures.\nIt is through another friend, a fictional poet, Cage Weatherby, that we will come to know Lincoln in his twenties and thirties, as a series of formative, surprising incidents unfolds his service in the Black Hawk War, his participation in a poetry-writing society, a challenge to a duel that begins as a farce but quickly rises to lethal potential . . . Cage both admires and clashes with Lincoln, sometimes questioning his legal ethics and his cautious stance on slavery. But he is by Lincoln s side as Lincoln slips back and forth between high spirits and soul-hollowing sadness and depression, and as he recovers from a disastrous courtship of one woman to marry the beautiful, capricious, politically savvy Mary Todd. It is Mary who will bring stability to Lincoln s life, but who will also trigger a conflict that sends the two men on very different paths into the future.\nHistorically accurate, rich in character, filled with the juice and dreams and raw ambitions of Americans on the make in an early frontier city, \" A Friend of Mr. Lincoln\" is a revelatory and moving portrayal of Abraham Lincoln in his young manhood. It is a close-up, involving experience, the sort of vibrant glimpse beneath the veneer of history that only the very best fiction can provide.\"\u003cbr\u003eASIN: 1410489272\u003cbr\u003eVSKU: RDV.1410489272.VG\u003cbr\u003eCondition: Very Good\u003cbr\u003eAuthor\/Artist:Stephen Harrigan\u003cbr\u003eBinding: Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eNote:\u003c\/b\u003e Any images shown are stock photographs and product may differ from what is shown.  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCondition Notes\u003c\/b\u003e: This book is in excellent condition. This is an ex-library book with stickers and markings. There may be minimal writing on the inside cover or cover page. Cover image on the book may vary from photo. Ships out quickly in a secure plastic mailer.  \u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Reliant Bookstore","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47947561402545,"sku":"RDV.1410489272.VG","price":20.86,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0544\/8872\/7729\/files\/1410489272-0.jpg?v=1789758013","url":"https:\/\/www.reliantbookstore.com\/products\/a-friend-of-mr-lincoln-thorndike-historical-fiction","provider":"Reliant Bookstore","version":"1.0","type":"link"}