P ROFESSOR RANDALL'S FOUR-VOLUME STUDY Lincoln the Presi-
dent ( 1945-55) was, in his words, "conceived both as biogra-
phy and as history." This book, Mr. Lincoln, is conceived as
biography. It incorporates those parts of the larger work which
deal primarily with Lincoln the man and with his personal
relationships.

Here is the Illinois lawyer and politician as he viewed the
world and as his neighbors viewed him. Here is the supposed
lover of Ann Rutledge and the actual devoted husband of Mary
Todd and indulgent father of Mary's children. Here is the am-
bitious rival of Stephen A. Douglas, besting Douglas and going
to Washington as President-Elect, amid rumors of a plot on his
life. Here, with his grief-crazed First Lady, is the President in
his daily routine and in his continual crises, finding surcease
in humor as he deals with troublesome generals, hostile con-
gressmen, and politicians of his own party seeking his defeat.
Here is the Lincoln of the Emancipation Proclamation and the
Gettysburg Address, the real person behind the symbols of
Freedom and Union. And here is the man in his relationship to
God, at least as he saw it.

This book does not contain the whole of Lincoln. Indeed,
as Professor Randall believed, the subject is far too big even for
four volumes. Nor does the book give a narrative summary of
Lincoln's life. These pages do provide, however, a succession

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