I am back in southern California for a few days after a trip to Jackson, Mississippi, Washington, DC, and Chicago, Illinois.

Mississippi was very interesting:  my friend Sam arranged for me to speak at Mississippi College, to a group of faculty and friends.  People were eager to hear about Stanton, and my ideas about why he is so hated in the South.  There are a lot of reasons, including his efforts during the war to recruit and arm former slaves, and his efforts after the war to ensure that the Union Army remained in the South.

I have the first printed copy of the Stanton book in my hands today.  It is an exciting moment, about five years since I first thought about this topic, and here is the finished printed book.  Simon & Schuster has done a great job (if I do say so) with the physical book.  The paper is smooth, the images look sharp, the cover is great, with a dramatic red spine.  It is also exciting because it means that books will be ready for my first book events, in early August, starting with Lido Village Books.

 

I am once again reading page proofs, “third pass” page proofs this time.  I am not supposed to be making many changes, and I am not, but I have re-read some of the Lincoln and Stanton and McClellan quotes against the originals, and have located and corrected a few minor errors.

I am also starting to get “cover quotes” from more famous authors.  This morning a quote arrived from Ron Chernow, author of the great biographies of Hamilton and Washington.  Chernow writes:

I now have a few “galley copies” of the Stanton book.  It is a bound paperback version of the book, not quite final, created by the publisher to excite people about what the REAL book will look like in a few weeks.  But from an author’s perspective it is pretty exciting in and of itself; it looks like a book, feels like a book, it is going to be a finished, published book soon.

I have learned from Simon & Schuster in the past few days that Stanton will be published in August 2017.  We do not have a precise date within that month but we will fix one soon.

This means that I have to give the book, in final form, to S&S by some time in early December.  Suddenly all those things that I thought I would do “some day” have to be done some time between now and early December.  Yes, I can leave a few things to sort out later, a few footnotes to be checked and completed, a few images to find and permissions to secure.  But basically it has to be done soon.

I am making progress on my biography of Edwin McMasters Stanton.  I am finishing today chapter 9, which takes Stanton to the end of 1862, his first year as Secretary of War.  I have thus finished the first nine chapters, from 1814 through 1862.  I have 1863 ahead of me, two chapters.  The end of 1863 should tie up with another chapter already done, covering the first six months of 1864.  Then I have a gap, of about a year, the latter part of 1864 and first seven months of 1865, probably three chapters.  And then I have drafted, pretty much, the last four chapters, dealing with Reconstruction.