by Walter Stahr
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:
by Walter Stahr
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.
by Walter Stahr
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.
by Walter Stahr
Simon & Schuster has asked me for a list of my speeches about Seward, which turns out to be a long list. While looking for them on my old computer, I came across these remarks at Seattle Prep in early 2014. I post them in case they might help others understand why and how I write books, and indeed help students as they research and write their own papers. They end with a bit of a “teaser” for the Stanton book, coming some time next fall. “Mr. McCarthy,” in the first line, is my good friend Andy McCarthy, head coach of the Seattle Prep mock trial team.
by Walter Stahr
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.
by Walter Stahr
I am working away on my biography of Edwin Stanton, writing today the chapter that deals with 1861, the first few months of the Civil War.
As I write I do bits of research, to “fill in the gaps” and to answer questions. This morning, for example, I was looking at letters between Stanton and former president Buchanan from May 1861. Buchanan complained to Stanton on May 6 about what he viewed as an attack on his administration by Frederick Seward, son of my prior subject William Henry Seward. Stanton counseled Buchanan on May 13 that there was no point responding to the “fling” by young Seward. Other authors have found these letters, they are after all in the published works of Buchanan. But no author has found the “fling” by Frederick Seward. What, I wondered, did Frederick say?
by Walter Stahr
Tonight, April 18, and probably again a few times in the next few days, I will appear on Smithsonian TV in a show about Lincoln’s death. Show time tonight is 9pm east coast and west coast.
The producers did a good job of weaving together several interviews, including with people who know MUCH more about Booth and the assassins than I do, with actors portraying Lincoln, Seward, Booth, Powell, and others involved. They filmed a crowd in a theater to give a great sense of how the crowd reacted to Lincoln’s death and Booth’s escape. They showed some of the objects involved, including Booth’s pistol and the hoods placed on the defendants. That “bordered on torture,” one of the experts says, and it is hard to disagree.
by Walter Stahr
On December 25, 1860, the New York Tribune reported that there was “intense excitement” in Pittsburgh the prior day because of reports of the imminent “shipment from the Allegheny Arsenal of seventy-eight guns to Newport, near Galveston Island, Texas, and forty-six more to Ship Island, near Balize, at the mouth of the Mississippi River, the apparent object being to strip the Allegheny Arsenal and place the guns where the Secessionists could get them.”
One can readily imagine the excitement: South Carolina had just seceded from the United States, other states seemed likely to follow, and these southern states were seizing the federal arms at hand.
by Walter Stahr
I am reading this morning an interesting little book, a memoir by William Crook, body guard for Lincoln. Crook, when he arrived at the White House in January 1865, was a young police officer, detailed by the Washington chief to help guard the President. Crook remained on the White House staff after Lincoln’s death; indeed he was still there in January 1915, when he was honored by President Woodrow Wilson for fifty years of service.
by Walter Stahr
I have started writing the Stanton book. I am writing what I call chapter X, because I am not sure how many chapters will precede it. The chapter deals with the first half of 1864, including the Dahlgren raid, the appointment of Grant as lieutenant general, the spring campaign, the bogus proclamation of May 18, 1864.
The fact that I am writing does not mean that I am done with researching; indeed as I write I look at the sources, such as the official records or Lincoln papers or newspapers, to see if they confirm points. I have even found, through internet research, some sources I did not know about, including a long article by Stephen Sears on the Dahlgren raid. But at some point you have to stop researching, start writing, or you will never give people the pleasure of reading.