I learned yesterday that my Stanton biography has won the Seward prize for Civil War biography. This is an annual award, presented by the Civil War Forum of Metropolitan New York, for the best biography of a Civil War figure. I am the first person, I am told, to win this award twice, first for my Seward book and now for my Stanton book. I will be going to New York City in July to receive the award and speak with the Forum. It is not quite the Pulitzer Prize but a nice prize nevertheless.

I should also report to the readers (if any) of this blog that I now have a formal contract for writing the Salmon Chase biography. I have not made much progress on the Chase book in recent weeks, dealing with lots of issues with my parents, but I hope to make more progress in the weeks to come.