The Life of Abraham Lincoln: A Short, Illustrated Biography

by Stefan Lorant

The Life of Abraham Lincoln by Stefan Lorant is a fascinating book with many black and white photographs and satirical cartoons including the absurd illustration of Lincoln picking up Jack Armstrong over his head as if he were as light as a feather! Lorant was a Hungarian born journalist who had opposed Hitler and had been briefly imprisoned by the Nazis before eventually emigrating to the United States shortly before the war. He had a fascination with Lincoln which shows that Lincoln's appeal is not only American but extends to all cultures of the world.

Genres: History

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1954

About the author

An expert in U.S. presidential and pictorial history, Lorant worked as a filmmaker in Europe (1920s) before becoming a journalist. Jailed by Hitler in 1933, he wrote the popular book I Was Hitler's Prisoner (1935), based on his experiences. After leaving Germany, Lorant developed several pictorial magazines in England. When he came to the United States in 1940, he produced the impressive pictorial history Lincoln: His Life in Photographs (1951) as well as volumes on other U.S. presidents and Sieg Heil, a pictorial history of Germany from Bismark to Hitler.

Reviews

[SheMac]

A not very scholarly tome that lacks an index, bibliography and notes. The original text is thin as the book is full of illustrations and large chunks of quotations from Lincoln's speeches and other writings as well as others' firsthand accounts. These are fascinating and earned the book, IMHO, a third star.

[Saad]

على كثرة المؤلفات التي تحدثت عن شخص ابراهام لينكولن وحياته. يعتبر هذا الكتاب متميزا . فالكاتب اقرب الى الحياد منه إلى تقديس شخص لينكولن أو بغضه والصاق كل التهم فيه.