Amy's Reviews > Lincoln's Boys: John Hay, John Nicolay, and the War for Lincoln's Image

If you've read any biography about Abraham Lincoln, you will know who John Hay and John George Nicolay are -- Lincoln's young personal secretaries just prior to and during his presidency.

Much has been written about John Hay, including a book published in 2013 by John Taliaferro, entitled "All the great prizes : the life of John Hay, from Lincoln to Roosevelt". Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of Nicolay, and while this is not really a biography about either man, much can be learned about Nicolay's life in this book.

Author, Zeitz does an excellent job in presenting a political (and personal) history of each man in laying the groundwork for their development of "Abraham Lincoln: A History", a 10-volume seminal work, that in its time was considered "the authorized biography of a slain leader and the unofficial Northern Republican Party interpretation of the Civil War."