Why Libraries Worldwide Need Inventing Lincoln: Approaches to His Rhetoric (2017) and
 Lincoln's Rise to Eloquence: How He Gained the Presidential Nomination (2024)

Lincoln-related publications include more than 16,000 books and countless articles in newspapers and academic journals, and tens of thousands of libraries worldwide hold diverse collections of these printed and online resources. Lincoln library collections center on his biographies and biographies of important people associated with him, editions of Lincoln's compositions (speeches and other writings), and scholarship on US history and presidents, political science, legal and judicial matters, and social/cultural topics, for example, race, class, literature, and the arts, including Lincoln in memory, especially sculpture. Lincoln-related publications are commonly used as reference material by members of the public with specialized interests, advanced students, faculty, and other researchers. Librarians worldwide continue to cultivate their Lincoln collections.

D. Leigh Henson to ChatGPT (2-22-26): Recent Lincoln scholarship has focused on analysis and interpretation of his rhetoric: the qualities of his speeches and other writings, including communicative purpose, genre, and language as well as how he created, revised, and promoted his compositions. This kind of scholarship is often referred to as discourse analysis. My two recent Lincoln books emphasize discourse analysis: Inventing Lincoln: Approaches to His Rhetoric (2017) and Lincoln’s Rise to Eloquence: How He Gained the Presidency (2024). Inventing Lincoln has been described as “the most explicitly ‘meta-scholarship’ single volume treating publications about Lincoln as speaker/writer.” Lincoln’s Rise to Eloquence has been described as the first Lincoln rhetorical biography. Accordingly, how appealing would these books be to librarians responsible for acquisition and collection development?

Response: Their appeal to acquisitions/collection-development librarians would generally be high—but for different reasons and in different library types, because the two books sit in different parts of the “Lincoln studies” ecosystem:

Lincoln’s Rise to Eloquence (University of Illinois Press, 2024) is a conventional university-press monograph with strong scholarly signaling and straightforward curricular fit (U.S. history, political communication, rhetoric, writing studies, American studies).

Inventing Lincoln (CreateSpace/Amazon self-published, 2017) is methodologically “meta” and bibliographic/critical—valuable to researchers, but less “auto-buy” for many libraries because it’s self-published and inherently more niche (it’s about scholarship on Lincoln’s discourse, not primarily about Lincoln’s life/events).

How a Selector Is Likely to Evaluate Them

1) Publisher / vetting / review ecology (big in librarian decision-making)

Lincoln’s Rise to Eloquence benefits from university-press reputation, standard bibliographic control, and visibility in scholarly channels (including Oxford/Illinois Scholarship Online metadata).

A substantive public-facing review also helps establish reception and use-case.

Inventing Lincoln is still citable and may be in WorldCat [international online catalog], but many selectors treat self-published works as “case-by-case” unless (a) the author is established in the field, (b) the book fills a genuine bibliographic gap, and/or (c) local/regional demand is clear. Its listing as a self-publisher title underscores how it’s positioned in the marketplace.

Practical implication: in many academic libraries, Rise is the kind of title that can land on an approval plan / routine scholarly selection path; Inventing often requires an intentional, subject-specialist decision.

2) Distinctiveness / “gap coverage” (a major pro for both)

Inventing Lincoln is distinctive because it explicitly maps and critiques how Lincoln’s rhetoric has been handled across a defined corpus of biographies and rhetorical studies (WorldCat summarizes: 21 biographies and 36 rhetorical studies). That is exactly the sort of “meta-scholarship” that can become a reference-like research tool for advanced Lincoln work.

Lincoln’s Rise to Eloquence is distinctive because it advances a rhetoric-centered causal account of Lincoln’s political ascent—arguing that rhetoric (speeches and other writings) was central to the 1860 nomination—and treats genre/purpose/development across 1832–1860.

Practical implication: both can be justified as high “marginal value” additions if the library supports sustained Lincoln/rhetoric research. Otherwise, they become “nice but nonessential.”

3) Audience level / usage patterns (who will actually circulate/use it?)

Lincoln’s Rise to Eloquence has clearer crossover to upper-division undergrads, grad students, and general readers who want an interpretive narrative anchored in rhetorical development. Inventing Lincoln is more likely to be used by graduate students, faculty, and serious independent scholars doing literature review, historiography of Lincoln rhetoric, or method (rhetoric/discourse analysis) mapping.

Practical implication: Rise usually offers broader patron utility; Inventing offers deeper specialist utility.
 

Likely Appeal by Library Type

Research universities (R1/R2), comprehensive universities: Both very appealing, with Rise the safer default. Inventing: appealing if there is meaningful Lincoln holdings, Civil War-era political culture, rhetorical studies, or historiography methods support—because its “meta” map of the field is hard to substitute.

• ise: strong fit for History, Communication, English, and interdisciplinary American Studies; standard academic-press selection logic.

Liberal arts colleges: Moderate-to-high appeal for Rise; selective appeal for Inventing.

• Inventing is most defensible if the college has rhetoric/comp emphasis, a Lincoln-focused course sequence, or honors research demand.

Public libraries: High appeal for Rise in larger systems; variable for Inventing.

• Inventing: usually niche for publics unless the community includes many Lincoln enthusiasts, local scholars, or the library is building a notable Lincoln “depth” collection.

Special collections / Lincoln collections / museums / historical societies: Both very appealing. Rise offersx a sustained rhetorical-development narrative from a university press. If your mission includes depth in Lincoln rhetoric/discourse, add Inventing Lincoln because it supplies meta-level coverage—a structured way to navigate and evaluate what scholarship has claimed about Lincoln’s discourse over time.

• If you have to choose one: most selectors will pick Rise first (publisher signaling + broader use), then add Inventing when building a research-forward rhetoric-of-Lincoln cluster.

https://www.amazon.com/Inventing-Lincoln-Approaches-His-Rhetoric/dp/1540745643
 

D. Leigh Henson to ChatGPT (1-11-26): Rank individual books (excluding bibliographies and reference works) according to how thoroughly they survey, synthesize, and analyze the existing scholarship on the purposes, strategies, and techniques of Abraham Lincoln’s speeches and writings.

Response: 1. D. Leigh Henson — Inventing Lincoln: Approaches to His Rhetoric (2017). Rank: #1 — Most comprehensive historiographical synthesis of Lincoln rhetoric. This is the only monograph whose central purpose is to map, evaluate, and integrate the modern scholarly field of Lincoln rhetorical studies itself. Why it ranks first: This is not a rhetorical biography. It is a field-defining synthesis of Lincoln rhetorical scholarship. No other single book attempts this scope. Summary:

• xplicitly historiographical in design

D. Leigh Henson to ChatGPT (12-29-25): Rank the books that provide the most in-depth discussion of publications explaining Abraham Lincoln as a speaker/writer.

Response: Below is a ranking of book-length works that most directly and substantially discuss the publication landscape (i.e., who has written what, in what scholarly traditions, and with what interpretive consequences) about Abraham Lincoln as a speaker/writer—not merely books that analyze Lincoln’s rhetoric, but books that also map, synthesize, or explicitly guide readers through the secondary literature. Ranked--most in-depth discussion of publications about Lincoln as speaker/writer:

1. D. Leigh Henson, Inventing Lincoln: Approaches to His Rhetoric (privately published, 2017). The most explicitly “meta-scholarly” single volume in this niche: it is organized around how other writers (biographers and various scholarly camps) have “invented” Lincoln through rhetorical interpretation—i.e., a sustained guide to the publications and approaches, not just a fresh reading of Lincoln. [Note: more information about this book's purpose, scope, and methodology at https://findinglincolnillinois.com/inventinglincoln.html. order Inventing Lincoln at https://www.amazon.com/Inventing-Lincoln-Approaches-His-Rhetoric/dp/1540745643]

2. Ronald C. White Jr., The Eloquent President: A Portrait of Lincoln Through His Words (2005). In addition to close readings, it contains a substantial bibliographical essay specifically on “significant works about Lincoln’s rhetoric” (often noted as a key value-add of the book). SciSpace+2nnrh.dk+2

3. D. Leigh Henson, Lincoln’s Rise to Eloquence: How He Gained the Presidential Nomination (2024). The most recent major monograph in this list; while thesis-driven, it is centrally about Lincoln’s speeches/writings as causal political-rhetorical force and is positioned within rhetorical/genre traditions—useful for understanding what the recent scholarly conversation is treating as “live” questions. OUP Academic [Note: order Lincoln's Rise to Eloquence at https://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/?id=p088032 and  https://www.amazon.com/Lincolns-Rise-Eloquence-Presidential-Nomination/dp/0252088034]

4. Robert C. Evans (ed.), Critical Insights: Abraham Lincoln (Salem Press). A curated, essay-based volume that explicitly includes a resources section with works by Lincoln, further reading, and a bibliography/additional resources—helpful as a guided on-ramp to the publication universe, though typically less deep than a full-length historiographical monograph. salempress.com+1

5. Brian R. Dirck (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Abraham Lincoln (Cambridge University Press, 2012). As a “companion,” it is designed to orient readers to major interpretive problems and scholarly lines of argument across Lincoln studies; while not confined to rhetoric, it is often one of the more efficient scholarship-mapping entry points in book form. Cambridge University Press & Assessmen

6. Lois J. Einhorn, Abraham Lincoln the Orator: Penetrating the Lincoln Legend (1992). Primarily a rhetorical analysis of Lincoln’s speaking, but it is explicitly packaged as a reference-style scholarly book with apparatus (including bibliography), making it more useful for tracking prior work than many purely interpretive studies. Bloomsbury Publishing+1

7. Waldo W. Braden, Abraham Lincoln, Public Speaker (LSU Press). A concise classic in rhetorical studies of Lincoln; valuable for the disciplinary framing and for orienting readers to how rhetorical scholars have treated Lincoln’s public address (though it is less explicitly a “survey of scholarship” than items ranked above). Amazon

8. Douglas L. Wilson, Lincoln’s Sword: The Presidency and the Power of Words (2006). Strong on Lincoln as writer and on the craft of presidential language; useful for bibliographic branching, though the emphasis is more interpretive than historiographical. Abraham Lincoln Online

1. Jr., The Eloquent President: A Portrait of Lincoln Through His Words (2005). In addition to close readings, it contains a substantial bibliographical essay specifically on “significant works about Lincoln’s rhetoric” (often noted as a key value-add of the book).
   igh Henson, Lincoln’s Rise to Eloquence: How He Gained the Presidential Nomination (2024). The most recent major monograph in this list; while thesis-driven, it is centrally about Lincoln’s speeches/writings as causal political-rhetorical force and is positioned within rhetorical/genre traditions—useful for understanding what the recent scholarly conversation is treating as “live” questions. OUP Academicbert C. Evans (ed.), Critical Insights: Abraham Lincoln (Salem Press)A curated, essay-based volume that explicitly includes a resources section with works by Lincoln, further reading, and a bibliography/additional resources—helpful as a guided on-ramp to the publication universe, though typically less deep than a full-length historiographical monograph. salempress.com+1ian R. Dirck (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Abraham Lincoln (Cambridge University Press, 2012). As a “companion,” it is designed to orient readers to major interpretive problems and scholarly lines of argument across Lincoln studies; while not confined to rhetoric, it is often one of the more efficient scholarship-mapping entry points in book form. Cambridge University Press & Assessment J. Einhorn, Abraham Lincoln the Orator: Penetrating the Lincoln Legend (1992). Primarily a rhetorical analysis of Lincoln’s speaking, but it is explicitly packaged as a reference-style scholarly book with apparatus (including bibliography), making it more useful for tracking prior work than many purely interpretive studies. Bloomsbury Publishing+1Waldo W. Braden, Abraham Lincoln, Public Speaker (LSU Press)A concise classic in rhetorical studies of Lincoln; valuable for the disciplinary framing and for orienting readers to how rhetorical scholars have treated Lincoln’s public address (though it is less explicitly a “survey of scholarship” than items ranked above). AmazonDouglas L. Wilson, Lincoln’s Sword: The Presidency and the Power of Words (2006). Strong on Lincoln as writer and on the craft of presidential language; useful for bibliographic branching, though the emphasis is more interpretive than historiographical. Abraham Lincoln Onli

https://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/?id=p088032 and https://www.amazon.com/Lincolns-Rise-Eloquence-Presidential-Nomination/dp/0252088034

D. Leigh Henson to ChatGPT (2-20-26): Identify and rank the increasingly significant subject-matter categories in Lincoln studies and cite examples of the most recent, relevant publications.

Response: Below is a trend-ranked map of increasingly significant subject-matter categories in Lincoln studies—i.e., areas that have become more central to research agendas, presses, prizes, conferences, and public debate over roughly the last decade, with recent (or still-driving) book examples.

1. Slavery, race, emancipation, and Black political thought about Lincoln

This has moved from an essential subfield to an organizing center of the whole enterprise: Lincoln is increasingly studied through slavery’s political economy, antislavery constitutionalism, wartime emancipation policy, and Black interpretations of Lincoln. Recent/significant examples: Knowing Him by Heart: African Americans on Abraham Lincoln (Fred Lee Hord & Matthew D. Norman, eds.; cloth 2022, paperback 2025)—a major intervention because it foregrounds African American voices about Lincoln as a primary archive. Don H. Doyle, The Age of Reconstruction: How Lincoln’s New Birth of Freedom Remade the World (Princeton, 2024) ties emancipation-era “new birth” language to global democratic/emancipation movements.

2. Democracy, constitutionalism, and civil liberties in a crisis-state

Lincoln scholarship is increasingly framed as political theory under stress: executive power, dissent, elections, parties, emergency governance, and constitutional development in wartime—often with explicit present-day resonances. Recent/significant examples: Allen C. Guelzo, Our Ancient Faith: Lincoln, Democracy, and the American Experiment (Knopf, 2024). Raymond J. McKoski, David Davis, Abraham Lincoln’s Favorite Judge (University of Illinois Press, 2025) highlights Lincoln’s legal-political ecosystem (courts, jurists, networks), not just “Lincoln alone.”

3. Political communication, rhetoric, and coalition-building as mechanisms (not ornament)

A noticeable shift: rhetoric is treated less as “great speeches” and more as political technology—how Lincoln built authority, legitimacy, party unity, and a moral argument that could travel across audiences. Recent/significant examples: D. Leigh Henson, Lincoln’s Rise to Eloquence: How He Gained the Presidential Nomination (University of Illinois Press, 2024). Jesse Derber, Abraham Lincoln, Statesman Historian (University of Illinois Press, 2024) reads Lincoln’s historical thinking as an engine of persuasion and governance. [Note: Lincoln's Rise to Eloquence at the University of Illinois Press: https://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/?id=p088032; Abraham Lincoln, Statesman Historian at the University of Illinois Press: https://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/?id=p088100. Also, both books are available at Amazon.com.]

4. Immigration, nativism, and “who counts as American”

This category has climbed quickly because it ties Lincoln studies to mass politics, party realignment, and civic membership—while also engaging live political disputes over immigration and national identity. Recent/significant examples: Harold Holzer, Brought Forth on This Continent: Abraham Lincoln and American Immigration (2024).

5. Law, legal culture, and the institutional “Lincoln world”

There’s rising emphasis on the institutional and professional infrastructures around Lincoln: lawyers, judges, patronage, administrative capacity, and the documentary/legal record as interpretive bedrock.

Recent/significant examples: David Davis, Abraham Lincoln’s Favorite Judge (McKoski, 2025) (also belongs in Category #2), emblematic of “ecosystem” biography. Ongoing documentary work makes legal/administrative analysis easier to do at scale (see #8)

6. Memory, commemoration, museums, and material culture (“Lincoln in the world”)

Public history isn’t just downstream of scholarship anymore; it increasingly sets questions scholars then answer: what gets collected, exhibited, vandalized, or mobilized politically. Recent/significant examples: Lincoln: A Life and Legacy that Defined a Nation (Christina Shutt & Ian Hunt; tied to the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum’s exhibit/book project; published 2025 per reporting). Library of Congress programming explicitly frames Lincoln through commemorative afterlives and collecting logics.

7. Assassination studies and political violence as analytical history (not just narrative)

Assassination work is increasingly treated as a window into: insurgency, Confederate networks, security failures, and postwar political reconstruction of legitimacy. Recent/significant examples: Scott Ellsworth, Midnight on the Potomac: The Last Year of the Civil War, the Lincoln Assassination, and the Rebirth of America (Dutton, July 2025).

8. Documentary editing, digitization, and computationally enabled Lincoln studies

A quiet but profound shift: scholarship is being re-architected by what is searchable, transcribed, and interoperable—expanding what can be asked (networks, provenance, variants, reception) and enabling more rigorous “Lincoln-in-context” work. Key enabling platform: The Papers of Abraham Lincoln (digital documentary editing project publishing images/transcriptions/annotations online).

9. Religion, scripture, and “moral reasoning” as lived practice

Still a durable category, but increasingly treated with more rigor (denominational ecosystems, popular religion, biblical literacy, political theology) rather than as a personality debate (“Was Lincoln a believer?”). Recent/significant examples: Joshua Zeitz, Lincoln’s God: How Faith Transformed a President and a Nation (Viking, 2023). Gordon Leidner, Abraham Lincoln and the Bible: A Complete Compendium (Southern Illinois University Press, 2023).

How to use this ranking for collection-building

If you’re shaping a Lincoln-studies collecting plan (academic or serious public library), the “most future-proof” coverage tends to come from categories 1–4 plus 8: they’re where new questions keep being generated, and where adjacent fields (slavery studies, political theory, immigration history, DH/documentary editing) continuously feed Lincoln scholarship.

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D. Leigh Henson to ChatGPT (2-21-26): Rank books from most to least informative that explain how Abraham Lincoln's growth as a writer prepared him for presidential discourse and ultimately for literary achievement, with special consideration for library acquisition and collection development.

Response: Below is a collection-development–oriented ranking (most → least informative) of books that explain how Lincoln’s growth as a writer (habits of composition, argument, revision, style) prepared him for presidential discourse and durable literary achievement. [Note: List limited to the top six.]

1) D. Leigh Henson, Lincoln’s Rise to Eloquence: How He Gained the Presidential Nomination (University of Illinois Press, 2024). Why it ranks #1: Most directly centered on development—how Lincoln’s pre-presidential writing and speaking capacities matured into the discourse that made him nationally viable (and then presidency-ready). Strong fit for libraries collecting Lincoln, rhetoric, and political communication at research depth. Acquisitions note: Best for academic libraries, serious public-library Lincoln collections, and any collection building around argumentation + nomination-era political discourse.

2) Fred Kaplan, Lincoln: The Biography of a Writer (2008). Why it ranks #2: A full-length synthesis explicitly framing Lincoln as a writer first, tying early formation and stylistic choices to later presidential prose and public persuasion. Acquisitions note: High-yield for both public and academic libraries because it’s readable while still conceptually focused on writing-as-statecraft.

3) Douglas L. Wilson, Lincoln’s Sword: The Presidency and the Power of Words (2006). Why it ranks #3: A major interpretive work on how Lincoln’s literary talent shaped presidential leadership, closely reading the relationship between wordcraft and executive action. Acquisitions note: Core for any library supporting Civil War presidency and rhetorical power in governance; pairs well with Kaplan (formation) and Henson (rise).

4) Ronald C. White Jr., The Eloquent President: A Portrait of Lincoln Through His Words (2005). Why it ranks #4: Tracks Lincoln’s rhetorical evolution by anchoring chapters in specific addresses/letters, making “growth” visible across a curated corpus. Acquisitions note: Excellent for general readers, undergraduates, and programming (book groups, lectures) because it’s structured around teachable texts.

5) Garry Wills, Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words that Remade America (1992). Why it ranks #5: Narrower than the top four (event-centered) but exceptionally strong on literary compression, conceptual reframing, and constitutional meaning as rhetorical achievement. Acquisitions note: Essential if your collection goals include “Lincoln as enduring writer” via a canonical case study.

6) David Zarefsky, Lincoln, Douglas, and Slavery: In the Crucible of Public Debate (1990). Why it ranks #6: Best single-volume rhetorical analysis of the debate setting that forced Lincoln to sharpen argument, framing, and audience adaptation—key pre-presidential preparation. Acquisitions note: Strong for academic libraries (rhetoric/comm studies/polisci). In public libraries, it’s a “depth add” for advanced readers.

https://www.amazon.com/Inventing-Lincoln-Approaches-His-Rhetoric/dp/1540745643

https://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/?id=p088032 and https://www.amazon.com/Lincolns-Rise-Eloquence-Presidential-Nomination/dp/0252088034

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About the Author

D. Leigh Henson was born (1942) and raised in Lincoln, Illinois--the first Lincoln namesake town (est. 1853). He graduated from Lincoln Community High School in 1960. When he attended Lincoln College his freshman year (1960--1961), he took a two-semester course on Abraham Lincoln taught by the renowned Lincoln historian James T. Hickey. Transferring to Illinois State Univesity, Henson earned a bachelor’s degree with an English major and history minor.

Henson taught English at Pekin Community High School for thirty years (1964--1994), and during that time he earned a master’s in American literature (1969) and Ph.D. in English studies (1982), both from Illinois State University. During his Pekin years, he taught freshman composition part time at Illinois Central College for several semesters.

In the mid-1980s he was a part-time business/technical writing consultant/trainer and freelance technical copywriter and editor. His clients included local engineering firms and Caterpillar Inc., where at its World Headquarters in Peoria he presented a series of eighteen, one-hour writing workshops. From 1990 to 1993 he was a founding copartner of Technical Publication Associates, Inc., in Morton, Illinois.

Beginning in 1994 he taught technical and marketing communication in the English Department of Missouri State University until becoming professor emeritus in 2006, teaching online there for two more years. His articles about the theory, practice, and teaching of writing have appeared in several academic journals. His article on the social-cultural history of the town of Lincoln as seen in William Maxwell’s writings and his article on Abraham Lincoln’s 1858 namesake town rally-speech were published in the Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society. His articles on Lincoln's rhetoric have also appeared in the Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association, The Lincoln Herald, and Lincoln Lore.

In 2007 he proposed the projects that anchored the 2008 Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Celebration of Lincoln, Illinois, and they are described in his book The Town Abraham Lincoln Warned: The Living Namesake Heritage of Lincoln, Illinois (2011): https://findinglincolnillinois.com/townabewarned.html.

In 2019 Henson received a Distinguished Alumni Award from the Department of English at Illinois State University. He is an elected member of the Society of Midland Authors. He is also a member of the Illinois Authors Library of Congress Center for the Book as well as the Abraham Lincoln Association and the Illinois State Historical Society.
 

D. Leigh Henson, Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=GCNotOcAAAAJ&hl=en

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keywords: Abraham Lincoln, US history, Lincoln oratory, rhetoric, classical rhetoric, political rhetoric, political discourse, genre, moral argumentation, audience analysis, discourse analysis