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Masur (history, Northwestern Univ.) has resurrected a remarkable book that enjoyed much success when it was first published in 1942, then went out of print and remained virtually unknown except to assiduous Lincoln scholars and students of race in America. Washington's (1880-1964) book is a collage of oral histories, memoir, folklore, public documents, photographs, and other sources recalling life with Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln, as related by African Americans. Washington initially described his work as on "the colored side of Lincoln," and it effectively provides such perspective and interest. The school teacher and amateur historian weaves such accounts to draw his own large canvas of the Lincolns in constant interaction with the African American community in Washington, DC; so much so that he asserts that through these personal contacts, they allowed Lincoln to understand and appreciate individual interests as his own. Masur provides an essential introduction to Washington's world in the nation's capital and to his research methodology in creating the original book. -VERDICT Having this work back in print will allow readers to understand sides of Lincoln that informed his thinking about race and will help demystify the mythical Lincoln.--Randall M. Miller, St. Joseph's Univ., Philadelphia © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Choice
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.

In 1942, two decades before Benjamin Quarles addressed the complexities and ambiguities of Abraham Lincoln's relations with African Americans in Lincoln and the Negro (1962), E.P. Dutton published John E. Washington's They Knew Lincoln. Washington, a child of slaves, was a dentist, high school teacher, and an amateur historian and collector of Lincolniana. Because Washington's book sold out quickly and was never reprinted, 21st-century readers will applaud Masur's heroic efforts in painstakingly researching Washington's life and unearthing the publishing history of his obscure book, which Carl Sandburg termed "an important human narrative." Washington's accomplishment lay in documenting Lincoln's relationship to everyday African Americans, including domestic workers whom the Lincolns knew in Illinois and Washington, DC. Masur (Northwestern) correctly describes Washington's text as "part memoir, part history, part argument for the historical significance of common people." Washington drew on folk stories obtained from elderly black persons to document those who had intersected with and influenced the Lincolns, including William de Fleurville, Lincoln's barber; William Slade, Lincoln's messenger; and Elizabeth Keckly, Mary Lincoln's dressmaker. A broad range of readers will consider this reprint an invaluable addition to Lincoln scholarship and to the dignity and possibility of African American history. Summing Up: Essential. All public and academic levels/libraries. --John David Smith, University of North Carolina at Charlotte