Becoming Abraham Lincoln

Becoming Abraham Lincoln: The Coming of Age of Our Greatest President tells the true story of how this great American hero grew up and became a man. The story begins with Lincoln’s cousin describing the murder of Abe’s grandfather in 1782 by the Wabash Indians in the Kentucky wilderness. It ends as Lincoln turns twenty-five, downcast and debt-ridden after the failure of his first business venture, as he earns his first election victory to take his seat in the Illinois State Legislature.

This vivid, authentic account of Abraham Lincoln in his formative years is told by those who were there—his friends and family. Supported by rigorous research, Becoming Abraham Lincoln is an authentic account of Lincoln’s childhood and adolescence in the actual words of those who knew him best. We see Lincoln as he was, according to law partner Billy Herndon, “just as he lived, breathed, ate and laughed in this world.” The historic eyewitness testimony in these pages forms a rich, detailed narrative unmatched in all Lincoln literature.

Richard Kigel is a veteran New York City teacher. He is the author of On the Wings of the Wind: The Untold Story of History's First Flight and Heav'nly Tidings from the Afric Muse: The Grace and Genius of Phillis Wheatley. He lives in Staten Island, New York.

“Richard Kigel has provided an irresistible and inspiring saga of Lincoln’s rise from obscurity to the threshold of greatness. In recalling this eternally enchanting and quintessentially American story, the book reminds us of the enduring promise of opportunity in a democratic society.”
—Harold Holzer, leading Lincoln scholar and co-chair of the U.S. Lincoln Bicentennial Commission