William Henry Herndon (December 25, 1818 – March 18, 1891) was an American lawyer and politician who was a law partner and biographer of President Abraham Lincoln. He was an early member of the new Republican Party and was elected mayor of Springfield, Illinois.

Herndon and Jesse W. Weik wrote the book Herndon's Lincoln: The True Story of a Great Life, published in 1889.

Early life

thumb|left|200px|Herndon's birthplace in Greensburg

Herndon was born the first child of Archer G. Herndon and his wife Rebecca (Day) Johnson, on December 25, 1818, in Greensburg, Kentucky. The family of three moved to Illinois in 1820 and lived for a year in Madison County, Illinois, where Archer and Rebecca had another child. By the spring of 1821 the family was living in Sangamon County. When William was five, the family settled in the German Prairie settlement located five miles northeast of Springfield. Two more children were born to the family there.

William, known as "Billy" at the time, worked for his father at the Indian Queen hotel before he attended college. It was one of the first hotels in Springfield.

Marriage and children

On March 26, 1840, Herndon married Mary J. Maxcy in Sangamon County. Mary's family were also early Illinois settlers; her grandfather and step-grandmother arrived in 1827 and Mary's immediate family arrived in 1834. Mary was born in Kentucky on July 27, 1822, to Maria Cook Maxcy and James Maxcy, a veteran of the War of 1812. James' father, Revolutionary War veteran Joel Maxcy, arrived in Sangamon County in 1827 with his second wife and died the following month. Herndon felt that the only way to rid the country of slavery was "through bloody revolution."

During political campaigns, Herndon made strong points that tended to alienate members of the Republican Party and swing voters. Thus, for the 1860 presidential campaign, Herndon was not involved in direct political activities. However, he executed an important task during that campaign by conducting opposition research in the Illinois State Library to be used against Stephen A. Douglas in the 1860 presidential race. Finally, when Lincoln balked at voting for himself, Herndon persuaded him to do so.

Relationship with the Lincoln family

Through the whole of his partnership and friendship with Lincoln he was never invited to Lincoln's home for dinner due to his contentious relationship with Mary Todd Lincoln. He also admitted that his frustration with Lincoln's overly permissive parenting of his two younger sons, Willie and Tad, whom he recalled as undisciplined and disruptive brats in the law offices, caused some harsh words during their partnership.

His final meeting with Lincoln occurred in 1862 when he visited Washington, D.C. Lincoln received him amicably, but he was not invited into the family's private quarters in the White House due to the enmity with Mary Lincoln.

Biography

Initial research

Following Lincoln's assassination, Herndon began to collect stories of Lincoln's life from those who knew him. Herndon aspired to write a faithful portrait of his friend and law partner, based on his own observations and on hundreds of letters and interviews he had compiled for the purpose. He was determined to present Lincoln as a man, rather than a saint, and to reveal things that the prevailing Victorian era conventions said should be left out of the biography of a great national hero.

In particular, Herndon said of Lincoln's "official" biographers, John Nicolay and John Hay: "They are aiming, first, to do a superb piece of literary work; second, to make the story with the classes as against the masses." He felt that this would represent the "real Lincoln about as well as does a wax figure in the museum."

Shared research information

Ward Hill Lamon, who was then collaborating with a ghostwriter on a Lincoln biography, approached him for assistance. Herndon provided copies of and access to his original correspondences with Lincoln acquaintances and a written agreement not to publish his own biography of Lincoln for at least ten years in exchange for $2,000 cash and an agreement to receive up to $2,000 of the book's royalties.

Collaboration with Jesse Weik

thumb|left|200px|An older William Herndon.

A young man named Jesse W. Weik who had corresponded with Herndon became a good friend. They then collaborated on the biography of Lincoln's life. Weik performed additional research in the 1880s, picking up any new information since Herndon's original research, and rewrote much of Herndon's draft.

Herndon's Lincoln: The True Story of a Great Life, the result of their collaborations, appeared in a three-volume edition published by Belford, Clarke & Company in 1889. The majority of the actual writing was done by Weik, who received full credit as co-author. The book received mixed reviews due to the inclusion of such unvarnished elements as Lincoln's mother's illegitimacy (and even the rumors of Lincoln's own), its sometimes viciously negative portrayal of Herndon's longtime enemy Mary Todd Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln's suicidal depression, and other decidedly less-than-hagiographic accounts of the martyred president who was quickly becoming the most venerated and romanticized figure in American history. Weik kept the notes gathered during the writing of the book and wrote a follow-up book The Real Lincoln: A Portrait, which included Weik's personal insights and some embarrassing details for Herndon.

Herndon's son William, or Willie, died the same day as his father. Herndon died of la grippe (influenza) and his son Willie had (la grippe that turned into) pneumonia. Herndon's wife Anna died less than two years later on January 7, 1893.

Portrayal

Herndon was portrayed in many films for decades, including:

  • Jason Robards, Sr. in the 1930 film Abraham Lincoln
  • Alan Baxter in the 1940 biographical film Abe Lincoln in Illinois
  • Jeffrey DeMunn in the 1988 (TV mini-series) Lincoln
  • Keith Carradine in the 1992 movie Lincoln
  • Michael Maize in the 2013 film Saving Lincoln
  • Bob Gunton in the 2017 film The Gettysburg Address

See also

  • Abraham Lincoln's patent

Notes

References

Bibliography

  • online

Further reading

  • R. Vincent Enlow, "The Abraham Lincoln Genesis Cover-up: The Censored Origins of an Illustrious Ancestor," relating Herndon's accounts
  • Roy P. Basler, ed. (1953) Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, including the 15 February 1848 letter from Lincoln to Herndon.
  • Letters:

:(1) William H. Herndon to Jesse W. Weik, Jan. 16, 1886, Herndon-Weik Collection, Library of Congress

:(2) Mary Todd Lincoln to David Davis, Mar. 6, [1867], "Mary Todd Lincoln: Her Life and Letters," ed. Justin G. Turner and Linda Leavitt Turner (1972)