Long Remembered: Lincoln and His Five Versions of the Gettysburg Address

For the first time in history, all five of Abraham Lincoln’s handwritten versions of the Gettysburg Address are presented in full color and at full size, in a new collector’s-edition book by Levenger Press.

Long Remembered: Lincoln and His Five Versions of the Gettysburg Address  brings together the work of four Lincoln scholars and a curated selection of photographs, maps, telegrams and letters from the  extensive Lincoln collections of the Library of Congress.

The Library of Congress was Levenger’s publishing partner for the book, a coffee-table-size, linen-bound hardcover that incorporates archival paper and a Smythe-sewn binding for longevity.

Publication of “Long Remembered” was timed to coincide with the sesquicentennial of the start of the Civil War. It brings in the scholarship of three former Library of Congress librarians, Lloyd A. Dunlap, David C. Mearns and John R. Sellers.

Added to their commentary is new narrative by Douglas L. Wilson,  the co-director of the Lincoln Studies Center in Illinois.

The book will appeal to both scholars and readers with a more general interest in Lincoln and the Civil War. “All the myths are debunked—and yet, there remain many mysteries surrounding the Gettysburg Address.” says Ralph Eubanks, director of publishing at the Library of Congress. “No one to this day, for example, knows exactly what Lincoln read from on the dais at Gettysburg on November 19, 1863.”

The Nicolay copy, the first version, is presented unbound, folded as Lincoln did

Levenger worked with the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, Cornell University, and the White House Historical Association to obtain full-color facsimiles of the version of the Gettysburg Address that each institution holds. The Library of Congress owns what are known as the Nicolay and Hay versions, the names referring to Lincoln’s private secretaries. In addition to being bound in the book, these two versions are reproduced as loose facsimiles, folded as Lincoln did. They are the closest that Americans can come to holding in their hands what Lincoln held in his when he delivered his famous remarks.

Excerpts of Long Remembered feature portion of each scholar’s narrative. The book is available exclusively through Levenger.

Mim Harrison