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 The estate of the late David Herbert Donald, a Pulitzer
prize-winning author and world-renowned historian, has donated
hundreds of his books on Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War era to
the ALPLM. These include six editions of Donald's Lincoln titles and
about 30 Civil War, slavery and history titles that the ALPLM
previously did not have in its collections.
"The fact that Harvard's best historian would want his books to
come to the ALPLM is indeed a pretty big honor," said James
Cornelius, Lincoln curator. "Acquaintances sent him new books that
were barely ever publicized, so we are fortunate to add those as
well, alongside personally inscribed copies from his more famous
friends."
The ALPLM gave Donald its first and, to date, only lifetime
achievement award in 2005. After receiving it, he allowed the ALPLM
to name it after him, so the David Herbert Donald Lifetime
Achievement Award is a legacy tribute to his stature in the field.
David Herbert Donald was born in Goodman, Miss. After graduating
from Millsaps College in Jackson, Miss., he went on to get his
master's degree and later his doctorate in history from the
University of Illinois, where he studied under famed Civil War
scholar James G. Randall.
Randall was the first academic Lincoln expert in the United
States, and Donald was the greatest student Randall ever taught.
Randall and his wife, Ruth, informally adopted Donald, and over the
years he collected nearly 100 books from the Randall estate. These,
along with Randall's original copy of his 1911 dissertation from the
University of Chicago, are now held at the ALPLM. Between these two
men and their possessions, about 99 years of Lincoln studies in
Illinois are now covered at the ALPLM.
A small exhibit of some Donald and Randall books, many of them
personally inscribed, goes on display in the presidential library's
display cases on Tuesday.
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Donald won two Pulitzer Prizes during his storied writing career.
"Charles Sumner and the Coming of the Civil War" won in 1961, and
"Look Homeward: A Life of Thomas Wolfe" won in 1988. He also wrote
the best-seller "Lincoln" in 1995, a book many consider one of the
top Lincoln biographies ever written. This Lincoln volume was
translated into German, Korean and Burmese, and another book of
Donald's was translated into Italian. The ALPLM now possesses all of
these editions.
Donald's academic career included tenures at Columbia, Smith
College, Princeton and Johns Hopkins. In 1973 he joined the history
department at Harvard University, where he held the post of Charles
Warren Professor of American History until he retired in 1991.
He died in 2009 at the age of 88.
The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in
Springfield contains more than 13 million historical artifacts and
documents about all aspects of Illinois history, including a
52,000-item Abraham Lincoln collection. For more information, visit
www.presidentlincoln.org.
[Text from
Abraham
Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum
file received from the
Illinois Historic
Preservation Agency]
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