David Herbert Donald (October 1, 1920 – May 17, 2009) was an American historian, best known for his acclaimed 1995 biography of Abraham Lincoln. Majoring in history and sociology, Donald earned his bachelor degree from Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi.[1] He earned his PhD in 1946[1] under the eminent, leading Lincoln scholar, James G. Randall at the University of Illinois. Randall as a mentor had a big influence on Donald's life and career, and encouraged his protégé to write his dissertation on Lincoln's law partner, William Herndon. The dissertation eventually became his first book, Lincoln's Herndon, published in 1948.[1][2] After graduating, he taught at Columbia University, Johns Hopkins and, from 1973, Harvard University. He also taught at Smith College, the University of North Wales, Princeton University, University College London and served as Harmsworth Professor of American History at Oxford University. At Johns Hopkins, Columbia, and Harvard he trained dozens of graduate students including Jean H. Baker, William J. Cooper, Jr., Michael Holt, Irwin Unger, and Ari Hoogenboom. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography twice, in 1961 for Charles Sumner and the Coming of the Civil War and 1988 for Look Homeward: A Life of Thomas Wolfe, several honorary degrees, and served as president of the Southern Historical Association. Donald also served on the editorial board for the Papers of Abraham Lincoln.[3] David H. Donald was the Charles Warren Professor of American History (emeritus from 1991) at Harvard University. He wrote over thirty books, including well received biographies of Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Wolfe and Charles Sumner. He specialized in the Civil War and Reconstruction periods, and in the history of the South. In his introduction, Carl Sandburg, the poet and Lincoln biographer, hailed Donald's book as the answer to scholars' prayers: “When is someone going to do the life of Bill Herndon. Isn't it about time? Now the question is out.” David M. Potter, whose own credentials as a Lincoln scholar gave his words authority, said Donald's biography of Charles Sumner portrayed, "Sumner as a man with acute psychological inadequacies” and exposed Sumner's "facade of pompous rectitude." Donald's evenhanded approach to Sumner, Potter concluded, was a model for biographers working with a difficult subject. "If it does not make Sumner attractive [the book] certainly makes him understandable."[4] Donald argues that the American Civil War was a needless war caused or hastened by the fanaticism of people like Charles Sumner; he admires Abraham Lincoln. Books Lincoln's Herndon (1948) Divided We Fought: A Pictorial History of the War, 1861—1865 (1952) Editor, Inside Lincoln's Cabinet: The Civil War Diaries of Salmon P. Chase. (1954) Lincoln Reconsidered: Essays on the Civil War Era (1947, 2nd edition 1961) (ISBN 0-679-72310-2) Editor, Why the North Won the Civil War (1962) (ISBN 0-02-031660-7) Civil War and Reconstruction (1961; 2001) (ISBN 0-393-97427-8), 2001 edition with Jean H. Baker & Michael F. Holt; 1961 edition with James G. Randall. Charles Sumner and the Coming of the Civil War (1960), prize-winning scholarly biography to 1860; Charles Sumner and the Rights of Man (1970), biography from 1861. Politics of Reconstruction, 1863-—1867 (1965) Look Homeward: A Life of Thomas Wolfe, Harvard University Press (2003) (ISBN 0-674-00869-3) Lincoln (1996) ISBN 0-684-80846-3 Lincoln at Home: Two Glimpses of Abraham Lincoln's Domestic Life (1999) ISBN 978-0-912308-77-7 We Are Lincoln Men: Abraham Lincoln and His Friends (2003) (ISBN 0-7432-5468-6) Editor with Aida DiPace Donald, Diary of Charles Francis Adams, Volumes 1 and 2, January 1820 - September 1829, Harvard University Press. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Herbert_Donald

• published: 19 Feb 2015
• views: 217