Holzer Harold biography
Date of birth : 1949-02-05
Date of death : -
Birthplace : New York, United States
Nationality : American
Category : Famous Figures
Last modified : 2010-06-07
Credited as : Author and Historian, Abraham Lincoln biography, Barack Obama
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Sidelights
Harold Holzer is a historian acknowledged as one of the foremost experts on Abraham Lincoln. He has written and edited some thirty books on the former U.S. president, has frequently appeared on television programs concerning Lincoln, and has been curator of various Lincoln museum exhibits. His publications include writings on Lincoln's speeches, his handwriting, and Lincoln family photographs, as well as more generalized historical accounts. Lincoln has been written about extensively since his lifetime and on into the present day. In an interview for the Simon & Schuster Web site, Holzer commented that despite all that has been written about the late president, there is room for more: "Each generation truly requires fresh interpretations of basic stories, which is why every year brings a new bookshelf of reanalysis of so many aspects of the Lincoln story. This tradition is not meant solely to enrich authors, but to reflect shifting viewpoints on issues such as race, family, militarization, presidential power, and a host of other subjects we perennially reconsider in our society. The truly amazing thing is that Lincoln continues to remain such an exemplary part of our evolving national story--ever relevant, ever worthy of reconsideration."
Holzer's first publication was The Lincoln Image: Abraham Lincoln and the Popular Print, written with Gabor S. Boritt and Mark E. Neely, Jr., and published in 1984 as a companion to their exhibit of Lincoln engravings and lithographs. It examines the influence of printed images on Abraham Lincoln's presidential career and documents how depictions of Lincoln changed through the years. Christian Science Monitor reviewer Sonia W. Thomas stated that more "than 100 black and white photos and engravings from the exhibit, some reprinted for the first time, are to be found in the book." Critics reacted favorably to The Lincoln Image, praising both the illustrations and the text.
Marcus Cutcliffe, writing in the Washington Post Book World, was especially impressed by the book's "analysis at various levels of the business and art of image-making." Cutcliffe additionally remarked that the prime value of The Lincoln Image may lie "in the excellent documentation of a compelling mystery: what did Abraham Lincoln really look like in his years of fame? Which of the sundry different portrayals is the best?" Holzer, Boritt, and Neely have written an "interesting and meticulously researched book," concluded Thomas, and anyone "who has puzzled over the oddities and inaccuracies of 19th-century prints can better understand the work of that period through this volume."
Continuing with the Lincoln theme, Holzer teamed with Mario M. Cuomo, then the governor of New York, to produce Lincoln on Democracy, a "volume of 140 speeches, letters and fragments ... [that] succeeds in highlighting most of the 16th President's ideas," described Herbert Mitgang in the New York Times. The book was written in response to demands for a Polish translation of Lincoln's work by a group of visiting educators. When he discovered that Lincoln's words had been unavailable in Poland for a number of years, Cuomo promised to rectify the situation, and work on Lincoln on Democracy was started soon after, originally written in English and then translated into Polish. The book draws together Lincoln's ideas and writings about democracy, and was favorably received by critics. Mitgang called it "a valuable addition to the long shelf of Lincolniana."
Several of Holzer's works strive to paint a portrait of Lincoln based on the reactions and interactions the president had with those around him. In The Lincoln Mailbag: America Writes to the President, 1861-1865, Holzer looks at the volume of letters and correspondence that Americans sent to the president during the years of the Civil War. Rather than focusing on letters that Lincoln was likely to have read, this collection showcases the type of day-to-day correspondence that was processed and often discarded by Lincoln's secretaries and assistants. They include requests for money and favors, death threats, invitations to speak, proposals for new weapons, and material from obscure relatives and complete unknowns seeking to somehow influence the president. The letters "make for absolutely fascinating reading," remarked Stephen G. Weisner in Library Journal. Booklist reviewer Gilbert Taylor concluded that "this browsable collection of epistles and replies enriches the body of Lincolniana."
Lincoln as I Knew Him: Gossip, Tributes, and Revelations from His Best Friends and Worst Enemies contains a collection of reminiscences, letters, diaries, and other recollections from Lincoln's associates. With these materials, Holzer seeks to emphasize the personal side of Lincoln, often neglected in favor of his stature as president or in terms of his rags-to-riches success story. Holzer derives his material from a variety of sources, including personal and political friends, family members, fellow lawyers, military personnel, journalists, foreign observers, African Americans, authors, and others. Among those who provide inside glimpses of Lincoln the man are a woman who rejected his offer of courtship; famed generals Ulysses S. Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman; and Elizabeth Keckley, Mary Todd Lincoln's dressmaker and a former slave. The Lincoln that Holzer illuminates "emerges as a man of humor, political savvy, humility, and sometimes bad temper and ill grace," noted Randall M. Miller in Library Journal. Rebecca L. Wells, writing in School Library Journal, concluded: "Overall, this collection is a rewarding read as it introduces Lincoln at various stages of his life."
In Lincoln Seen and Heard, Holzer "succeeds in uniting Lincoln studies and the rhetoric of the image through his wide-ranging account of the role of portraits, prints, caricatures, and engravings in antebellum politics, and his exploration of the role of the 'graphic arts' in shaping Lincoln's public image," observed Michael Pfau in Argumentation and Advocacy. In addition, Holzer reprints a number of Lincoln's public addresses and provides a close analysis of Lincoln's presidential speeches. Holzer suggests that contemporary prints, newspaper illustrations, and related illustrations had a profound effect on the formation of Lincoln's public image and to shaping public opinion about the presidency, the Civil War, slavery, and other topics of the day. "Holzer provides a fascinating analysis of the art of political image making in its infancy while tracing the roots of the Lincoln image as they spread through the partisan, sectional, and ideological soil of the Civil War," commented Kenneth J. Winkle in Presidential Studies Quarterly.
Lincoln at Cooper Union: The Speech That Made Abraham Lincoln President contains Holzer's analysis of Lincoln's February 1860 speech at Cooper Union in New York. In a speech that lasted for more than an hour, delivered to a number of Republican Party leaders, Lincoln made the speech that secured the presidency, Holzer asserts. Lincoln's speech at Cooper Union "masterfully explained" his "position against the spread of slavery," noted Ron Faucheux in Campaigns & Elections. Holzer recounts in detail the events leading up to and after the speech, including the initial speaking offer, the large honorarium Lincoln received (200 dollars, a grand sum at the time), the physical environment in which the speech was delivered, Lincoln's appearance and its effect on his audience, and his introduction by William Cullen Bryant. "Holzer's research is prodigious," commented a Kirkus Reviews contributor, who concluded that the book is "sometimes more laudatory than analytical--but the enthusiasm is infectious." Booklist reviewer Gilbert Taylor called the book "an excellent contribution to Lincolnalia."
Lincoln in the Times: The Life of Abraham Lincoln as Originally Reported in the "New York Times," edited by Holzer and David Herbert Donald, contains newspaper accounts, eyewitness reports, journalist's stories, and other firsthand material on Lincoln as it appeared in the New York Times of the day. The New York Times was then a local paper, not the country's newspaper of record, and the material contained in the book is therefore slanted toward a local interest. The articles are written in the style of the day, with copious references to Lincoln's appearance, off-the-cuff remarks, and the surroundings in which he operated. Holzer recounts how the New York Times initially thought Lincoln had no chance to win a presidential nomination. Though the paper was critical of Lincoln and his policies, it also printed the complete text of the Emancipation Proclamation and the Gettysburg Address, and mourned the president's passing with dignity and grace. Holzer and Donald include many explanatory annotations to help readers interpret the material and place it in its proper context. Taylor, in another Booklist review, commented that the book "revives a contemporary, what's-next sense to the Civil War that formal histories tend to expunge." A Publishers Weekly reviewer remarked that "Lincoln buffs will enjoy going back in time with this delightfully antiquarian anthology."
In addition to his many publications on Lincoln, Holzer continued to publish other books pertaining to the Civil War era. He edited State of the Union: New York and the Civil War, which had its origins in a symposium on the role played by the state of New York during the Civil War. New York was the most heavily populated state during the Civil War and was crucial to a Northern victory. It was also one of the most ethnically diverse areas at that time. The book contains essays examining, among other things, the parts played by women, recent immigrants from Europe, Native Americans, and African Americans in the Civil War. It also examines Abraham Lincoln's struggle to win and keep the support of this important state. "The book adds needed perspectives to traditional Civil War history," commented Mark Welter in a review for History Teacher. Among Holzer's other publications on subjects other than Lincoln are Prang's Civil War Pictures: The Complete Battle Chromos of Louis Prang with the Full "Descriptive Texts" and Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory: The Civil War in Art.
The bicentennial of Lincoln's birth, celebrated in 2009, inspired several new publications about Lincoln. The Lincoln Anthology: Great Writers on His Life and Legacy from 1860 to Now collects writings from more than one hundred people about Lincoln. They include his contemporaries, such as the poet Walt Whitman, and modern figures, including U.S. President Barack Obama. For the most part, the pieces included are not from biographies or writings on history, but are instead drawn from poetry, drama, and fiction. The selections are arranged chronologically, which "allows readers to follow the evolution of the Lincoln legend punctuated by hyperbole and shrouded in mythology," noted John David Smith in a review for the Raleigh News & Observer Online. Holzer provides an introduction to each selection, explaining its place in history and what Lincoln's reputation was like at that time. Gilbert Taylor, a reviewer for Booklist, found that the work included "faithfully represents the range of feelings and meanings" that writers have expressed about Lincoln and his life.
Lincoln's bicentennial coincided with the election of Barack Obama, the first African American president of the United States. Many commentators drew parallels between Lincoln and Obama: both were relatively obscure lawyers from Illinois who quickly rose to high office; both earned a reputation as great orators; both took office at a particularly difficult time in the nation's history. Obama himself frequently quoted Lincoln and drew on the former president's life and work for inspiration. As the first African American president, he noted that his ascent to the presidency was an important step that Lincoln had begun with the Emancipation Proclamation. Holzer felt that the comparisons of Obama to Lincoln were appropriate. In an interview for the Library of America Web site, conducted by Rich Kelley, he stated: "Barack Obama's triumph signals the completion of the 'unfinished work' of American democracy that Abraham Lincoln lamented at Gettysburg. What makes this astonishing historical and political miracle more resonant for me is that Mr. Obama clearly cherishes Lincoln and in his frequent and earnest citation of his greatest messages has radically redirected Lincoln memory through adaptation--and emulation--of Lincoln's words and style. How extraordinary to have a new President who sees the past as a pathway to illuminate the future--and has made the Lincoln Bicentennial into a national preoccupation instead of an obligation."
Lincoln and Obama were also compared on the way they handled the president-elect period at difficult time in the nation's history. Holzer offers an in-depth look at Lincoln's transition from candidate to president in his book Lincoln President-elect: Abraham Lincoln and the Great Secession Winter 1860-1861. Lincoln was elected at a time when the southern states were on the brink of secession. At times, his behavior during the months between his election and presidency has been characterized as dawdling and inefficient. Holzer's book takes a different view, and shows Lincoln as someone who dealt very well with huge challenges, including threats of assassination and a staggering national crisis. Chandra Manning, a reviewer for the Washington Post Book World, felt that Holzer possibly overstated Lincoln's brilliance during the president-elect period but said that "as they are swept up in this magnificently told story, readers may rethink how Lincoln handled the eve of the nation's greatest crisis." A Kirkus Reviews commentator said the book "brings this tense interlude to vivid life."
In an interview with Christopher Childers for Civil War Book Review, Holzer--who has no formal training as a historian--recalled that his lifelong interest in Lincoln began with a school assignment: "When I was in the fifth grade in New York City, ... I was one of a class that was assigned to pick a name out of our teacher's hat and write a one or two page biographical composition about a particular hero's life. We lined up and I picked Abraham Lincoln. The person behind me, my friend Dennis, picked Genghis Khan and he went on to be a rock and roll promoter, so you never know how these things will turn out."
Explaining his interest in Lincoln and the Civil War era, and its relevance to today, Holzer once told CA: "I have been active in contemporary politics, specializing in the image-shaping world of media, press relations, and political advertising, in citywide and statewide contests. Using my experience in this field, I have tried to show readers how--for better or for worse--political images were shaped a century ago. In many ways, the incredible changes over the past 125 years are both fabulous and frightening. By understanding and appreciating, however, that nineteenth-century voters seemed always to demand substance of their candidates, we might yet become more demanding of our twentieth-century candidates. And by learning the elements--and limits--of image making then, we can be on guard to prevent the domination of politics by image-making now. "
AWARDS
CAREER
Writer, historian, lecturer, and exhibit organizer. Manhattan Tribune, New York, NY, editor, 1969-73; New York City Department of Civic Affairs, New York, director of special projects, 1973-75; press secretary to Representative Bella S. Abzug, 1975-77; speechwriter for New York Mayor Abraham D. Beame, 1977; press secretary to New York mayoral candidates Bella S. Abzug and Mario M. Cuomo, 1977; freelance public relations consultant, 1977-78; WNET-TV, New York, publicity manager, 1978-79, director of promotion, 1979, director of creative services and public information, 1980-84; Jacob Javits Convention Center of New York, vice president for public affairs, 1984-85; New York State Urban Development Corporation, vice president for public affairs and special counselor to director of state economic development, 1985-92; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, chief communications officer, 1992-96, vice president, 1996-2005, senior vice president for external affairs, 2005--. Consulting public relations advisor to National Women's Conference, 1976; commissioner of New York State Board for Historic Preservation, 1984--; director of New York State Lincoln on Democracy Project, 1989--; member of New York State Council for the Humanities, 1991--; United States Lincoln Bicentennial Commission, cochair, 2001. Pace University, adjunct professor of history, 1992. Organizer and curator of museum exhibitions, including Lincoln from Life, 1999; guest historian to New York Historical Society exhibition "Lincoln and New York," 2009. Assisted in planning and organizing numerous programs and celebrations in honor of Lincoln's 200th birthday, 2009. Frequent guest on television programs, including the Today Show, Charlie Rose Show, News Hour with Jim Lehrer, and CBS Sunday Morning, and on networks such as the History Channel, Cable- Satellite Public Affairs Network, Consumer News and Business Channel, Public Broadcasting Service, National Broadcasting Company, Columbia Broadcasting System, and Arts and Entertainment Network.
WRITINGS
NONFICTION; WITH GABOR S. BORITT AND MARK E. NEELY, JR.
* The Lincoln Image: Abraham Lincoln and the Popular Print, Scribner (New York, NY), 1984, University of Illinois Press (Urbana, IL), 2001.
* Changing "The Lincoln Image" (monograph), Louis A. Warren Lincoln Library and Museum (Fort Wayne, IN), 1985.
* The Confederate Image: Prints of the Lost Cause, University of North Carolina Press (Chapel Hill, NC), 1987.
NONFICTION; EDITOR
* Books at Brown: Lincoln and Lincolniana, John Hay Library, Brown University (Providence, RI), 1985.
* (And compiler) Dear Mr. Lincoln: Letters to the President, Addison-Wesley (Reading, MA), 1993.
* The Civil War Era, two volumes, Cobblestone (Peterborough, NH), 1996.
* The Lincoln Mailbag: America Writes to the President, 1861-1865, Southern Illinois University Press (Carbondale, IL), 1998.
* (With John Y. Simon and William D. Pederson) The Lincoln Forum: Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg, and the Civil War, Savas Publishing Company (Mason City, IA), 1999.
* Lincoln as I Knew Him: Gossip, Tributes, and Revelations from His Best Friends and Worst Enemies, Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill (Chapel Hill, NC), 1999.
* (And compiler) Abraham Lincoln, the Writer: A Treasury of His Greatest Speeches and Letters (for young people), Boyds Mills Press (Honesdale, PA), 2000.
* (With John Y. Simon) The Lincoln Forum: Rediscovering Abraham Lincoln, Fordham University Press (New York, NY), 2002.
* (With David Herbert Donald) Lincoln in the Times: The Life of Abraham Lincoln as Originally Reported in the "New York Times," St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 2005.
* (With Tim Mulligan) The Battle of Hampton Roads: New Perspectives on the USS Monitor and CSS Virginia, Fordham University Press (New York, NY), 2006.
* Lincoln's White House Secretary: The Adventurous Life of William O. Stoddard, Southern Illinois University Press (Carbondale, IL), 2007.
* (With Sara Vaughn Gabbard) Lincoln and Freedom: Slavery, Emancipation, and the Thirteenth Amendment, Southern Illinois University Press (Carbondale, IL), 2007.
* (With John Y. Simon and Dawn Vogel) Lincoln Revisited: New Insights from the Lincoln Forum, Fordham University Press (New York, NY), 2007.
* (And annotator) Lincoln in His Own Words, Weider History Group (Leesburg, VA), 2008.
* The Lincoln Anthology: Great Writers on His Life and Legacy from 1860 to Now, Library of America (New York, NY), 2008.
* (With Edward Steers, Jr.) The Lincoln Assassination Conspirators: Their Confinement and Execution, as Recorded in the Letterbook of John Frederick Hartranft, Louisiana State University Press (Baton Rouge, LA), 2009.
* (With Joshua Wolf Shenk) In Lincoln's Hand: His Original Manuscripts, Bantam Dell (New York, NY), 2009.
NONFICTION; EDITOR; AUTHOR OF INTRODUCTION
* (With Mario M. Cuomo) Lincoln on Democracy, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1990, revised edition, with new preface by Mario M. Cuomo and Harold Holzer, Fordham University Press (New York, NY), 2004.
* The Lincoln-Douglas Debates: The First Complete, Unexpurgated Text, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1993.
* Washington and Lincoln Portrayed: National Icons in Popular Prints, McFarland (Jefferson, NC), 1993.
* (With Hans L. Trefousse) The Union Preserved: A Guide to Civil War Records in the New York State Archives, compiled by Daniel Lorello, foreword by James M. McPherson, Fordham University Press and New York State Archives Partnership Trust (New York, NY), 1999.
* Prang's Civil War Pictures: The Complete Battle Chromos of Luis Prang with the Full "Descriptive Texts," Fordham University Press (New York, NY), 2001.
* State of the Union: New York and the Civil War, introduction by Jeff Shaara, Fordham University Press and New York State Archives Partnership Trust (New York, NY), 2002.
* Abraham Lincoln Portrayed in the Collections of the Indiana Historical Society, Indiana Historical Society Press (Indianapolis, IN), 2006.
NONFICTION; WITH MARK E. NEELY, JR.
* The Lincoln Family Album, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1990, reprinted, Southern Illinois University Press (Carbondale, IL), 2006.
* Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory: The Civil War in Art, Orion Books (New York, NY), 1993.
* The Union Image: Popular Prints of the Civil War North, University of North Carolina Press (Chapel Hill, NC), 2000.
NONFICTION
* Witness to War: The Civil War, 1861-1865, Berkley (New York, NY), 1996.
* Lincoln Seen and Heard, University Press of Kansas (Lawrence, KS), 2000.
* The President Is Shot! The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, Boyds Mills Press (Honesdale, PA), 2004.
* Lincoln at Cooper Union: The Speech That Made Abraham Lincoln President, Simon & Schuster, 2004.
* (Historical consultant) Mario M. Cuomo, Why Lincoln Matters: Today More Than Ever, Harcourt (Orlando, FL), 2004.
* (With Edna Greene Medford and Frank J. Williams) The Emancipation Proclamation: Three Views (Social, Political, Iconographic), Louisiana State University Press (Baton Rouge, LA), 2006.
* Lincoln President-elect: Abraham Lincoln and the Great Secession Winter 1860-1861, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2008.
Also author of pamphlets, including Abraham Lincoln, Mary Todd Lincoln, U.S. Historical Society, 1984; "True Likenesses," "Iron Masks," and "The Animal Himself," Lincoln Memorial Shrine, 1988; Lincoln on Democracy, Lincoln Fellowship of Wisconsin, 1992; and Standing Tall: The Heroic Image of Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg College, 2004.
Contributor to books, including Portrait Painting in America: The Nineteenth Century, edited by Ellen Miles, Main Street/Universe Books, 1977; Prints and Photographs: Understanding, Appreciating, Collecting, edited by Mary Jean Madigan and Susan Colgan, Billboard Publications, 1983; and The Historian's Lincoln, University of Illinois Press, 1989.
Author of monthly column "The Older the Better," Antiquer, 1975-76; author of weekly column "A Picture's Worth," Antique Trader, 1977--; author of quarterly column "Print of the Edition," Lincoln Herald, 1978.
Contributor of articles to numerous periodicals, including New York, New York Times, American Art and Antiques, Lincoln Herald, Rolling Stone, Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, Life, Tribune Books (Chicago, IL), American History Illustrated, Blue & Gray, North & South, Civil War Times, and American Heritage.
American Heritage, contributing editor. Democratic Leader (journal of the New York State Democratic Committee), editor, 1973-74, and Wiley Educator, 1975; Lincoln Herald, contributing editor and member of editorial advisory board, 1978--.
