As president, Abraham Lincoln received between two hundred and five hundred letters a day—correspondence from public officials, political allies, and military leaders, as well as letters from ordinary Americans of all races who wanted to share their views with him. Here, and in his critically acclaimed volume Dear Mr. Lincoln, editor Harold Holzer has rescued these voices—sometimes eloquent, occasionally angry, at times poetic—from the obscurity of the archives of the Civil War. The Lincoln Mailbag includes letters written by African Americans, which Lincoln never saw, revealing to readers a more accurate representation of the nation’s mood than even the president knew. This first paperback edition of The Lincoln Mailbag includes a new index and fourteen illustrations, and Holzer’s introduction and annotations provide historical context for the events described and the people who wrote so passionately to their president in Lincoln's America.

Harold Holzer is the senior vice president for external affairs at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Among the country’s leading authorities on Abraham Lincoln and the political culture of the Civil War era, Holzer is the author, coauthor, or editor of twenty-three books—including The Lincoln Image, The Lincoln Family Album, and Lincoln at Cooper Union: The Speech that Made Abraham Lincoln President—for which he has received numerous awards. He is the cochair of the U.S. Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission.

“Holzer, a leading authority on the period, does a masterful job of annotating and explaining the letters, truly recreating the mood and atmosphere of the time.” —Parade Magazine

“[A] collection that shows the spirit of America, at its biggest and its meanest.” —Publishers Weekly

“The contents of the present volume include newly discovered letters, most important a batch of hitherto neglected letters from African Americans. . . . They make for absolutely fascinating reading, evoking the full range of human emotions from laughter to tears.”—Library Journal

“A revealing glimpse into how civil war and emancipation appeared from the White House, this browsable collection of epistles and replies enriches the body of Lincolniana.”—Booklist

“Holzer presents an enlightening selection that reveals something of the variety of pressures Lincoln faced each day. The editor’s ebullient personality emerges clearly from the preface and introduction.”—Civil War History

“Holzer has done a wonderful service to anyone interested in the Presidency in general and the Lincoln administration in particular.”—Journal of Illinois History