“Lincoln,” a single-volume biography of the president, came out in 1996 and became so popular that presidential candidates Bill Clinton and Bob Dole both claimed they were reading it. His books included “Lincoln at Home,” a study of his family life, and “We Are Lincoln Men,” essays about Lincoln’s friends and associates. “He was a very hard worker, and his family, his writing and teaching were his life in that order,” she said.ĭonald published his first Lincoln book in the late 1940s and kept at it for more than 50 years, going back on repeated vows to move on to another subject. He was working on a “character study” of John Quincy Adams at his death, his wife said. “When I began my work on Lincoln I was as green as any rookie, never having studied the 19th century, much less Lincoln, and yet he took me under his wing, invited me to his house to share the treasures of his incredible Lincoln library, suggested the best books to start with, and encouraged my decision to focus on the cabinet.”
“He was not only one of the best historians of our era but he was also one of the classiest and most generous scholars I have ever met,” said Doris Kearns Goodwin, author of “Team of Rivals,” a best-selling Lincoln biography.
Kennedy to the first George Bush summoned him for lectures and fellow scholars acknowledged his prominence, especially as Lincoln’s bicentennial was celebrated this year. But his books on Lincoln became his legacy. “He was a wonderful husband and father and he had a spectacular career as a teacher.”Ī professor emeritus at Harvard University, Donald won Pulitzers for biographies of abolitionist Charles Sumner and novelist Thomas Wolfe. “Of course, I am devastated,” said his wife of 54 years. He was 88.ĭonald died of heart failure at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston on Sunday while awaiting heart surgery, said his wife, Aida. NEW YORK – David Herbert Donald, a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian of the Civil War and American South whose expertise on Abraham Lincoln brought him a wide general audience and reverence from his peers, has died.
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