Douglas L. Wilson

Abraham Lincoln’s eloquence in the Gettysburg and Second Inaugural addresses changed how Americans thought about their country and its ideals. In his book Lincoln’s Sword: The Presidency and the Power of Words, Douglas L. Wilson looks at the role of writing in Lincoln’s presidency, focusing on events that shaped particular documents, and the evolution of those documents through the president’s thorough process of revision.

He writes: “Lincoln was in his own way perfecting a prose that expressed a uniquely American way of apprehending and ordering experience. His all-consuming purpose was… to find a way to reach a large and diverse American audience, and to persuade them to support the government in its efforts to put down the rebellion.”

Wilson is the George A. Lawrence Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus at Knox College, where he is co-director with Rodney O. Davis of the Lincoln Studies Center. His work on Abraham Lincoln has appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, American Heritage, TIME, The American Scholar, and other magazines and scholarly journals.

He is the author of Lincoln Before Washington: New Perspectives on Lincoln’s Illinois Years, Herndon’s Informants: Letters and Interviews about Abraham Lincoln, Herndon’s Lincoln, and Honor’s Voice: The Transformation of Abraham Lincoln.

He has served as a consultant for National Park Service’s Lincoln Home, the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, and currently serves on advisory committees at the U.S. Bicentennial Commission, the Illinois State Bicentennial Commission and the Library of Congress’ Bicentennial Exhibit. He is also part of the National Trust’s joint projects to restore the Lincoln Cottage at the Soldier’s Home and to create on the same site a multi-purpose institute on Lincoln’s presidency.

 A founder of an interdisciplinary American Studies program at Knox, Wilson worked for many years in Jefferson studies, which resulted in numerous articles and several books, including Jefferson’s Literary Commonplace Book, Thomas Jefferson’s Library and Jefferson Abroad. In 1994 he was appointed founding director of the International Center for Jefferson Studies at Monticello, a study center established by the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation in cooperation with the University of Virginia.

Wilson is a graduate of Doane College and earned masters and doctoral degrees in English at the University of Pennsylvania. His book Lincoln’s Sword won the Lincoln Prize in 2007.