Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611

  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
The Pioneer Boy, and How He Became President: Annotated Edition

The Pioneer Boy, and How He Became President: Annotated Edition

Thayer, William M.
Rogstad, Steven K.

Hardcover

Series: The Uis Center for Lincoln Studies

Presidents & Heads of State19th Century United States History

PREORDER - Expected ship date November 24, 2026

ISBN10: 0252059921
ISBN13: 9780252059926
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Published: Nov 24 2026
Pages: 296
Language: English
Published in 1863, William M. Thayer's The Pioneer Boy, and How He Became President fictionalized Abraham Lincoln's younger years to serve as a moral and religious model for adolescent readers. The bestseller went through many editions over the following decades, but branded Thayer as a minor writer of juvenile stories.

This new edition of Pioneer Boy reprints the text with extensive annotations by Steven K. Rogstad. In his reappraisal of the work, Rogstad taps the factual history woven into the plot and dialogue to illuminate how the young Lincoln presented by Thayer compares with historical documents and credible reminisces of the future president. Rogstad's chapter-by-chapter analysis reveals the work as an astute biography while reevaluating Thayer as a source worthy of consideration within Lincoln scholarship. An introduction offers an in-depth consideration of Lincoln's own presentations of his youth, Thayer's career, and the book's long life.

A new look at an overlooked text, The Pioneer Boy, and How He Became President analyzes what we can learn from William M. Thayer's popular book.

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