Abraham Lincoln: The War Years, Volumes I – IV. By Carl Sandburg. First Trade Editions, Early Printings. Harcourt Brace. New York, 1939.

Carl Sandburg’s biographies of Abraham Lincoln are without question the most authoritative and widely praised of any works on the 16th American president. This defining set, The War Years, won the Pulitzer Prize for History in 1940. The volumes possess an encyclopedic quality yet remain readable and compelling as narrative, so much so that Lyndon B. Johnson praised Sandburg as “more than the voice of America. […] He was America” (qtd. from Callahan, 233). Accompanying the text are hundreds of original Civil War photographs and illustrations, finely presented in this set. It is preceded by Sandburg’s The Prairie Years, a two-volume biography of Lincoln’s childhood, and the scarce signed limited edition. These first trade editions, early printings are in near fine condition. In the original blue cloth boards, near fine with only minor rubbing to edges. Text block near fine with no tears, only minor spot to deckled edge of volume one. Without the scarce original glassine or slipcase. Preceded only by the De Luxe First Edition of only 525 copies (500 signed), and earlier trade printings. A striking near fine set of the greatest work on Lincoln.