Lincoln, Life-Size

Lincoln, Life-Size

While Abraham Lincoln was known as a homely man—and he even joked about that reputation—Lincoln’s contemporaries often commented on his striking features. In Lincoln, Life-Size, the Kunhardts—the foremost family of Lincoln pictorial scholarship—capture an overlooked but vital aspect of Lincoln: his face.

Taken across a span of nearly 20 years, from 1846 to 1865, these images provide us with a visual account of Lincoln’s intertwined political and personal lives as we watch him age and observe the toll taken by the Civil War in the final four years of his life. Here are a wide range of Lincolns—wise, bemused, melancholic, ruggedly handsome, downright homely—his complex character clearly evident in the changes in expression and affect these portraits capture. Each portrait is presented in both a standard size and in life-size, and is accompanied by a contemporaneous quote by or about Lincoln, enriching the story of his life as told through his continuously evolving image.

Offering an unprecedented window into Lincoln’s soul, Lincoln, Life-Size grants us a new appreciation of this extraordinary man and a glimpse of the force of character that made him great.

Hardcover: 208 pages

Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc./Random House ( November 03, 2009 )

Item #: 82-8822

ISBN: 9780307270818

Product Dimensions: 9.25 x 10.875 x 0.0 inches

Product Weight: 47.0 ounces