Saladin Ambar, Murder on the Mississipi, 1st ed., Signed on Bookplate

Description

In Murder on the Mississippi, award-winning historian Saladin Ambar unearths the horrors that shaped a young Abraham Lincoln’s worldview, pushing him to find his political voice in one of the earliest and most pivotal speeches of his career. Confronted by lawlessness, racial terror, and his own inner demons, Lincoln’s battle was political and deeply personal.

This is the story of three racially motivated murders in Mississippi River towns from 1835 to 1838. These actions inspired the speech that put Lincoln on the national map—the Lyceum Address.

Amid the string of murders on the American frontier, Lincoln faced the loss of his first love—and a descent into suicidal despair. Yet from this darkness, he emerged with a renewed purpose, one that would define his leadership in the fight for democracy, human freedom, and the rule of law.

From the flames of mob violence rose a young Lincoln, forged in fire and soon to contend with a nation at war with itself.

Ambar, Saladin. MURDER ON THE MISSISSIPPI:THE SHOCKING CRIMES THAT SHAPED ABRAHAM LINCOLN. NY: Simon & Schuster, 2025. Later Ed., 240p., photographs, Appendices, Notes. As New, dj. Signed on bookplate