John George Nicolay
John George Nicolay | |
|---|---|
 Nicolay (c. 1855–1865) | |
| 2nd Marshal of the United States Supreme Court | |
| In office 1872–1887 | |
| Preceded by | Richard C. Parsons |
| Succeeded by | John M. Wright |
| Private Secretary to the President | |
| In office March 4, 1861 – April 15, 1865 | |
| President | Abraham Lincoln |
| Preceded by | James Buchanan II |
| Succeeded by | William A. Browning |
| Personal details | |
| Born | February 26, 1832 Essingen, Kingdom of Bavaria |
| Died | September 26, 1901 (aged 69) Washington, D.C., U.S. |
| Resting place | Oak Hill Cemetery Washington, D.C., U.S. |
| Occupation | Newspaper editor, diplomat |
John George Nicolay (February 26, 1832 – September 26, 1901) was a German-born American author and diplomat who served as private secretary to U.S. President
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Early life
He was born Johann Georg Nicolai in Essingen, Kingdom of Bavaria. In 1838, he immigrated to the United States with his father and attended school in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Career
Nicolay moved to Illinois, where he edited the Pike County Free Press at Pittsfield, Illinois, and he became a political power in the state. Then he became assistant to the secretary of state of Illinois. While in this position, he met Abraham Lincoln and became his devoted adherent.[2]
In 1861, Lincoln appointed Nicolay as his
Nicolay and John Hay, who had worked with Nicolay as assistant secretary to Lincoln, collaborated on Abraham Lincoln: A History. It appeared in The Century Magazine serially from 1886 to 1890 and was issued (1890–94) in book form as 10 volumes, together with the two-volume Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln. The resulting biography is a definitive resource on Lincoln and his times. Nicolay and Hay also edited Lincoln's Works in 12 volumes (1905).
In 1912, Nicolay's daughter, Helen Nicolay (1866–1954),[6][7] published Personal Traits of Abraham Lincoln. The book was based on envelopes of material that Nicolay had collected but been unable to use in the biography of Lincoln that he wrote with Hay. Helen Nicolay wrote in the preface to the book that the envelopes contained "miscellaneous notes, personal jottings, private letters, and newspaper clippings."[8] In 1949, Helen Nicolay published a biography of her father.[9]
Historian
- We hold that your father was something more than a mere make-weight in the cabinet ... We want to show that he formed a cabinet of strong and great men—rarely equaled in any historical era—and that he held, guided, controlled, curbed and dismissed not only them but other high officers civilian and military, at will, with perfect knowledge of men.[10]
Nicolay was a founding member of the Literary Society of Washington in 1874, according to a book about the society written by his daughter Helen Nicolay. Both Nicolay and Hay were members of long standing in the society.[11]
Death
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Poor health had forced Nicolay to resign as Marshal of the Supreme Court, and he suffered from a wide range of ailments in his final years. He lived with his daughter Helen Nicolay at her home at 212 B Street SE in Washington, D.C. He died at home of unspecified causes on September 26, 1901.[12] He was buried at Oak Hill Cemetery in the city.[13][14]
In popular culture
In the TV series
Works
- Nicolay, John George; Hay, John (1914). Abraham Lincoln : a history, Vol I. New York : The Century Co.
- —— (1914). Abraham Lincoln : a history, Vol II. New York : The Century Co.
- —— (1914). Abraham Lincoln : a history, Vol III. New York : The Century Co.
- —— (1914). Abraham Lincoln : a history, Vol IV. New York : The Century Co.
- —— (1914). Abraham Lincoln : a history, Vol V. New York : The Century Co.
- —— (1914). Abraham Lincoln : a history, Vol VI. New York : The Century Co.
- —— (1914). Abraham Lincoln : a history, Vol VII. New York : The Century Co.
- —— (1914). Abraham Lincoln : a history, Vol VIII. New York : The Century Co.
- —— (1914). Abraham Lincoln : a history, Vol IX. New York : The Century Co.
- —— (1914). Abraham Lincoln : a history, Vol X. New York : The Century Co.
- Campaigns of the Civil War, Volume 1: The Outbreak of Rebellion (originally published in 1881)
References
- ^ Nicolay: A Preliminary Study of the Descendants of John Jacob Nicolay by Kay Frances Sellers, with annotations by Sharon Weaver Vitter (1945).
- New International Encyclopedia(1st ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead.
- ^ Doris Kearns Goodwin (2005). Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, p. 705.
- ^ Wilson, J. G.; Fiske, J., eds. (1900). . Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. New York: D. Appleton.
- Mark E. Neely, Jr., New York: Da Capo Press, 1995.
- ^ Helen Nicolay: Daughter, Author, Artist
- ^ Lincoln's Secretary's Secretary
- ^ Helen Nicolay (1913). Personal Traits of Abraham Lincoln, New York: The Century Co., "Preface", p. 2 (unnumbered).
- ^ Helen Nicolay (1949). Lincoln's Secretary: A Biography of John G. Nicolay. Longmans, Green and Co.
- ISBN 9780143126034.
- ^ Nicolay and Hay are listed in the directory of members of the society in Helen Nicolay's Sixty Years of the Literary Society, Washington, D.C., 1934. Library of Congress call number PN22.L53 N5. Google Books.
- Newspapers.com.
- ^ Keller 1999, p. 75.
- ^ "Oak Hill Cemetery, Georgetown, D.C. (Van Ness) - Lot 273 East" (PDF). oakhillcemeterydc.org. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2022-03-02. Retrieved 2022-10-25.
Further reading
- ISBN 978-0809326839
- Burlingame, Michael, ed. (2007). Abraham Lincoln: The Observations of John G. Nicolay and John Hay. Carbondale, Illinois: Southern Illinois University Press. ISBN 978-0809338634
- Carden, Allen; Ebert, Thomas J. (2019). John George Nicolay: The Man in Lincoln's Shadow. University of Tennessee. ISBN 9781621904984.
- Keller, Marisa (Spring–Summer 1999). "Oak Hill Cemetery Marks 150th Anniversary". Washington History: 75–76.
- Nicolay, Helen (1949). Lincoln's Secretary: A Biography of John George Nicolay. Longman's Green. Review by J. G. Randall, who calls Helen Nicolay "a well-known Lincoln scholar in her own right".
- Zeitz, Joshua (2014). Lincoln's Boys: John Hay, John Nicolay, and the War for Lincoln's Image. Penguin. ISBN 9780143126034.
- Zeitz, Joshua (February 2014). "The History of How We Came to Revere Abraham Lincoln". Smithsonian. 44 (10).
External links
- Works by Helen Nicolay at Project Gutenberg
- Works by John George Nicolay at Project Gutenberg
- Works by or about John George Nicolay at Internet Archive
- Works by or about Helen Nicolay at Internet Archive
- Works by John George Nicolay at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
- Mr. Lincoln's White House: John G. Nicholay
- Truman Praises "Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln" by John G. Nicolay and John Hay Shapell Manuscript Foundation
- Mr. Lincoln and Friends: John G. Nicholay Archived 2004-09-29 at the Wayback Machine
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