Lincoln's White House Secretary

Eleanor Stoddard and Harold Holzer talked about their book Lincoln's White House Secretary: The Adventurous Life of William O. Stoddard, published by Southern Illinois University Press.

William Osborn Stoddard, Lincoln’s “third secretary” who worked alongside John G. Nicolay and John Hay in the White House from 1861 to 1865, completed his autobiography in 1907, which was one of more than one hundred books he wrote. An abridged version was published by his son in 1955 as Lincoln’s Third Secretary: The Memoirs of William O. Stoddard. In this new, edited version, Lincoln’s White House Secretary: The Adventurous Life of William O. Stoddard, Harold Holzer provided an introduction, afterword, annotations and included comments by Stoddard’s granddaughter, Eleanor Stoddard.