Length6h 1m
About this audiobook
Abraham Lincoln trusted and confided in his law partner William “Billy” Herndon, but his still-influential 1889 biography was censored by his collaborator and publisher. In Lincoln’s Billy, Tom LeClair imagines Herndon’s deathbed autobiography and the “real life” of his partner, revealing secrets about a randy and “rasslin’” Lincoln on his youthful trips to New Orleans, the hidden sources of his depression, and the untold cause of his hatred of slavery.
Based on the latest biographical research, Lincoln’s Billy presents a vulgar, tale-telling Lincoln unknown to most Americans and a radical, truth-telling Herndon who was more advanced—and more contemporary—than the president on public education, women’s rights, and most importantly, slavery. The abolitionist and free-thinking Billy contends with his beloved partner for sixteen years, and after the assassination, he conflicts with Lincoln’s family, other biographers, Christian fundamentalists, corrupt Republican politicians, robber barons, and Victorian propriety as he struggles to write his unconventionally frank biography. Just as strong-willed are the novel’s women: the ambitious, emotionally volatile, and mentally ill Mary Todd Lincoln as well as Herndon’s two wives—Mary Maxcy, an active intellectual helpmeet despite being the mother of six, and Anna Miles, a Democrat, Presbyterian, and slavery sympathizer with whom Billy argues issues of the day. Like the story of Lincoln’s life and autobiographies by Franklin, Douglass, and Henry Adams, Lincoln’s Billy is a classic American tale of failure, resistance, persistence, and hard-won success.
The author of five novels with contemporary settings, Tom LeClair pairs two vivid historical voices in Lincoln’s Billy—Abe’s “Kaintuck” vernacular and Billy’s lawyerly rhetoric—as the two attorneys duel over biographical truth and historical fiction.
Audiobook details
Rating★★★★ 3.9 (25)
Includes Goodreads
GenreHistorical Fiction, Biography and Memoir
Length6 hrs 1 min
Narrated byTraber Burns
FormatAudiobook
Publish dateApr 15, 2015
LanguageEnglish
Lieutenant Hornblower (Annotated)C. S. Forester11h 41m4.5 (2.9K)$2 · $0.00
Eagles over BritainLee Jackson12h 26m4.5 (18.6K)$23
Rilla of InglesideLucy Maud Montgomery11h 44m4.5 (48.2K)$2 · $0.00
The Viennese DressmakerKathryn Gauci11h 46m4.5 (2.1K)$23 · $0.00
The Man in the Brown Suit & They Came to BaghdadAgatha Christie15h 43m4.6 (495)$33 · $0.00
Under the Light of the Italian MoonJennifer Anton12h 28m4.5 (5.3K)$23 · $0.00
Jubilee, 50th Anniversary EditionMargaret Walker15h 43m4.5 (9.5K)$25 · $0.00
Arch of TriumphErich Maria Remarque15h 51m4.4 (36.6K)$28
Serenade for NadiaZülfü Livaneli9h 9m4.4 (20.1K)$20
Pride and PrejudiceJane Austen14h 44m4.4 (4.7M)$2 · $0.00
Flying Colours (Annotated)Cecil Louis Troughton Smith9h 26m4.4 (10.1K)$2 · $0.00
With Love from HarlemReShonda Tate13h 48m4.5 (2K)$6 · $0.00
Under the Java MoonHeather B. Moore12h 23m4.4 (3.2K)$23
FamilyJ. California Cooper4h 43m4.4 (3.6K)$15
Rilla of InglesideL. M. Montgomery12h 25m4.4 (67.5K)$2 · $0.00
Death Comes for the Archbishop (Annotated)Willa Cather9h 13m4.4 (4.7K)$2 · $0.00
The Long Knives Are CryingJoseph M. Marshall III19h 2m4.5 (351)$32
Crime and PunishmentFyodor Dostoevsky20h 29m4.4 (1.2M)$32
The Alice NetworkKate Quinn15h 7m4.4 (887.1K)$33 · $0.00
The Goddess of WarsawLisa Barr13h 4m4.4 (36.4K)$33 · $0.00
Forever BoyKate Swenson9h 27m4.7 (5K)$29 · $0.00
You Are Worth ItKyle Carpenter, Don Yaeger8h 53m4.7 (4.8K)$29 · $0.00
The Happiest Man on EarthEddie Jaku3h 48m4.6 (178K)$7 · $0.00
MotherlandJulia Ioffe17h 52m4.7 (2.5K)$40 · $0.00
Evidence Not SeenDarlene Deibler Rose11h 11m4.6 (11.9K)$29 · $0.00
A Bridge Not Too FarDeepak Ohri4h 55m4.8 (179)$15
Where Cowards Go to DieBenjamin Sledge8h 42m4.7 (351)$20 · $0.00
Will You Love Me?Cathy Glass9h 5m4.6 (9.3K)$29 · $0.00
Designing Terry Pratchett’s DiscworldPaul Kidby3h 52m4.7 (343)$20 · $0.00
HostageEli Sharabi5h 25m4.6 (10.8K)$24 · $0.00
Finding MeViola Davis9h 15m4.6 (256.4K)$29 · $0.00
Scandal Between the Sheets & Stranded with the Tempting StrangerBrenda Jackson9h 22m4.8 (141)$24 · $0.00
The Dangerous Truth about Today’s MarijuanaLaura Stack CSP, MBA9h 57m4.7 (384)$20 · $0.00
The Boys and MeMark Miller8h 32m4.8 (218)$23
Birdie & HarlowTaylor Wolfe7h 50m4.6 (6.5K)$26 · $0.00
The Lives of BrianBrian Johnson9h 45m4.6 (3.5K)$29 · $0.00
I Am The StormJanice Dean9h4.6 (1.5K)$8 · $0.00
Black History CollectionFrederick Douglass, Harriet Ann Jacobs, Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Du Bois27h 9m4.6 (2.6K)$18 · $0.00
Just as I AmCicely Tyson16h 8m4.6 (99K)$33 · $0.00
Unbroken Bonds of BattleJohnny Joey Jones8h 31m4.6 (2.6K)$8 · $0.00
You may also like
The KingdomEmmanuel Carrère16h 24m4.0 (6.9K)$25
The Purpose of the PastGordon S. Wood10h 47m4.0 (648)$21
In Memory of MemoryMaria Stepanova14h 47m4.0 (3.4K)$21.90 · $0.00
Lincoln's MelancholyJoshua Wolf Shenk11h 22m4.1 (9K)$29 · $0.00
History in English WordsOwen Barfield6h 31m4.2 (734)$2.40
History of a SuicideJill Bialosky8h 57m3.8 (2.2K)$20 · $0.00
The SwimmerJohn Cheever26m4.1 (5.9K)$7 · $0.00
All About “All About Eve”Sam Staggs13h 35m4.1 (1.1K)$23
UndiscoveredGabriela Wiener4h 11m3.9 (6.5K)$20 · $0.00
Little GodsMeng Jin9h 30m3.7 (5.6K)$29 · $0.00
The Sound and the Fury (Annotated)William Faulkner12h 9m4.1 (202.4K)$0.99 · $0.00
PsychPaul Bloom15h 5m4.2 (2.8K)$33 · $0.00
BrowsingsMichael Dirda6h 55m3.8 (1.5K)$20 · $0.00
Driving to TreblinkaDiana Wichtel7h 46m4.2 (353)$25 · $0.00
What Is Man? And Other StoriesMark Twain10h 28m4.0 (1.5K)$2.30
Psychopathology of Everyday Life (Annotated)Sigmund Freud9h 34m4.0 (24.8K)$0.99 · $0.00
The Fossil HunterTea Cooper11h 52m4.1 (6.2K)$29 · $0.00
The TranslatorNina Schuyler9h 18m3.8 (1.5K)$22
The Bone FireGyörgy Dragomán17h 25m4.0 (2K)$40 · $0.00
Grow UpGary John Bishop3h 20m4.1 (513)$6 · $0.00