John George Nicolay

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

John George Nicolay

John George Nicolay (born February 26, 1832, as Johann Georg in Essingen/Pfalz, Rhineland-Palatinate – September 26, 1901) was an American (German-born) biographer and secretary of Abraham Lincoln. In 1838, he immigrated to the United States with his father, attended school in Cincinnati, and later went to Illinois, where he edited the Pike County Free Press at Pittsfield. [1] Then he became assistant to the secretary of state of Illinois and while in this position met Abraham Lincoln.

In 1861, Lincoln appointed Nicolay to be his private secretary, which was the first official act of his new administration. Nicolay served in this capacity until Lincoln's death in 1865. Shortly before the president's assassination, Lincoln appointed Nicolay to a diplomatic post in France.^{[citation needed]} After the death of the President, Nicolay became United States Consul at Paris, France (1865-69).[2] He was marshal of the United States Supreme Court (1872-87). In 1881, Nicolay wrote The Outbreak of the Rebellion.

Nicolay and John Hay, who had worked alongside Nicolay as assistant secretary to Lincoln, collaborated on the official biography of the 16th President. It appeared in the Century Magazine serially from 1886 to 1890 and was then issued (1890-94) in book form (ten volumes), together with the Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln (two volumes).[3]The resulting biography is a definitive resource on Lincoln and his times. Nicolay and Hay also edited Lincoln's Works in twelve volumes (1905). In 1912 Personal Traits of Abraham Lincoln was published by Helen Nicolay.[4]

In the 1992 documentary Lincoln, the German-born Nicolay is voiced by the Austrian-born actor, Arnold Schwarzenegger.

[edit] Works

"A. Lincoln, a history" (1890), with John Milton Hay
"Campaigns of the Civil War - Volume 1 The Outbreak of Rebellion" by John G. Nicolay (originally published in 1881)