Roy Prentice Basler (November 19, 1906 – October 25, 1989) was an American

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human species; as well as the ...

who rose to prominence in the middle of the 20th century. Basler was most famous for editing the collected works of

Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was the 16th president of the United States, serving from 1861 until Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, his assassination in 1865. He led the United States through the American Civil War ...

. He also wrote the introduction to Sam Watkins' "Co Aytch".

Biography

Basler was born in

St. Louis St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a populatio ...

and attended Central Methodist College in Fayette, Missouri, before receiving his

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

in American literature at

Duke University Duke University is a Private university, private research university in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity, North Carolina, Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1 ...

. He headed the English departments at Ringling College, Florence State Teachers' College and

Peabody College Vanderbilt Peabody College of Education and Human Development (also known as Vanderbilt Peabody College, Peabody College, or simply Peabody) is the education school of Vanderbilt University, a private research university in Nashville, Tennessee ...

, and was executive secretary and editor-in-chief of the Abraham Lincoln Association from 1947 to 1952. He joined the staff of the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

in 1952 and eventually became chief of the manuscript division and held the library's chair in American history. He retired in 1974 and moved to

Sarasota, Florida Sarasota () is a city in and the county seat of Sarasota County, Florida, United States. It is located in Southwest Florida, the southern end of the Tampa Bay area, and north of Fort Myers, Florida, Fort Myers and Punta Gorda, Florida, Punta Gord ...

, where he died in 1989. Basler's definitive eight volume collection of Lincoln's writings was published in 1953 and a supplement was released in 1974. It has been described as "the principal source" and "the most invaluable work of all" for Lincoln studies.

Herbert Mitgang Herbert Mitgang (January 20, 1920 – November 21, 2013) was an American author, editor, journalist, playwright, and producer of television news documentaries. Life Born in Manhattan, he graduated with a law degree from what is now St. John's Un ...

"After 175 Years, They Still Pursue Lincoln"
''

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'', February 12, 1984.

Bibliography

*''The Lincoln Legend: A Study in Changing Conceptions''. By Roy Basler. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1935. *
The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln
'. By Abraham Lincoln (Author), Roy P. Basler (Editor). New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 1953. *''The Muse and the Librarian''. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press, 1974.

References

1906 births 1989 deaths 20th-century American historians American male non-fiction writers Biographers of Abraham Lincoln 20th-century American male writers {{US-historian-stub