author
Frank Crosby
Best known for a Civil War-era life of Abraham Lincoln, this little-known 19th-century writer gathered biography, speeches, messages, and proclamations into one substantial volume. His surviving work has the feel of an early attempt to explain Lincoln's career while the events were still fresh.
1 Audiobook
About the author
Frank Crosby is a scarce figure in the historical record, but library catalogs and book records confirm that he wrote Life of Abraham Lincoln, Sixteenth President of the United States, published in 1865. The book presents Lincoln's early history and political career alongside speeches, messages, proclamations, and other official documents, which suggests Crosby was writing for readers who wanted both a narrative and a documentary record.
Catalog records also attribute practical legal handbooks to him, including works such as Everybody's Lawyer and Book of Forms and Everybody's Lawyer and Counsellor in Business. Taken together, those titles point to a writer focused on useful, accessible reference books for a general audience.
Very little reliable biographical detail about Crosby himself appears to be readily available from the sources found, so it is safest to remember him through his books rather than through a well-documented personal story. Even so, his Lincoln volume remains an interesting artifact from the year Lincoln died, capturing how one contemporary author tried to preserve the president's public life for readers of the time.