Abraham Lincoln – The True Story of a Great Life is a biography of an American lawyer and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation through the American Civil War, and succeeded in preserving the Union, abolishing slavery, bolstering the federal government, and modernizing the U.S. economy. The author of the work, Jesse W. Weik, combined his research material with primary research material compiled by Lincoln's former law partner William Herndon, as well as several hundred pages of letters and essays written by Herndon himself setting out his own personal reminiscences of Lincoln, and forged the material into the first authoritative biography of Lincoln.