Along with a host of trailblazing pioneers, scientists, entrepreneurs, activists, soldiers, and athletes, the United States has had some incredibly badass presidents who have embodied the rough and tough American spirit. Unlike many of the countless biographies that have been written about Lincoln, this book takes a lighthearted approach to what made Honest Abe such a badass, beginning with his humble life on the frontier of Kentucky and Indiana in the early 1800s and ending with the legacy he left on American after his tragic assassination.

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Abraham Lincoln's determination to hold the North and South together would ultimately lead to the bloodiest war in American history, the abolition of slavery, and his own untimely death from an assassin’s bullet. But to see Lincoln solely as a tragic figure consumed with the strife of mid-19th century America is to miss meeting him as a man who never allowed himself to be defeated by adversity, grief, or turmoil. From his earliest days on the frontier, he endured the loss of his beloved mother and the demanding physical challenges of a rough-and-ready land where death came easily and education was rare; where ambition was rewarded if a man proved himself willing to work hard; where love was attainable, even for a man whose physical appearance was most charitably described as homely.

It’s a story about Abraham Lincoln’s 13-day train trip to his inauguration. We tend to have a static image of Lincoln, posed in a photograph or standing stiffly in a daguerreotype. But he was a man of action. I wanted to show him moving.