ALTON - Author Jan Jacobi is following up his award-winning book, Young Lincoln, with a new work called Lincoln in Springfield, published by Reedy Press.

Jacobi will be signing his new book at the Olde Alton Arts and Craft Fair on December 4 & 5, 2021. The event takes place at Alton High School from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. on Saturday and 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. on Sunday. Alton High School is located at 4200 Humbert Rd., Alton, IL 62002.

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Lincoln in Springfield continues the saga of Abraham Lincoln’s development, as the young man becomes a young professional and politician. No longer does Lincoln grapple with his upbringing and yearn for freedom to forge his own path. He is firmly on it – albeit on a borrowed horse and only tenuous ideas about who exactly it is he wants to become.

He starts as a fledgling lawyer in Springfield and ten years later serves his first term as a Whig congressman representing Illinois in Washington, D.C. As he argues cases, builds friendships with allies and rivals alike, marries, and begins his political career, the portrait of the presidential Lincoln begins to emerge, though not without some stumbles along the way. Though he still doesn’t quite know the answer, Lincoln in Springfield – Lincoln on his own for the first time – will begin to discern just what kind of person he is destined to be.

Lincoln in Springfield follows Jacobi’s book Young Lincoln, published in 2018 and winner of a Best of Illinois History Award and a Nautilus silver award for middle-grade fiction.

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Young Lincoln is a novel about the childhood and young adult years of Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln narrates and tells the story of his years in Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois. He encounters the same problems that young adults have faced for generations: tension with a demanding parent; the need for friendship and the need to be alone; feeling shy and awkward around girls; recurrent depression; and what path to follow in his life.

Using primary sources, drawing mostly on materials gathered by Lincoln’s law partner, William H. Herndon, Jan Jacobi gives readers a portrait of Abraham Lincoln they do not encounter in their history books. Abe has serious doubts and concerns about his future, his ability to cope with loss, his lack of religious faith, and his relationship with his father. It is a youth and young adulthood of struggle, doubt, and loss—and there is no guarantee he will survive it.

About author Jan Jacobi:

Jan Jacobi has taught English and humanities to 7th and 8th graders for 49 consecutive years. He’s also served as assistant headmaster at one school and head of middle school at another. In 2014, St. Louis Magazine recognized him as Middle School Teacher of the Year. His first young adult novel, Young Lincoln, won two awards: a Best of Illinois History Award and a Nautilus silver award for middle-grade fiction. Mr. Jacobi is very tall, and some of his students thought he looked like Abraham Lincoln, particularly when he spoke to them in assemblies wearing a top hat. He loves stargazing, gardening, and like Abraham Lincoln, reading the newspapers.

About the Book

Lincoln in Springfield is published by Reedy Press and is available wherever books are sold.

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