John George Nicolay
John George Nicolay was a German-born American author and diplomat who served as private secretary to U.S. President Abraham Lincoln and later, with John Hay, co-authored Abraham Lincoln: A History, a ten-volume biography of the 16th president. He was a member of the German branch of the Nicolay family.
Early life
Nicolay was born Johann Georg Nicolai in Essingen, Kingdom of Bavaria. In 1838, he immigrated to the United States with his father and attended school in Cincinnati, Ohio.Career
Nicolay moved to Illinois, where he edited the Pike County Free Press at Pittsfield, Illinois, and he became a political power in the state. Then he became assistant to the secretary of state of Illinois. While in this position, he met Abraham Lincoln and became his devoted adherent. In 1852, he was granted a U.S. patent "for improvement in printing presses".In 1861, Lincoln appointed Nicolay as his private secretary, which was the first official act of his new administration. Nicolay served in this capacity until Lincoln's death in 1865. Twice Lincoln sent Nicolay to record treaties with Native Americans. In 1862 he went to Minnesota for a Chippewa treaty that was delayed because of the Santee Sioux uprising. The next year he traveled to Colorado for the Ute Treaty. Shortly before his assassination, Lincoln appointed Nicolay to a diplomatic post in France. After the death of the president, Nicolay became United States Consul at Paris, France. For some time after his return to the United States, he edited the Chicago Republican. He was marshal of the United States Supreme Court. In 1881, Nicolay wrote The Outbreak of Rebellion.
Nicolay and John Hay, who had worked with Nicolay as assistant secretary to Lincoln, collaborated on Abraham Lincoln: A History. It appeared in The Century Magazine serially from 1886 to 1890 and was issued in book form as 10 volumes, together with the two-volume Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln. The resulting biography is an important resource on Lincoln and his times. Nicolay and Hay also edited Lincoln's Works in 12 volumes published in 1905 after Nicolay’s death.
In 1912, Nicolay's daughter, Helen Nicolay, published Personal Traits of Abraham Lincoln. The book was based on envelopes of material that Nicolay had collected but been unable to use in the biography of Lincoln that he wrote with Hay. Helen Nicolay wrote in the preface to the book that the envelopes contained "miscellaneous notes, personal jottings, private letters, and newspaper clippings." In 1949, Helen Nicolay published a biography of her father.
Historian Joshua M. Zeitz writes, "Above all, Nicolay and Hay created a master narrative whose influence would ebb and flow over the years but that continues to command serious scrutiny and engagement.... Early in the writing process, Nicolay assured Robert Todd Lincoln":
Nicolay was a founding member of the Literary Society of Washington in 1874, according to a book about the society written by his daughter Helen Nicolay. Both Nicolay and Hay were members of long standing in the society.