The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Nicolay, John George
NICOLAY, nĕk'ō-lā, John George, American
author: b. Essingen, Bavaria, 26 Feb. 1832;
d. Washington, D. C., 26 Sept. 1901. He came
with his family to the United States in 1838
and settled in Illinois, where he was educated
in the public schools. He entered the office of
the Free Press in Pittsfield, Ill., when 16 and
later became its proprietor and publisher, soon
making himself a political power in the State.
In 1856 he entered the office of the secretary of
state at Springfield, Ill., where he became a
devoted adherent of Lincoln. When the latter
was elected to the Presidency Nicolay was
appointed his private secretary and as the duties
of the office increased John Hay (q.v.) was
selected as assistant secretary. Together they
formed the plan of writing a biography of President
Lincoln and gained his approval of their
project. In 1865 Nicolay was appointed by the
President to be United States consul at Paris,
where he remained until 1869 and in 1872-87
he was marshal of the Supreme Court. In 1874
he began in collaboration with John Hay ‘Abraham
Lincoln, a History,’ the authoritative
biography, published serially (1886-90) and in
book form and supplemented by Lincoln's
‘Complete Works,’ in 12 volumes (1894). He also
wrote ‘The Outbreak of the Civil War’ (1881).
His daughter, , who has
inherited her father's absorption in the life and
achievement of the great President, is the
author of ‘Personal Traits of Abraham Lincoln’
(1912).