The Day Lincoln Was Shot - by Jim Bishop (Paperback)

About the Book

Well-known journalist and historian Jim Bishop begins this book at 7:00 a.m., April 14, 1865, with Lincoln emerging from his bedroom, worried about a dream in which he saw himself dead. The book ends 24 hours later, with the surgeon general placing two silver dollars on the president's eyelids.

Book Synopsis

The Day Lincoln Was Shot is a gripping, minute-by-minute account of April 14, 1865: the day President Abraham Lincoln was tragically assassinated.

It chronicles the movements of Lincoln and his assassin John Wilkes Booth during every movement of that fateful day. Author and journalist Jim Bishop has fashioned an unforgettable tale of tragedy, more gripping than fiction, more alive than any newspaper account.

First published in 1955, The Day Lincoln Was Shot was a huge bestseller, and in 1998 it was made into a TNT movie, with Rob Morrow as Booth.

From the Back Cover

At seven o'clock on the morning of April 14, 1865, President Lincoln came out of his bedroom, nodded to the night guard, and started down the hall to his office. At 7:22 the following morning Surgeon General Barnes pressed silver coins to his eyelids.

The president's day was, as usual, crammed with meetings and appointments, but he was probably no busier than John Wilkes Booth, the man who would stand behind him at Ford's Theatre that evening. Although the plan had been long in the making, the time and place were not set until eleven that morning.

The Day Lincoln Was Shot chronicles the movements of these two men minute by minute until the almost unbearable suspense is shattered with a single gunshot and a leap to the stage. From a thousand bits and scraps of information, Jim Bishop has fashioned an unforgettable tale of tragedy, more gripping than fiction, more alive than any newspaper account.