Richard Nelson Current (October 5, 1912 – October 26, 2012) was an American

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the stu ...

, called "the Dean of Lincoln Scholars", best known for ''The Lincoln Nobody Knows'' (1958), and ''Lincoln and the First Shot'' (1963).

Life

Born in

Colorado City, Colorado Colorado City is a census-designated place (CDP) and post office in and governed by Pueblo County, Colorado, United States. The CDP is a part of the Pueblo, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area. The Colorado City post office has the ZIP Code 810 ...

, Current graduated in 1934 from

Oberlin College Oberlin College is a private liberal arts college and conservatory of music in Oberlin, Ohio. It is the oldest coeducational liberal arts college in the United States and the second oldest continuously operating coeducational institute of highe ...

with a B.A., in 1935 from

The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy is the graduate school of international affairs of Tufts University, in Medford, Massachusetts. The School is one of America's oldest graduate schools of international relations and is well-ranked in its ...

Tufts University Tufts University is a private research university on the border of Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1852 as Tufts College by Christian universalists who sought to provide a nonsectarian institution of higher learning. ...

with an M.A., and in 1940 from the

University of Wisconsin-Madison A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, the ...

with a PhD. At Wisconsin, he studied under William B. Hesseltine. His doctoral dissertation was on "Thaddeus Stevens, the Man and the Politician." Within the United States, Current taught at

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's ...

Hamilton College Hamilton College is a private liberal arts college in Clinton, Oneida County, New York. It was founded as Hamilton-Oneida Academy in 1793 and was chartered as Hamilton College in 1812 in honor of inaugural trustee Alexander Hamilton, following ...

Northern Michigan University Northern Michigan University (Northern Michigan, Northern or NMU) is a public university in Marquette, Michigan. It was established in 1899 by the Michigan Legislature as Northern State Normal School. In 1963, the state designated Northern a uni ...

Lawrence University Lawrence University is a private liberal arts college and conservatory of music in Appleton, Wisconsin. Founded in 1847, its first classes were held on November 12, 1849. Lawrence was the second college in the U.S. to be founded as a coeducati ...

Mills College Mills College at Northeastern University is a private college in Oakland, California and part of Northeastern University's global university system. Mills College was founded as the Young Ladies Seminary in 1852 in Benicia, California; it was r ...

, Salisbury State University, the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Universi ...

, the

University of North Carolina at Greensboro The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG or UNC Greensboro) is a public research university in Greensboro, North Carolina. It is part of the University of North Carolina system. UNCG, like all members of the UNC system, is a stand-al ...

, and the

. Internationally, he lectured in Chile, Japan, India, and Antarctica. Current served as president of the

Southern Historical Association The Southern Historical Association is a professional academic organization of historians focusing on the history of the Southern United States. It was organized on November 2, 1934. Its objectives are the promotion of interest and research in Sout ...

in 1975. In addition, he was the editor and/or author of introductions in many other works, and published over 250 articles. His papers are in the Rare Book Room of

the University of North Carolina at Greensboro The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG or UNC Greensboro) is a public research university in Greensboro, North Carolina. It is part of the University of North Carolina system. UNCG, like all members of the UNC system, is a stand-a ...

. His first wife of 45 years Rose Bonar died in 1983, after which in 1984 he married Marcia Ewing, who co-wrote a biography of dancer

Loie Fuller Loie Fuller (born Marie Louise Fuller; January 15, 1862 – January 1, 1928), also known as Louie Fuller and Loïe Fuller, was an American actress and dancer who was a pioneer of both modern dance and theatrical lighting techniques. Career Bor ...

with him. His final book, a collection of translations of writings by the Norwegian author

Knut Hamsun Knut Hamsun (4 August 1859 – 19 February 1952) was a Norwegian writer who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1920. Hamsun's work spans more than 70 years and shows variation with regard to consciousness, subject, perspective a ...

was published in 2003. He died in Boston, Massachusetts on October 26, 2012 at age 100 of

Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms beco ...

, and was buried in

Greensboro, North Carolina Greensboro (; formerly Greensborough) is a city in and the county seat of Guilford County, North Carolina, United States. It is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, third-most populous city in North Carolina after Charlotte, North Car ...

Dean of Lincoln Scholars

Current came late to the study of

Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation throu ...

, having published books on 19th century political leaders

Thaddeus Stevens Thaddeus Stevens (April 4, 1792August 11, 1868) was a member of the United States House of Representatives from Pennsylvania, one of the leaders of the Radical Republican faction of the Republican Party during the 1860s. A fierce opponent of sla ...

Daniel Webster Daniel Webster (January 18, 1782 – October 24, 1852) was an American lawyer and statesman who represented New Hampshire and Massachusetts in the U.S. Congress and served as the U.S. Secretary of State under Presidents William Henry Harrison, ...

, and

John C. Calhoun John Caldwell Calhoun (; March 18, 1782March 31, 1850) was an American statesman and political theorist from South Carolina who held many important positions including being the seventh vice president of the United States from 1825 to 1832. He ...

, and the history of the

typewriter A typewriter is a mechanical or electromechanical machine for typing characters. Typically, a typewriter has an array of keys, and each one causes a different single character to be produced on paper by striking an inked ribbon selectivel ...

when he was asked to complete a 4-volume biography of Lincoln begun by his

colleague

James G. Randall James Garfield Randall (June 4, 1881 in Indianapolis, Indiana - February 20, 1953) was an American historian specializing on Abraham Lincoln and the era of the American Civil War. He taught at the University of Illinois, (1920–1950), where Davi ...

, who had finished three volumes before his 1953 death. Current wrote at least half of the fourth volume ''Lincoln the President: Midstream to the Last Full Measure'' (1955), which won the prestigious

Bancroft Prize The Bancroft Prize is awarded each year by the trustees of Columbia University for books about diplomacy or the history of the Americas. It was established in 1948, with a bequest from Frederic Bancroft, in his memory and that of his brother, ...

from Columbia University, establishing his reputation. Drawn to what he called the "perpetual timeliness" and "eternal relevance" of Lincoln's life, Current went on to write seven more books about him. One of his most influential books was ''The Lincoln Nobody Knows'' (1958), which delved into the seemingly contradictory elements of Lincoln's life and thought, particularly his views on slavery and race, showing how he overcame the narrow thinking of his childhood in the backwoods of

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to ...

and

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th st ...

where racist and white supremacist views were common. "The most remarkable thing about him was his tremendous power for growth", Current wrote in ''The Lincoln Nobody Knows''. "He grew in sympathy, in the breadth of his humaneness, as he grew in other aspects of the mind and spirit. In more ways than one he succeeded in breaking through the narrow bounds of his early environment." "The awful fact of the assassination falls between us and the man. It is like a garish, bloodstained glass, in which all perspectives are distorted." His 1963 book ''Lincoln and the First Shot'' sought to dispel many myths about Lincoln, including the theory that some of the members of his Cabinet were in on the assassination conspiracy. Current described how Lincoln built a unity of purpose in the Northern states before the Civil War began in earnest, claiming that Lincoln had a more sophisticated knowledge of law, economics, military tactics et al. than earlier historians had believed.

Debate with Gore Vidal

After

Gore Vidal Eugene Luther Gore Vidal (; born Eugene Louis Vidal, October 3, 1925 – July 31, 2012) was an American writer and public intellectual known for his epigrammatic wit, erudition, and patrician manner. Vidal was bisexual, and in his novels and es ...

published his 1984 novel '' Lincoln'', Current began a running feud in the pages of ''

The New York Review of Books ''The New York Review of Books'' (or ''NYREV'' or ''NYRB'') is a semi-monthly magazine with articles on literature, culture, economics, science and current affairs. Published in New York City, it is inspired by the idea that the discussion of i ...

'', accusing Vidal of willfully distorting the historical record, misrepresenting Lincoln's views, and "utter ignorance" of the linguistic differences between

British English British English (BrE, en-GB, or BE) is, according to Oxford Dictionaries, "English as used in Great Britain, as distinct from that used elsewhere". More narrowly, it can refer specifically to the English language in England, or, more broadly ...

and

American English American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the most widely spoken language in the United States and in most circumstances ...

because he did spell "jewelry" and "practice" in the British way. "He is wrong on big as well as little matters", Current summarized. "Vidal simply doesn't know what he's talking about." In response, Vidal explained that he used what was then common to agreed-upon American speech, and as a writer of novels was obliged to dramatize his story through someone's consciousness. Vidal asserted that Current never read his book in whole, that he was fault finding, and could not separate a biography from a novel, "getting all tangled up in misread or misunderstood trivia". The real reason for Current's criticism, Vidal maintained, was his portrayal of Lincoln as wanting to colonize the liberated slaves in Liberia, which would go against the

political correctness ''Political correctness'' (adjectivally: ''politically correct''; commonly abbreviated ''PC'') is a term used to describe language, policies, or measures that are intended to avoid offense or disadvantage to members of particular groups in socie ...

of the 1980s. Ironically, the source of this interpretation according to Vidal was a biography of Lincoln by Current himself."Vidal's 'Lincoln': An Exchange", ''The New York Review of Books'', August 18, 1988
/ref>

Awards

* 1956

* 1959 Fulbright Professor in Munich, Germany * 1960 O. Max Gardner Prize from the University of North Carolina * 1962

Harold Vyvyan Harmsworth Professor of American History The Harold Vyvyan Harmsworth Professorship is an endowed chair in American history at the University of Oxford, tenable for one year. The Harmsworth Professorship was established by Harold Sidney Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Rothermere (1868–19 ...

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the Un ...

* 1977 George Banta Award from the

Wisconsin Library Association The Wisconsin Library Association (WLA), is a Wisconsin, United States non-profit, professional membership organization which has existed since 1891. WLA represents nearly 2000 members statewide --- primarily librarians and library staff from scho ...

* 1988 Notable Wisconsin Authors * 1989 Logan Hay Medal from the Abraham Lincoln Association * 2000

Lincoln Prize The Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize, founded by the late Richard Gilder and Lewis Lehrman in partnership with Gabor Boritt, Director Emeritus of the Civil War Institute at Gettysburg College, is administered by the Gilder Lehrman Institute for Ameri ...

for lifetime achievement * 2000 Richard Nelson Current Award of Achievement from The Lincoln Forum

Works

*''Old Thad Stevens: A Story of Ambition,'' 1942. *''Pine Logs and Politics: A Life of

Philetus Sawyer Philetus Sawyer (September 22, 1816March 29, 1900) was a United States senator from Wisconsin for twelve years (1881–1893). He also represented Wisconsin for ten years in the United States House of Representatives (1865–1875), and he ...

, 1816–1900,'' 1950. *''The Typewriter and the Men Who Made It,'' 1954. *''Secretary Stimson: A Study in Statecraft'' (Rutger University Press, New Brunswick, N.J., 1954
read online
*''

and the Rise of National Conservatism'' (1955
read online
*''Lincoln the President: Last Full Measure'' (with

) (1955) (

read online
*''The Lincoln Nobody Knows'' (1958

*"God and the Strongest Battalions," in Donald, David Herbert, ed., ''Why the North Won the Civil War'', 1960. *''American History: A Survey'' (with

Frank Freidel Frank Burt Freidel, Jr. (May 22, 1916 – January 25, 1993) was an American historian, the first major biographer of former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and one of the first scholars to work on his papers stored in the Roosevelt Library i ...

and T. Harry Williams), 1961. *''Lincoln and the First Shot'' (J.P. Lippincott, New York, 1963
read online
*''

'', 1963. *''United States History'' (with A. DeConde and H. L. Dante), 1967. *''Three Carpetbag Governors'', 1967. *''Essentials of American History'' (with others) (New York: Knopf, 1972, 1980
read online
*''United States History: A World Power'' (with A. DeConde and H. L. Dante), 1974. *''United States History: Search for Freedom'' (with A. DeConde and H. L. Dante), 1974. *''Wisconsin: The Civil War Era 1848–1873'', 1976. *''Wisconsin: A Bicentennial History'', 1977. *''Unity, Ethnicity, and Abraham Lincoln'', 1978. *''A History of the United States to 1877'' (with Gerald J. Goodwin and Paula Angle Franklin), 1980. First edition with T. Harry Williams and Frank Freidel, 1959. *''Speaking of Abraham Lincoln: The Man and His Meaning for Our Times'', 1983. *''Northernizing the South'', 1983. *''Arguing with Historians: Essays on the Historical and the Unhistorical'', 1987. *''Those Terrible

Carpetbaggers In the history of the United States, carpetbagger is a largely historical term used by Southerners to describe opportunistic Northerners who came to the Southern states after the American Civil War, who were perceived to be exploiting the lo ...

'', 1988. *''Lincoln, the Constitution, and Presidential Leadership'', 1989. *''

: "The Completest Man"'', Lebanon, New Hampshire: University Press of New England, 1990 (essays by Current and others). *''

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal ar ...

in American Life: The First Two Hundred Years,'' 1990. *''Lincoln's Loyalists: Union Soldiers from the Confederacy'', Boston, Massachusetts: Northeastern University Press, 1992. *''Encyclopedia of the Confederacy'' (editor), 1993. *''What Is an American? Abraham Lincoln and "Multiculturalism"'', Milwaukee, Wisconsin: Marquette University Press, 1993. *''Lincoln on Democracy'' (with others), 1994. *''

, Goddess of Light'' (with Marcia Ewing Current), 1997. *''

Remembers America: Essays and Stories, 1885–1949'' (translator), 2003.

References

External links

Richard N. Current , University of Illinois Archives
{{DEFAULTSORT:Current, Richard N. 1912 births 2012 deaths The Fletcher School at Tufts University alumni University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni Rutgers University faculty Hamilton College (New York) faculty Northern Michigan University faculty Lawrence University faculty University of Illinois faculty University of North Carolina at Greensboro faculty University of Wisconsin–Madison faculty Oberlin College alumni Historians from New York (state) Historians of race relations American centenarians Men centenarians Writers from Colorado Harold Vyvyan Harmsworth Professors of American History People from Pueblo County, Colorado Historians of Abraham Lincoln Bancroft Prize winners