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This work is divided into four parts, each arranged chronologically. Part 1, ¿Let‚ters, Interviews, and Statements Collected by William H. Herndon and Jesse W. Weik, 1865¬92,î constitutes the main body of material, either in original docu‚ments or transcriptions.
Part 2, ¿Informant Testimony Reported in Herndon's Lincoln: The True Story of a Great Life (1889),î consists of testimony presumed authentic but for which no original document or transcription could be located. The reader is advised that Weik, who is presumed to have adapted the informant testimony to the narrative, did not always follow the exact wording of known informant material.
Part 3, ¿Informant Testimony Reported in William H. Herndon's Letters to Jesse W. Weik,î consists of two kinds of material: testimony gathered recently by Herndon and testimony recollected from an earlier period. The reader is cautioned that some of the latter seems to represent testimony offered at a much earlier time. Only testimony about Lincoln that Herndon speci‚es as coming from others is included.
Part 4, ¿Informant Testimony Reported in Jesse W. Weik's The Real Lincoln (1922),î contains the text of a letter and the substance of several interviews that appear to have been collected as part of Herndon's biographical project but for which no original documents have been located. Given the liberties that Weik felt justi‚ed in taking with Herndon's informant material in composing the biogra‚phy, it seems probable that the interviews are retrospective adaptations of notes or memories, rather than faithful transcriptions of contemporary documents.
The documents have been numbered in one sequence across parts 1¬4, and documents are referred to in the notes by the section sign (Ñ) followed by the document number.
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