Author Nigel Hamilton featured speaker at Abraham Lincoln Birthday Banquet on Feb. 17

Historian and author Nigel Hamilton, best known for his two-volume biography on President Bill Clinton and his portrait of a young John F. Kennedy, will be the featured speaker at the Abraham Lincoln Association (ALA) Birthday Banquet on February 17.

Earlier that day, four Lincoln authors and historians will highlight the free Benjamin P. Thomas Symposium. Both events are at the President Abraham Lincoln Hotel, 701 E. Adams St.

The symposium and banquet are usually held on Lincoln’s actual birthday, Feb. 12, but are being moved to take advantage of the three-day Presidents Day weekend.

Rev. King spoke at the Illinois State Armory in 1965, his visit will be commemorated

Hamilton is the author of a three-volume history of President Franklin D. Roosevelt as a commander in chief during World War II. His banquet speech is entitled “Roosevelt and Lincoln -- Presidents at War.”

Hamilton's "Reckless Youth" covered Kennedy's early career, his youth and Harvard education and his service in World War II. Hamilton's proposed multi-volume series about Kennedy was abandoned after "Reckless Youth."

The British-born Hamilton is also the author of "American Caesars: Lives of the Presidents from Franklin D. Roosevelt to George W. Bush."

Hamilton is currently working on a dual biography on Lincoln and Confederal President Jefferson Davis.

The symposium will feature discussions on Lincoln and Majority Rule by James H. Read; Lincoln and the Bible by Gordon Leidner; the Lincoln–General George McClellan Conflict by George C. Rable and Civil War General Benjamin Butler by Elizabeth Leonard.

Leonard will address the Thomas F. Schwartz Symposium Luncheon which begins at 11:30 a.m. on Feb. 17.

A roundtable discussion led by Michael Burlingame, Lincoln author and the Chancellor Naomi B. Lynn Distinguished Chair in Lincoln Studies at the University of Illinois Springfield. All four symposium speakers, plus Hamilton and Burlingame, will sign their books at the hotel at 3 p.m. on Feb. 17.

Tickets for the banquet, which begins at 6 p.m. are $95 each and can be obtained online at www.abrahamlincolnassociation.org, by calling 217-546-2656 or by email to KaySmith.ala@gmail.com.

Contact Steven Spearie: 217-622-1788; sspearie@sj-r.com; X, twitter.com/@StevenSpearie.

This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: Author Nigel Hamilton will keynote the Lincoln banquet in Springfield