BOONE—Noted Lincoln historian Harold Holzer will speak on “Why Lincoln Matters—To History, To Our Presidents, and Us” April 13 at Appalachian State University. His talk begins at 8 p.m. in the Broyhill Inn and Conference Center’s Helen A. Powers Grand Hall. Admission is free. The talk is part of the University Distinguished Lecture Series.

Holzer’s talk was originally scheduled for Feb. 8 but was postponed because of inclement weather.

Holzer is one of the country’s leading authorities on Abraham Lincoln and the political culture of the Civil War era. A prolific writer and lecturer, and frequent guest on television, he serves as co‐chairman of the United States Lincoln Bicentennial Commission and is senior vice president for external Affairs at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Holzer has authored, coauthored and edited 30 books on Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War, including “The Lincoln Image,” “Lincoln Seen and Heard,” “Dear Mr. Lincoln: Letters to the President,” “Lincoln as I Knew Him” and “Lincoln on Democracy.”

His book “Lincoln at Cooper Union: The Speech That Made Abraham Lincoln President” (2004) won the prestigious Lincoln Prize.

His most recent book, “Lincoln President-Elect” (October 2008), examines the four months between Lincoln’s election and inauguration, when the president‐elect made the most important decision of his coming presidency – when he rejected compromises urged on him by Republicans and Democrats, Northerners and Southerners, that might have preserved the Union a little longer but would have enshrined slavery for generations.

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