HAROLD 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, Holzer served for nine years as co-chairman of the United States Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission (ALBC), appointed by President Clinton in 2000. President Bush, in turn, awarded Holzer the National Humanities Medal in 2008. In 2010, Holzer became chairman of the ALBC successor organization, The Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Foundation.

Harold Holzer has authored, co-authored, and edited 36 books. The Library Journal “highly recommended” his latest major book, Lincoln President-Elect: Abraham Lincoln and the Great Secession Winter 1860-1861 and Doris Kearns Goodwin called it a "stunningly original work that casts completely new light on the most turbulent and critical presidential transition in American history." His previous books include: The Lincoln Image (1984); Changing the Lincoln Image (1985); and The Confederate Image, (1987), all with Mark E. Neely, Jr. and Gabor S. Boritt; The Lincoln Family Album (1990), Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory: The Civil War in Art (1993), and The Union Image (2000) with Neely; and Lincoln on Democracy (1990) with Mario M. Cuomo. He has also published The Lincoln-Douglas Debates (1993); Washington and Lincoln Portrayed (1993); Dear Mr. Lincoln: Letters to the President (1993); Witness to War (1996); The Civil War Era (1996); The Lincoln Mailbag: America Writes to the President (1998); The Union Preserved (with Daniel Lorello, 1999), The Lincoln Forum: Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg, and the Civil War (co-edited with John Y. Simon and William Pederson, 1999); Lincoln as I Knew Him (1999); Lincoln Seen and Heard (2000); Abraham Lincoln, The Writer (2000, named to the Children's Literature Choice List, and the Bank Street "Best Children's Books of the Year"); Prang's Civil War: The Complete Battle Chromos of Louis Prang (2001), State of the Union: New York and the Civil War (2002); The Lincoln Forum: Rediscovering Abraham Lincoln (co-edited with John Y. Simon, 2002); and The President is Shot! The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln (2004). His book Lincoln At Cooper Union: The Speech That Made Abraham Lincoln President (2004), won a second-place 2005 Lincoln Prize, the most prestigious award in the field.

AMONG Holzer’s OTHER books are Lincoln in the Times: The Life of Abraham Lincoln as Originally Reported in the New York Times, co-edited with David Herbert Donald (St. Martin’s Press, 2005); The Battle of Hampton Roads: New Perspectives on the U.S.S. Monitor and C.S.S. Virginia (co-edited with Tim Mulligan, 2006); The Emancipation Proclamation: Three Views (co-authored with Edna Greene Medford and Frank J. Williams, 2006); a new and enlarged edition of The Lincoln Family Album, co-authored with Mark E. Neely, Jr. (2006); Abraham Lincoln in the Collections of the Indiana Historical Society; Lincoln Revisited (2007), co-edited with John Y. Simon and Dawn Vogel; Lincoln's White House Secretary: The Adventurous Life of William O.Stoddard (2007); and Lincoln and Freedom: Slavery, Emancipation, and The Thirteenth Amendment, co-edited with Sarah Vaughn Gabbard.

For the Lincoln Bicentennial years, Holzer authored four new books: Lincoln President-Elect (2008); The Lincoln Anthology: Great Writers on His Life and Legacy from 1860 to Now (2009); In Lincoln’s Hand: His Original Manuscripts with Commentary by Distinguished Americans (2009), edited with Joshua Wolf Shenk; and The Lincoln Assassination Conspirators: Their Confinement and Execution (2009), edited with Edward Steers Jr. In 2009 he also edited Lincoln and New York, the catalog for the award-winning New-York Historical Society exhibit of the same name. The acclaimed show, on view from October 2009 through March 2010, won the prestigious Barondess/Lincoln Award, a prize from the Victorian Society for best exhibit of the year, and a special commendation from the Lincoln Group of New York.

His newest book is The Lincoln Assassination: Crime & Punishment, Myth & Memory, a Lincoln Forum publication from Fordham University Press co-edited with Craig L. Symonds and Frank J. Williams. His next book projects, all due for publication in 2010 and 2011 in tandem with the Civil War Sesquicentennial, are: Lincoln on War, a special collection of the 16th President’s letters and speeches; an edited volume called Hearts Touched By Fire: The Best of Battles and Leaders of the Civil War; a co-edited essay collection of Harvard lectures called The Living Lincoln; a co-edited collection of The New York Times Complete Civil War; and a young readers’ volume on the Lincoln family entitled Lincoln and His Boys.

In addition, Holzer has written more than 430 articles for both popular magazines and scholarly journals, including Life Magazine, American Heritage (where he served as a Contributing Editor), Civil War Times, American History Illustrated, North & South, Blue & Gray, The Chicago Tribune, The New York Times, and The Los Angeles Times.His column now appears in each issue of America's Civil War.

Holzer has also written a number of pamphlets and monographs on Lincoln, the latest of which are Lincoln’s Deathbed in Art and Memory (with Frank J. Williams, 1998), Lincoln and The Jews (2002), and Standing Tall: The Heroic Image of Abraham Lincoln (2005). And Holzer has contributed chapters to 42 additional books, including Lincoln and His Contemporaries (1999), The Lincoln Enigma (2001) and Our Lincoln (2008). In 2004, he was the historical advisor to the book Why Lincoln Matters by Mario M. Cuomo.

In February 2007 he helped organize and debut a new “Lincoln Series” of modern political debates and dialogues in the Lincoln tradition at New York’s Cooper Union, the first of which featured Mario Cuomo, Newt Gingrich, and the late Tim Russert, and later presented John Edwards, Michael Bloomberg and President Obama. 

A frequent guest on television, Holzer has appeared often on C-SPAN's Washington Journal and Q&A as well as on the 2008 special series, The White House. He has also appeared on the 2005 History Channel special Lincoln; on that network's History Center series; a 2006 episode called "Lincoln in New York;" on Abraham Lincoln: A New Birth of Freedom (PBS, 1992), Civil War Journals (A&E, 1994), American Heritage Presents the Lincoln Assassination (History Channel, 1995), A&E's Biography (1996), and The History Channel specials, Assassins: John Wilkes Booth and Investigating History: Lincoln-Man vs. Myth. He has appeared on The Today Show, The Charlie Rose Show, The Lou Dobbs Show, CNBC, CNN, Fox News, The News Hour with Jim Lehrer, CBS Sunday Morning, and the CBS Evening News. He appeared on the three-hour C-SPAN American Writers special on Abraham Lincoln, was profiled on the network's three-hour In-Depth series. He was also seen on C-SPAN in broadcasts of his stage presentations Lincoln Seen and Heard with Sam Waterston and Grant Seen and Heard with Richard Dreyfuss. Holzer's appearance on C-SPAN's Booknotes series inspired the 1994 C-SPAN re-creations of the Lincoln-Douglas debates in Illinois, for which Holzer served as historical consultant and on-air commentator. C-SPAN also broadcast the 2004 on-site re-creation of The Cooper Union address, featuring Holzer and Waterston, and in February 2005 a special Lincoln's Birthday-eve performance of Lincoln Seen and Heard live from the White House, hosted by President and Mrs. Bush. He also twice appeared on the award-winning discussion show Open Mind and on C-SPAN in the performance piece The Lincoln Family Album starring Liam Neeson and Holly Hunter, broadcast from the Library of Congress in Washington. He appeared to introduce the C-SPAN broadcast of a Cooper Union dialogue In the Lincoln Tradition.

For the bicentennial, Holzer appeared on a number of national television specials, including Q&A with Brian Lamb from Washington’s Willard Hotel; Bill Moyers Journal on PBS, with Sam Waterston in a new reading entitled “Lincoln In American Memory,” and in the documentaries Looking For Lincoln (PBS), Stealing Lincoln’s Body (History Channel), and Lincoln: American Mastermind (National Geographic Television).

Holzer also lectures before Civil War and Lincoln groups and at museums, colleges, and history conferences throughout the country. Among the 141 different talks he has given across America, Holzer has delivered the McMurtry Lecture at the Lincoln Museum in Fort Wayne, the Lincoln Shrine Lecture in Redlands, California, and the Frank and Virginia Williams Lecture at LSU/Shreveport. In 2004, he delivered the prestigious Fortenbaugh Lecture at Gettysburg College and the second annual NEH "Heroes of History" lecture at Ford's Theatre in Washington. In 2005, he was the featured speaker at the ceremonies marking the anniversary of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address at the Solidier's Cemetry in Gettysburg, PA. His bicentennial year lectures have taken him from Oxford, England to Boise, Idaho, and some 25 major venues in between, including as American Pictures Distinguished Lecturer at The Smithsonian Institution in April 2009. He is scheduled deliver the prestigious Nathan I. Huggins Lectures at Harvard University's W.E.B. Du Bois Center for African and African American Research in fall 2010.

In addition to his work on The New York Historical Society show Lincoln and New York, he has also organized several Lincoln symposia and curated five museum exhibitions of original art, notably the award-winning 1999 Lincoln Museum exhibit Lincoln From Life. He served as lead historian for several exhibitions and symposia at the New York State Museum in Albany, including State of the Union: New York and the Civil War. He serves as guest historian to the 2009–2010 New York Historical Society Exhibition, Lincoln and New York, and editor of the companion book.

Much honored for his work, Holzer won a coveted Lincoln Prize for his Cooper Union book in 2005. He has six times won the Barondess Award of the Civil War Round Table of New York (1984, 1990, 1993, 2005, 2009; plus an honorable mention in 1999 for the exhibition Lincoln from Life). He has also received the Diploma of Honor from Lincoln Memorial University (1988); won the Award of Achievement from the Lincoln Group of New York five times (1988, 1993 2004, 2009 and 2010); received a 1988 George Washington Medal from the Freedom Foundation; a 1989 Writer of Distinction Award from the International Reading Association; and a 1993 Award of Superior Achievement from the Illinois State Historical Society, along with an honorary doctorate in humane letters from Lincoln College in 1992. In 1996 he won the first annual award from the Manuscript Society of America for his use of original manuscripts in Dear Mr. Lincoln. The Union Image won the 2000 Newman Book Award of the American Historical Print Collectors Society. In 2002 Holzer received the coveted Nevins-Freeman Award of The Civil War Round Table of Chicago, and his young reader's book, The President is Shot! won several awards. Lincoln President-Elect was recently named a best book of 2008 by the Illinois State Historical Society. In 2006, Holzer was awarded honorary degrees by Illinois College and University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, and The Lincoln Group of The District of Columbia's annual award of achievement. He was honored in 2009 by both Bard College and Queens College. In 2009 he was also awarded The Lincoln Medal of Honor in Springfield, Illinois.

From 1991-1996, Holzer served as president of the Lincoln Group of New York, and still serves on its executive committee. He also served on the board of directors of the Abraham Lincoln Association and New York's Civil War Round Table, and on the editorial advisory board of The Lincoln Herald.

Holzer is founding vice chairman and a regular lecturer at The Lincoln Forum, which hosts an annual symposium each year in Gettysburg, and serves on the Board of Directors of the Ulysses S. Grant Association. He was also a member of the Research Advisory Group for the President Lincoln and Soldiers' Home National Monument in Washington, and of the board of historical advisors of the Mariners' Museum's U.S.S. Monitor Center in Newport News, Virginia; the Tredegar National Civil War Center Foundation in Richmond; The National Constitution Center in Philadelphia; and the new Gettysburg National Military Park Visitor Center. At the U.S. Lincoln Bicentennial Commission, he helped plan and organize programs and celebrations to mark Lincoln's 200th birthday.

In February 2006, Holzer was also named co-chairman of The New York State Lincoln Bicentennial Commission by Governor George E. Pataki. A former member of the New York State Council on the Humanities, Holzer was appointed by Gov. Mario Cuomo to the New York State Archives Preservation Trust Board in 1994, was re-appointed by Gov. Pataki in 1999, and by then-New York State Senate Minority Leader David Paterson in 2004. In this role he co-organized and served as lead historian for a Union Preserved Civil War symposium in Albany, co-edited two Archives-sponsored books on New York and The Civil War, and hosted events featuring actor Richard Dreyfuss, C-SPAN founder Brian Lamb, actor Sam Waterston, and historians Doris Kearns Goodwin and Henry Louis Gates Jr.

Educated at the City University of New York, Holzer began his career as a weekly newspaper editor for The Manhattan Tribune, a political campaign press secretary for Congresswoman Bella S. Abzug and Governor Mario Cuomo, a government speechwriter for New York City Mayor Abraham D. Beame, and as public affairs director for the PBS flagship station WNET.

Holzer currently serves as Senior Vice President for External Affairs at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the largest and most comprehensive art museum in the western hemisphere. He joined the museum as Chief Communications Officer in 1992 and was named vice president in 1996 and senior vice president in 2005. His responsibilities include Communications, Marketing, Advertising, Government Affairs, Multi-Cultural Audience Development, Admissions, and Visitor Services. From 1984 through 1992 he served as Special Counselor to the Director of Economic Development and executive vice president of The New York State Urban Development Corporation in the administration of Governor Mario M. Cuomo.

Holzer lives in Rye, New York with his wife, Edith, director of public affairs for the New York State Council of Child Caring Agencies. The Holzers have two daughters: Meg, an attorney who attended Yale University and NYU Law School, and Remy, a Harvard graduate with a Masters in Film Studies from NYU who served as Editorial Director of Museum of The Moving Image of New York and is now an independent film historian; she is married to New Republic associate editor and book critic Adam Kirsch. The Holzers have one grandson, Charles Ezra Kirsch.