Jesse W. Weik
Encyclopedia
Jesse William Weik was a collaborator with William Herndon
William Herndon (lawyer)
William Henry Herndon was the law partner and biographer of Abraham Lincoln.-Biography:Born in Greensburg, Kentucky, Herndon and his family moved to Illinois in 1820, and they settled in Springfield when he was five. Herndon attended Illinois College from 1836-1837. In 1840 he married Mary J....

 in writing the first authoritative biography of Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...

, published in 1889.

Weik was born in Greencastle, Indiana
Greencastle, Indiana
Greencastle is a city in Greencastle Township, Putnam County, Indiana, United States, and the county seat of Putnam County. It was founded in 1821 by Scots-Irish American Ephraim Dukes on a land grant. He named the settlement for his hometown of Greencastle, Pennsylvania...

, and was educated at Indiana Asbury College (now DePauw University
DePauw University
DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana, USA, is a private, national liberal arts college with an enrollment of approximately 2,400 students. The school has a Methodist heritage and was originally known as Indiana Asbury University. DePauw is a member of both the Great Lakes Colleges Association...

), in Greencastle, receiving an A.B. in 1875 and a master of arts in 1883.

He was admitted to the bar
Bar association
A bar association is a professional body of lawyers. Some bar associations are responsible for the regulation of the legal profession in their jurisdiction; others are professional organizations dedicated to serving their members; in many cases, they are both...

 in 1880, but never practiced.

Between 1885 and 1888, he worked with primary research material compiled by Lincoln’s former law partner William Herndon, as well as several hundred pages of letters and essays written by Herndon himself setting out his own personal reminiscences of Lincoln, and forged the material into the first authoritative biography of Lincoln, which was published in 1889 under the title, Herndon's Lincoln: The True Story of a Great Life (Chicago: Belford, Clarke. 3 vols.), listing Herndon and Weik as coauthors.

In 1892, Weik published a revised version of the book (Herndon had died in 1891) titled, Abraham Lincoln: The True Story of a Great Life (New York: D. Appleton. 2 vols.).

Weik died on August 18, 1930.

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