I like the way encyclopedia.com calls ELM prejudiced and then reports that "he maintained a sucessful law practice in Chicago." For eight years, until he resigned from the firm and started his own practice, Edgar Lee Masters was the law partner of Clarence Darrow.
"Seldom have I read so brilliant a picture of the decay of the old American spirit, with its horrible consequences in politics, business, and daily life. The writing here is so eloquent as to be genuinely moving. And under it there is visible the fine earnestness of an American who really loves his country."
-- H. L. Mencken, The New York Herald-Tribune
"A people lives by myths, religious and social. And it is always a dangerous thing to tamper with them. But the Lincoln myth is definitely a bad myth, and Mr. Masters deserves great credit for shattering it..."
-- Andrew Nelson Lytle, The Virginia Quarterly Review
“There is no reason why there should not be a Copperhead [pro-South Northern] life of Lincoln. This is a Copperhead, not a Confederate biography..."
-- C. W. Thompson, The New York Times
"Needless to say, a writer of Mr. Masters's talent has a good deal to say that is worth hearing..."
-- The Times of London
"An intensely interesting, arresting, challenging book which will create no end of bitter controversy and have in consequence, a wide reading."
-- Claude Bowers, The Saturday Review of Literature
Masters thought Darrow was a publicity hog.