The diary of a public man: a case study in traditional and non-traditional authorship attribution

In 1879 the North American Review published in four separate monthly installments excerpts from "The Diary of a Public Man" in which the name of the diarist was withheld. It was, or purported to be, a diary kept during the "secession winter" of 1860-61. It appeared to offer verbatim accounts of behind-the-scenes discussions at the very highest levels during the greatest crisis the US had ever faced. Interest in this real or purported diary was considerable. The diarist had access to a wide spectrum of key officials, from the South as well as the North, gave a number of striking anecdotes about Abraham Lincoln, and provided an important account of events at Washington during the critical days just before the Civil War.