How Lamon, being a friend of Lincoln, could ever have written such a book has been the subject of much conjecture. Herndon believed that during the latter part of his life in Washington Lamon had become embittered against Lincoln. Lamon's daughter in a magazine article on the subject professed her father's abiding friendship for Lincoln, but maintained that he was endeavoring to tell the true story of a great life and to recover the real Lincoln from the realm of myth (Dorothy Lamon Teillard: "Lincoln in Myth and in Fact," _World's Work_, February, 1911, pp. 14040-44). The basis of Lamon's book is the Herndon manuscripts, copies of which Herndon sold to Lamon for $2,000 in 1870. That Herndon bitterly regretted the necessity of this sale, there is clear evidence; but he had come to a condition of great poverty; and there were other reasons why it seemed unlikely that he himself would ever write a Life of Lincoln. That Lamon himself wrote the book without assistance was disputed from the beginning, and Herndon was accused of being its real author. In letters to Horace White in 1890, Herndon told the truth, as is now believed, concerning the authorship. "You regret, as well as myself, that I sold my MSS. to Lamon. The reason why I did so was that I was then, in 1870-72, a poor devil and had to sell to live. From 1853 to 1865 I spent all my time and money for the 'nigger,' or rather for Liberty and the Union--lost my practice, went to farming, and went under in the crash of 1871-73, and that, too, from no speculations, vices, etc. Today I have to work for tomorrow's bread, and yet I am a happy and contented man. I own a little farm of sixty-five acres and raise fruits for a living. Now you have the reasons for my acts. "In reference to Lamon's book, I can truthfully say that Chauncey F. Black,[34] son of J. S. Black, wrote quite every word of it.... I have for years been written to by various persons to know why Lamon was so much prejudiced against Lincoln. The bitterness, if any, was not in Lamon so much as in Black, though I am convinced that Lamon was no solid, firm friend of Lincoln, especially during Lincoln's administration, or the latter part of it."--NEWTON: _Lincoln and Herndon_, pp. 307-8. Herndon stoutly denied having written a single line of Lamon's book, but he furnished the greater part of the material in the form of documents, and gave further aid by letters and suggestions. Thirteen years after it was published he wrote to Lamon, who was still hoping to issue a new biography which would include the volume already issued and a second volume, and said: