James Swanson is the Edgar Award-winning author of the New York Times bestseller Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer. Swanson has degrees in history from the University of Chicago, where he was a student of John Hope Franklin, and in law from the University of California, Los Angeles.
He has held a number of government and think-tank posts in Washington, D.C., including at the United States Department of Justice. Swanson serves on the advisory council of the Ford’s Theatre Society. Born on Lincoln’s birthday, he has studied and collected books, documents, photographs, art, and artifacts from Abraham Lincoln’s life—and death—since he was ten years old.
Books in order of publication:
Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer. 2007.
Chasing Lincoln’s Killer: The Search for John Wilkes Booth. 2008.
Bloody Times: the Funeral for Abraham Lincoln and the Manhunt for Jefferson Davis. 2010.
Bloody Crimes: The Chase for Jefferson Davis and the Death Pageant for Lincoln’s Corpse. 2010.
“The President Has Been Shot!”: The Assassination of John F. Kennedy. 2013.
End of Days: The Assassination of John F. Kennedy 2013.
Chasing King’s Killer: The Hunt for Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Assassin, 2018.
The Deerfield Massacre: A Surprise Attack, a Forced March, and the Fight for Survival in Early America, 2024.
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