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{{For|the film based on this novel|Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter}}

{{Infobox book <!-- See Wikipedia:WikiProject_Novels or Wikipedia:WikiProject_Books -->
| name          = Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter
| image         = Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter Cover.jpg
| caption       = First edition cover
| author        = [[Seth Grahame-Smith]]
| country       = United States
| language      = English
| genre         = [[Comic novel]], [[horror novel|horror]], historical, [[thriller novel|thriller]]
| published     = March 2, 2010, Grand Central Publishing, New York
| media_type    = Print (Hardcover, Paperback)<br>e-Book ([[Amazon Kindle|Kindle]], [[Apple Books|Apple iBooks]])<br>Audio Book (CD)
| pages         = 336 pp
| isbn          = 978-0-446-56308-6
| oclc          = 458890478
}}
'''''Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter''''' is a [[biographical]] [[action (fiction)|action]] [[horror fiction|horror]] [[mashup novel]] by [[Seth Grahame-Smith]], released on March 2, 2010, through New York–based publishing company [[Grand Central Publishing]].<ref>[http://www.nerdcore.de/wp/2010/03/01/seth-grahame-smiths-neues-werk-abraham-lincoln-vampire-hunter "Seth Grahame-Smiths neues Werk 'Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter'"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100305052233/http://www.nerdcore.de/wp/2010/03/01/seth-grahame-smiths-neues-werk-abraham-lincoln-vampire-hunter/ |date=2010-03-05 }}. ''Nerdcore.de''. Retrieved 2011-06-20.</ref>

==Plot summary==
The [[Personal journal|journal]]-style book is written as a partial "secret" diary of [[Abraham Lincoln]], kept by the [[List of Presidents of the United States|16th President of the United States]] and given to the author by a [[vampire]] named Henry Sturges. Years later, the manuscript is found in a five-and-dime store in the town of [[Rhinebeck, New York]].

At the age of eleven, Abraham Lincoln learns from his father [[Thomas Lincoln|Thomas]] that vampires are real. A drunken Thomas explains that a vampire killed [[Abraham Lincoln (captain)|Abraham's grandfather]] in 1786. Abraham's mother, [[Nancy Lincoln|Nancy]], also succumbed not to [[milk sickness]] but rather to being given a "fool's dose" of vampire blood, the result of Thomas's failure to repay a debt. Lincoln vows to kill as many vampires as he can. A year later, he lures the vampire responsible for Nancy's death to the family farm and kills it with a homemade stake.

In 1825, Lincoln learns of a possible vampire attack along the [[Ohio River]] and investigates, but quickly proves no match for the vampire and is nearly killed. He is saved by the intervention of the vampire Henry Sturges, who nurses Lincoln back to health and explains some of the nature of [[Vampire lifestyle|vampirism]], emphasizing that some vampires are good, such as he, and others are evil. Lincoln spends the summer with Henry sharpening his senses and being trained as an expert vampire hunter, with Henry revealing that he was turned by the same vampire responsible for [[Roanoke Colony|wiping out the Roanoke Colony of 1587]]. When Lincoln departs weeks later, Henry begins mailing him the names and locations of evil vampires; Abraham tracks them down and kills them.

As a young adult, Lincoln and a friend travel down the [[Mississippi River]] to [[New Orleans]] on a flatboat to sell some goods. Here, Lincoln befriends [[Edgar Allan Poe]], who is also aware of vampires, and witnesses a [[Slavery in the United States|slave]] auction. Lincoln follows a slave buyer and his new slaves back to a plantation and discovers that the buyer is a vampire―the slaves are to be used not for labor but for food. Lincoln believes that vampires will continue to exist in America as long as they can easily buy their victims in this manner, and so to end slavery is to end the scourge of vampires. To this end, Lincoln becomes an [[Abolitionism in the United States|abolitionist]]. Returning to his home in [[New Salem, Menard County, Illinois|New Salem]], Lincoln begins his business and political careers by day, continuing to track down the vampires in Henry's letters at night. His life is once again tinged by tragedy when his fiancée [[Ann Rutledge]] is attacked and murdered by her ex-fiancé John McNamar, now a vampire living in New York City. With Henry's help, Lincoln catches McNamar and kills him, but decides to give up vampire hunting and instead concentrate on his daytime pursuits. Lincoln marries [[Mary Todd Lincoln|Mary Todd]], begins to raise a family, starts a law firm and is elected to the [[U.S. House of Representatives]].

Lincoln reunites with Poe in Washington, who explains that vampires were driven from their ancestral homes in Europe in the 17th century due to public outcry over the bloody atrocities of [[Elizabeth Báthory]], later helping the United States [[American Revolutionary War|gain its independence]] due to the lucrative slave trade. Poe warns that if the vampires are left unchecked, they will eventually seek to enslave all Americans, [[African Americans|Black]] and [[White Americans|White]] alike. Poe is later found [[Death of Edgar Allan Poe|murdered]] in Baltimore, the victim of a vampire attack. In 1857, Henry summons Lincoln to New York City. Here, Lincoln and fellow vampire slayer [[William H. Seward|William Seward]] meet a group of good vampires known as the Union, who inform them that vampires in the [[Southern United States|South]] intend to start a civil war in order to conquer the north and enslave the entire country. Lincoln runs for the [[U.S. Senate]] and debates with [[Stephen A. Douglas]], an ally of the Southern vampires, in what become known as the [[Lincoln–Douglas debates]]. Lincoln loses but gains a great deal of publicity and respect, allowing him to capture the [[1860 Republican National Convention|Republican Party nomination]] for President of the United States and then the office itself, as secretly orchestrated by the Union.

Lincoln's [[1860 United States presidential election|election]] triggers the secession of the Southern slave states and the start of the [[American Civil War]]. His former opponent Douglas sides with him, regretting his previous alliance with vampires, but is later murdered for his betrayal. Early battles, such as the [[First Battle of Bull Run]], go poorly for the [[Union (American Civil War)|Union]] troops after they are attacked by [[Confederate States of America|Confederate]] vampires. Lincoln decides that the best way to defeat the vampires is to eliminate their food source and starve them out, leading to him announcing the [[Emancipation Proclamation]] to encourage slaves to fight back; this begins to turn the tide of the war. In 1862, a vampire sneaks onto the White House lawn and murders Lincoln's 11-year old son, [[William Wallace Lincoln|Willie]]. Henry offers to turn Willie into a vampire so that he will "live" again, but an enraged Lincoln attacks him before banishing him and all other vampires from the White House, declaring he will never see another for as long as he lives.

The Civil War ends with the Confederacy's defeat. Lincoln receives reports that the vampires in the South are fleeing to [[Asia]] and [[South America]] in the wake of the slave system's collapse. Happy for the first time in years, he attends a play at [[Ford's Theater]], only to be [[Assassination of Abraham Lincoln|assassinated]] by [[John Wilkes Booth]], a vampire. Booth expects the South to rally around Lincoln's death, but instead finds himself shunned and hiding in a Virginia barn as Union troops arrive to arrest him. Henry arrives and confronts Booth inside the barn, killing him. Lincoln's body is later brought by a [[funeral train]] back to [[Springfield, Illinois]], where Henry stands guard.

In 1963, Henry and Lincoln attend [[Martin Luther King Jr.]]'s "[[I Have a Dream]]" speech, with Lincoln writing about spending the previous night at the White House as a guest of [[John F. Kennedy]], and how the [[Lincoln Memorial|monument]] dedicated to him gives him "no shortage of discomfort". Henry had used his powers to turn Lincoln into a vampire, believing that "some men are just too interesting to die".

==Reception==
The ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'' gave ''Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter'' a positive review, noting that "a writer who can transform the greatest figure from 19th-century American history into the star of an original vampire tale with humor, heart and bite is a rare find indeed".<ref>{{cite news|author=Mcintyre, Gina |title=BOOK REVIEWS Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter and Queen Victoria: Demon Hunter |url=http://www.latimes.com/features/books/la-et-book4-2010mar04,0,5426838.story |date=2010-03-04 |accessdate=2010-03-16 |work=[[Los Angeles Times]] |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100717095517/http://www.latimes.com/features/books/la-et-book4-2010mar04%2C0%2C5426838.story |archivedate=July 17, 2010 |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[Time (magazine)|''Time'' magazine]] gave the novel a mixed review, calling author Grahame-Smith "a lively, fluent writer with a sharp sense of tone and pace", but finding the novel "a little too neat" and noting that "once the connection is made, it feels obvious, and neither slavery nor vampirism reveals anything in particular about the other. One could imagine a richer, subtler treatment of the subject, in which the two horrors multiply each other rather than cancel each other out".<ref>{{cite news|author=Grossman, Lev |title=Critique of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1968104,00.html |date=2010-03-08 |access-date=2010-03-16 |work=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100317083150/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0%2C9171%2C1968104%2C00.html |archive-date=17 March 2010 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

==Film adaptation==
{{main|Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter}}
[[20th Century Fox]] produced a film adaptation, released June 22, 2012. [[Timur Bekmambetov]] directed the film, [[Tim Burton]] produced along with Bekmambetov and [[Jim Lemley]], and [[Benjamin Walker (actor)|Benjamin Walker]] starred as Abraham Lincoln.<ref>{{cite news |title=Aside From the Vampires, Lincoln Film Seeks Accuracy |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/10/movies/abraham-lincoln-vampire-hunter-rewrites-history.html? |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |author=Michael Cieply |date=May 9, 2011}}</ref>

== Sequel ==
A sequel, titled ''[[The Last American Vampire]]'' and focusing on Henry Sturges's experiences during many major events of the 20th century, was released on January 13, 2015.<ref>{{cite news |title=Author Completes Work on Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter Sequel |url=http://www.shocktillyoudrop.com/news/362081-author-completes-work-abraham-lincoln-vampire-hunter-sequel/ |website=[[Shock Till You Drop]] |author=Ryan Turek |date=August 7, 2014}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Mashup novel]]
* ''[[The Amazing Screw-On Head]]'',  a comic book and cartoon involving Abraham Lincoln and vampires

==References==
{{Reflist}}


[[Category:2010 American novels]]
[[Category:2010s horror novels]]
[[Category:2010s in comedy]]
[[Category:American horror novels]]
[[Category:American comedy novels]]
[[Category:American historical novels]]
[[Category:American thriller novels]]
[[Category:American novels about vampires]]
[[Category:Speculative crime and thriller fiction novels]]
[[Category:Epistolary novels]]
[[Category:Biographical novels]]
[[Category:Action novels]]
[[Category:Parody novels]]
[[Category:Comedy horror]]
[[Category:Mashup]]
[[Category:American Civil War alternate histories]]
[[Category:Works set in the White House]]
[[Category:Novels about revenge]]
[[Category:Fictional depictions of Abraham Lincoln in literature]]
[[Category:Novels about Edgar Allan Poe]]
[[Category:Cultural depictions of Elizabeth Báthory]]
[[Category:American novels adapted into films]]
[[Category:Horror novels adapted into films]]
[[Category:Comedy novels adapted into films]]
[[Category:Works published under a pseudonym]]
[[Category:Novels by Seth Grahame-Smith]]
[[Category:Grand Central Publishing books]]

{{Wikipedia attribution|original_title=Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter (novel)|access_date=2026-02-24}}