Craig fehrman, the author of the new book author in chief. Who was oran follett . Why did he make the claim that he made Abraham Lincoln president . Oran follett was a publisher in ohio. He had is a Printing Firm in ohio. They published lots of different local books. He had the distinct privilege to publish Abraham Lincolns bestselling book. We should probably back up, because a lot of people do not know that he wrote one. When lincoln ran for the senate and lost to Stephen Douglas, they had their famous debate. During the debates, there were a couple of people from newspapers transcribing the debates, writing down shorthand and then a couple of days later, they would print it in papers so people who didnt attend could read it in the newspapers. Lincoln, after he lost the senate race, for most people, the story stopped there. This is breaking news. Lets move on. Lincoln, after he lost the senate race, he worked hard to gather those newspaper transcript. He worked hard. There are at lea