Book excerpt: Colonel William H. Crook spent fifty years at the White House in varying roles, including, as the title says, Abraham Lincoln's bodyguard. Beyond his touching personal observations about president Lincoln (they were clearly friends, and Crook felt extremely affectionately about him), he also gives us a glimpse into life in the white house and those most influential of figures surrounding it. His stories of presidents Garfield, Johnson, and Hayes are fascinating. His many accounts of his friendship with Ulysses S. Grant, including buggy racing with the general, and his presence as a guest at Grant's daughter's white house wedding are as humorous as they are interesting.