Books • Editor,
The Genteel Tradition: Nine Essays by George Santayana.
Harvard University Press, 1967. • Edited with James Gilreath, ''Thomas Jefferson's Library: A Catalog with the Entries in His Own Order'', Library of Congress, 1989. • Editor, ''Jefferson's Literary Commonplace Book, The Papers of Thomas Jefferson''. Second Series, Princeton University Press, 1989. • ''Jefferson's Books'', Monticello Monographs, 1996. •
Lincoln Before Washington: New Perspectives on the Illinois Years, University of Illinois Press, 1997. • Editor,
Monticello: A Guide Book. Thomas Jefferson Foundation, 1997. • ''Honor's Voice: The Transformation of Abraham Lincoln''.
Alfred A. Knopf, 1998. Awarded Lincoln Prize. • Edited with Rodney O. Davis, ''Herndon's Informants: Letters, Interviews, and Statements about
Abraham Lincoln''. University of Illinois Press, 1998. • Edited with Lucia Stanton,
Jefferson Abroad.
The Modern Library, 1999. • Editor with Rodney O. Davis, ''Herndon's Lincoln'', University of Illinois Press, 2006. • ''Lincoln's Sword: The Presidency and the Power of Words''.
Alfred A. Knopf, 2006. Awarded Lincoln Prize. • Edited with Rodney O. Davis,
The Lincoln-Douglas Debates: The Lincoln Studies Center Edition,
University of Illinois Press, 2008. • Editor with Rodney O. Davis,
Herndon on Lincoln: Letters, University of Illinois Press, 2016. • Editor with Rodney O. Davis, ''Lincoln's Confidant: The Life of Noah Brooks'', by Wayne C. Temple, University of Illinois Press, 2019.
Articles • "The Other Side of the Wall" (on Robert Frost's "Mending Wall"),
The Iowa Review, 10:1 (Winter 1979), 65–75. • "The American Agricola: Jefferson's Agrarianism and the Classical Tradition,"
South Atlantic Quarterly 80.3 (1981): 339–54. • "Sowerby Revisited: The Unfinished Catalogue of Jefferson's Library,"
William and Mary Quarterly 3rd Series, XLI (1984): 615–28. • "Thomas Jefferson's Early Notebooks,"
William and Mary Quarterly 3rd Series, XLII (1985): 433–52. • "Jefferson's Library," in
Thomas Jefferson: A Research Biography. Edited by
Merrill D. Peterson.
Charles Scribner's Sons (1986): 157–79. • "The Fate of Jefferson's Farmer,"
North Dakota Quarterly, 56.4 (1988): 23–34. • "Jefferson vs. Hume,"
William and Mary Quarterly 3rd Series, XLVI (1989): 49–70. • "
Thomas Jefferson and the Legacy of a National Library",
Wilson Library Bulletin, 64:6 (February 1990), 37–41. • "Abraham Lincoln,
Ann Rutledge, and the Evidence of Herndon's Informants,"
Civil War History, 36.4 (1990): 301–24. • "What Jefferson and Lincoln Read",
The Atlantic Monthly, 267.1 (1991): 51–62. • "Abraham Lincoln's Indiana and the Spirit of Mortal,"
Indiana Magazine of History LXXXVII.2 (1991): 155–70. • "Abraham Lincoln and 'that fatal first of January,
Civil War History, 38:2 (June 1992), 101–130. • "Thomas Jefferson and the Character Issue",
The Atlantic Monthly, 270:5 (1992): 57–74. • "Dating Jefferson's Early Architectural Drawings",
Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, 101:1 (January 1993), 53–76. • "Abraham Lincoln and 'that fatal first of January,
Civil War History 38.2 (1992): 101–130. • "Thomas Jefferson's Library and the Skipwith List,"
Harvard Library Bulletin New Series 3.4 (1992–93): 56–72. • "
William H. Herndon and his Lincoln Informants,"
Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association 14.1 (1993): 15–34. • "Jefferson and the Republic of Letters, " in
Jeffersonian Legacies, edited by Peter S. Onuf. University Press of Virginia (1993): 50–76. • "Thomas Jefferson's Library and the French Connection",
Eighteenth-Century Studies, 26:4 (Summer 1993), 669–85. • "Editing Herndon's Informants,"
The Lincoln Herald 95.4 (1993 [1994]): 115–23. • "William H. Herndon and the 'Necessary Truth,'" in
Abraham Lincoln in the American Mind: Papers from the Eighth Annual Lincoln Colloquium ed. Linda Norbut Suits and
George Painter. Lincoln Home National Historic Site (1994): 31–41. • "A Most Abandoned Hypocrite" [unrecorded Lincoln satire],
American Heritage 45.1 (1994): 36–49. • "The Unfinished Text of the Lincoln-Douglas Debates,"
Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association 15.1 (1994): 70–84. • "Lincoln's Affair of Honor,"
The Atlantic Monthly 281.2 (1998) 64–71. • "Lincoln and Lovejoy," "We Cannot Escape History":
Papers from the Eleventh Annual Lincoln Colloquium ed. Linda Norbut Suits and Timothy P. Townsend.
Lincoln Home National Historic Site, 1999. • "Jefferson and Literacy," in
Thomas Jefferson and the Education of a Citizen, ed.
James Gilreath.
Library of Congress (1999): 79–90. • "Keeping Lincoln's Secrets,"
The Atlantic Monthly 285.5 (2000): 78–88. • "Collaborating with the Past: Remarks on Being Awarded the Lincoln Prize," in
Accepting the Lincoln Prize: Two Historians Speak (2000): 39–56, (Gettysburg College). • "William H. Herndon and
Mary Todd Lincoln,"
Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association 22.2 (2001): 1–26. • "Young Man Lincoln," in
The Lincoln Enigma: The Changing Faces of an American Icon ed.
Gabor Boritt.
Oxford University Press (2001): 20–35. • "A Note on the Text of Lincoln's Second Inaugural,"
Documentary Editing 24.2 (2002): 37–41 • "The Evolution of Jefferson's
Notes on the State of Virginia,"
Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 112.2 (2004): 99–133. • "Herndon’s Dilemma: Abraham Lincoln and the Privacy Issue,"
Lincoln Lore 1877 (2004): 2–10. • "Lincoln and Lovejoy," "We Cannot Escape History":
Papers from the Eleventh Annual Lincoln Colloquium ed. Linda Norbut Suits and Timothy P. Townsend.
Lincoln Home National Historic Site, 1999. • "Lincoln and Abolition,"
History Now Issue 6, (online), 2005. • "They Said He was a Lousy Speaker," Special Lincoln Issue,
Time (July 4, 2005), 68–69. • "Lincoln the Persuader,"
The American Scholar 74.4 (2006): 31–43. • Interview on Lincoln scholarship,
Lincoln Lore 1885 (2006): 2–6. • "Terrific in Denunciation",
Humanities: The Magazine of the National Endowment for the Humanities 29.1 (2008): 16–20. • "Presidential Biographies."
Bookmarks Magazine 34, 16 (May/June, 2008) • "Groundwork for Greatness:
Abraham Lincoln to 1854,"
Abraham Lincoln: A Legacy for Freedom,
U.S. Department of State, 2008. • "Reflections on Lincoln and English Studies,"
College English, 72:2 (December 2009), 156–57. • "Prospects for Lincoln 2.5,"
Journal of American History, 96:2 (September 2009), 1–3. • "Reflections on Lincoln and English Studies,"
College English, 72:2 (December 2009), 156–57. • "Abraham Lincoln and the Shaping of Public Opinion," in ''Lincoln's Legacy of Leadership'', ed. George R. Goethals and Gary L. McDowell, 2010. • "The Once and Future Gettysburg Address," Long Remembered: Lincoln and His Five Versions of the Gettysburg Address, Commentary by Lloyd A. Dunlap, David C. Mearns, John R. Sellers, and Douglas L. Wilson (Library of Congress in Association with the Levenger Press, 2011), 87–94, 109–12. • "His Hour Upon the Stage,"
The American Scholar (Winter 2012), 60–69. • Public Opinion is Everything:' Lincoln the Communicator," in
Lincoln: A President for the Ages, ed. Karl Weber (New York: Public Affairs, 2012), 183–95. • "The Power of the Negative,"
The Wall Street Journal, Jan. 17, 2013. • "Lincoln's Rhetoric,"
Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association, 34:1 (Winter 2013), 1–17. • "Lincoln Answers His Critics,"
New York Times, June 12, 2013. • "William H. Herndon on Lincoln's Fatalism,"
Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association, 35:2 (Summer 2014), 1–17. • "Nothing Equals
Macbeth: Notes on Lincoln's Fatal Attraction," in
Nation and World, Church and God: The Legacy of Garry Wills, ed. Kenneth L. Vaux and Melanie Baffes, Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press, 2014, 83–99. • "A Book to Remember,"
The American Scholar, Online edition, Jan. 26, 2015. • "Lincoln through the Lens of History: An Interview with Douglas L. Wilson,"
Lincoln Lore, No. 1914 (Spring 2017). • == Lectures and papers ==