robert hitt is the gentleman behind that. transcripts were rare in 1859. >> they were rare for people who could afford it. hitt was lincoln's transcriber for the lincoln-douglas debates. notice i use the term lincoln's transcriber. douglas's transcriber presented a slightly different version of the debates. that is such an interesting element to the lincoln-douglas debates is to compare hitt's transcription versus douglas's transcription. robert hitt is someone who went on to have a distinguished career in politics as a u.s. member of congress and almost vice presidential candidate. this was one of the big moments for him, the combination of the lincoln-douglas debates and then lincoln asking him to transcribe this trial. >> robert hitt appears in one of your later books. this is theodore roosevelt for the defense. it came out in 2019. robert hitt and tr had a relationship. >> we did not even realize this relationship until we started working on the roosevelt book. we had done extensive research on robert hitt. we left it at