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Happy birthday, Mr. President
The countdown to the Lincoln bicentennial begins REVIEWS BY DAVID MADDEN His profile appears on the humble penny and the monumental Mount Rushmore; we've seen his countenance staring out from iconic photographs and the massive Lincoln monument. But there are many other facets to Abraham Lincoln's life and legacy. Even allowing for the approaching bicentennial of his birth in 2009—which will be commemorated with events around the world—an astonishing array of books about our 16th president has arrived on the scene over the past year or so. There is such variety among this year's numerous books that to survey them all is an experience of rare delight, as a look at the following selections shows.
By Chuck Wills DK, $40 160 pages ISBN 9780756632229
In One Man Great Enough: Abraham Lincoln's Road to Civil War, John C. Waugh, award-winning author of four other books on the Civil War, speaks to us in an intimate narrative, frequently giving voice to Lincoln through his writings, as he leads us down the long, rocky and often muddy road Lincoln took to the White House and to war. The dramatic climax to this familiar though freshly re-imagined journey is the reconciliation between President Lincoln and his frequent debate opponent, Stephen Douglas, hours after the firing upon Fort Sumter. Enemy bullets having entered the debate, Douglas, the consummate Midwesterner, offered his support to Lincoln, the Southerner married to a Southerner, in the war effort before him. "No two men in the United States parted that night with a more cordial feeling of a united, friendly, and patriotic purpose than Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Douglas," said the congressman who brought them together, not before their customary crowds debating slavery issues, but alone in the White House. Douglas died soon after, too soon. The "loss of his longtime friend and foe," writes Waugh, leaves Lincoln wondering whether he is the "one man great enough" to win the war, preserve the Union and end slavery.
By John C. Waugh Harcourt, $28 496 pages ISBN 9780151010714
Stephen Berry's astonishing claim that no book has ever before traced the saga of a single family that illustrates the often spoken phrase "brother against brother" makes his choice of Lincoln and his wife's family as the subject for the first such book both ironic and welcome. Much of the story covered in House of Abraham: Lincoln and the Todds, a Family Divided by War is well-known, especially the simple fact that three of Mary Todd Lincoln's brothers fought (and two died) for the Confederacy, causing many to suspect her of sympathizing with the enemy and even of active disloyalty. The complex drama of life in the White House during the war years was aggravated by the lingering effect of the earlier years of marital conflicts, the stresses and strains emanating from the differing backgrounds and personalities of Abe and Mary, and illness and death in the family. Lincoln's absence from and his melancholy presence in the home became worse during his presidency; Mary's erratic behavior as first lady and her neurotic grief over the death of their son accelerated the forces of division within the household. The subject and scope of House of Abraham may or may not be as original as Berry claims, but it is a very well-researched and well-written Lincoln chronicle.
By Stephen Berry Houghton Mifflin, $28 272 pages ISBN 9780618420056
Seven score and a few years ago, President Abraham Lincoln brought forth upon this globe words that the world has long remembered. Phrase by phrase, the words Lincoln spoke on November 19, 1863, are rendered and illustrated in large, powerful paintings by artist Sam Fink in The Gettysburg Address. Opposite each full-page painting of Lincoln and a phrase from the address are other Lincoln quotations, along with ones about him from Walt Whitman, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Carl Sandburg and others. The prominent Lincoln scholar Gabor Boritt, who participated in the 1956 revolt against the Russians in his native Hungary, has just cause to stress in his introduction that Lincoln's words, especially "a government of the people, by the people," have become a kind of "secular gospel," not only for Americans who have such a government, but for nations ever since that have fought and died to achieve it.
By Sam Fink Welcome Books, $29.95 88 pages ISBN 9781599620381
By John S. Salmon Turner, $39.95 206 pages ISBN 9781596523234
What if some, or even a few, of the legends that keep Lincoln's legacy alive and vibrant for us were exposed as fabrications? In Lincoln Legends: Myths, Hoaxes, and Confabulations Associated with Our Greatest President, Edward Steers Jr., author of two highly acclaimed books on Lincoln's assassination, raises and analyzes questions about Lincoln in chronological order. Among the things Steers considers are whether Lincoln was born in a cabin, who his real father was, whether he really said all the things he's famous for saying, what happened to the pages missing from John Wilkes Booth's diary, etc. In the book's introduction, respected Lincoln historian Harold Holzer discusses not only the legends, myths and hoaxes about Lincoln, but also the issue of factual refutations dug up by historians. He observes that the George Washington myths that Lincoln heard and read about and took as gospel truths inspired Lincoln himself to become the kind of man about whom myths are made. One might take that thought further and suppose that myths make the man: Historians will cherish facts; the people will welcome facts while cherishing myths.
By Edward Steers Jr. University Press of Kentucky, $24.95 288 pages ISBN 9780813124667
David Madden is LSU's Robert Penn Warren professor and the Louisiana governor's Liaison and Advisory Committee member for the Lincoln Bicentennial Commission (www.lincolnbicentennial.gov). He is the author of 50 books, several of which are about the Civil War.
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Unique among Lincoln books is Chuck Wills' Lincoln: The Presidential Archives, consisting of "intimate photographs, personal letters, and documents that changed history." Facsimiles of documents are inserted in pockets throughout this handsome volume, which also includes ample text about Lincoln's life. One may like to imagine parents and children handling and perusing these removable documents together: Lincoln's handwritten Emancipation Proclamation, his marriage license, his Civil War telegram encouraging Gen. Grant to "Let nothing delay . . . your military movements," the playbill for Ford's Theatre on the night of his assassination and the poster offering a reward for the capture of his killer. The quality of the photographic reproductions is excellent.
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A nation's commander in chief
A house divided
The Gettysburg gospel
One of the latest and most absorbing of the hundreds of collections of Civil War photographs is Historic Photos of Gettysburg, with text and captions by John S. Salmon. Although one photograph shows the crowd engulfing Lincoln, no close-up photograph was taken of him as he gave his famous address. Even so, his benevolent spirit pervades the 200-plus images in this book.
Larger than Lincoln