Lincoln: The Biography of a Writer

In the 200th birthday anniversary year of Abraham Lincoln there will be a spate of new biographies of the railsplitter. Fred Kaplin a longtime literary and biographical scholar adds to Lincoln Lore in this splendid new work. The focus is on Lincoln as a writer. Lincoln was born in dire poverty in Hardin County Kentucky in the cold winter of 1809. His one eyed father had no use for book learning. His mother Nancy Hanks Lincoln died young. Lincoln was raised by his literate stepmother Sarah Lincoln. She knew Abraham was a precociously brilliant boy. He managed to read such works as the Bible (though he was agnostic), Aesop's Fables, Weem's Life of Washington and spelling/elocution books. Lincoln had few books which he borrowed from neighbors or was able to buy in a western frontier milieu. Lincoln loved poetry especially the works of Robert Burns, Lord Byron and Shakespeare. The tall, ugly and socially awkward Kentuckian memorized long portions of poetry. He also enjoyed humor books loving to share tall tales and dirty jokes. Lincoln was no prude! He often expressed religious doubts to such friends as Joshua Speed. Lincoln was often depressed and thought life a futile show of sound and fury. He cherished Thomas Grey's famous "Elegy in a Country Graveyard" in which the English poet wrote, "the paths of glory lead but to the grave." Lincoln studied law books and became an Illinois lawyer. He courted and married the irasible and difficult Mary Todd who came from a wealthy family in Lexington, Ky. Lincoln enjoyed reading for hours on the trial circuit and at home and in his law office. He did not read much fiction but read ravenously in poetry, drama, history, biography and legal works. As a legislator in the Illinois House he often was called upon to write bills and Whig party communications. His idol Henry Clay was more of an orator than a great writer. Lincoln became known for his clear and beautifully crafted prose. Lincoln always spoke from a written text if he wished to make an impact on an audience. Following one term in the US House he returned to Springfield to practice law until he won the presidency in 1860. Lincoln was the last president to write his own speeches. Only Thomas Jefferson had done the same. He was the greatest book reader in the White House since the days of John Quincy Adams. He is our most eloquent president whose great Gettysburg Address; the Second Inaugural Address and other speeches will live forever. Lincoln was also a fine poet and essayist. Kaplan has examined Lincoln from a literary perspective which will be new information for many readers. His style is scholarly but understandable. This is a fine book on a great man!

Very well written book. The author has an excellent knowledge of how to critique Lincoln's writing as well as of other important authors of Lincoln's time.

BOOK REVIEW: Abe Lincoln: Writer Extraordinaire By David M. Kinchen Abraham Lincoln was a rising star in the new Republican Party when he was invited in August 1859 to speak at the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society fair in Milwaukee at the end of September. He accepted the offer despite a busy court schedule, relates Fred Kaplan in "Lincoln: The Biography of a Writer" (HarperCollins, 416 pages, $27.95). Kaplan, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of English at Queens College in New York City, devotes more space in his book to this speech than he does to more famous literary efforts by Lincoln, including the Gettysburg Address. Using perhaps the best analytical mind of any of our presidents, Lincoln presented a powerful but subtle argument for freedom at a time when the nation was about to be torn asunder over slavery. To put the speech into its historical context, John Brown's raid on the federal armory at Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia), was only a few weeks in the future (Oct. 16, 1859). Arranging the opening elements of the Milwaukee speech like a poem, Kaplan creates verse that is reminiscent of Walt Whitman, whose "Leaves of Grass" was first published in 1855 and revised several times thereafter. Here are the opening lines from Kaplan's typographical realignment of the opening of Lincoln's September 1859 Milwaukee speech: Every blade of grass is a study; And to produce two, Where there was but one, Is both a profit and a pleasure. And not grass alone; But soils, seeds, and seasons Hedges, ditches, and fences, Draining, droughts, and irrigation -- Plowing, hoeing, and harrowing -- Reaping, mowing, and threshing -- Saving crops, pests of crops, diseases of crops, And what will prevent or cure them -- Implements, utensils, and machines, Their relative merits, And [how] to improve them -- Hogs, horses, and cattle -- Sheep, goats, and poultry -- Trees, shrubs, fruits, plants, and flowers -- The thousand things Of which these are specimens -- Each a world of study within itself. * * * Kaplan says the Milwaukee speech is Lincoln's best poem and the reference to specimens anticipates Whitman's 1882 volume "Specimen Days." The book explores new ground in the vast field of Lincoln biographies -- especially relevant with the 200th anniversary of Lincoln's birth next Feb. 12 -- and the election of another Illinois lawyer, Barack Obama, as the 44th President of the United States. The subtext is that the tall, gangly railsplitter, originally from Hardin County, Kentucky and almost totally self-educated, has a present-day counterpart in the Ivy League educated Obama, whose education more closely mirrors that of Robert Todd Lincoln, the 16th president's oldest son. Kaplan stresses throughout this exhaustively researched and very readable book -- you don't have to be an English major like me to appreciate it -- that words mattered to Lincoln. He knew the difference between lightning and a lightning bug -- as Mark Twain so

Kaplan has a distinct purpose of tracing the literary influences on Lincoln and the consequent development of Lincoln as a writer. He makes the case that Lincoln's faith in reason and the pursuasive use of the written word were the source of his political effectiveness and his greatest legacy.

Another book about Lincoln? Yes! And a great book. From his love letters to the Gettysburg and second inaugural addresses, Lincoln was a master of putting great ideas into succinct words. In contrast to recent presidents, who are "too busy" to read much of anything, Lincoln and John Quincy Adams are the only presidents for whom literature and life were inseparable. During his presidency, his two favourite volumes were Shakespeare's plays and the Bible -- both written in the same era -- in which he found an echo of the tragedy of the American Civil War. Most significantly, he did not often read to relax. Lincoln read to educate himself, to improve his mind and to understand the motives and methods of himself and others. Think of the current financial crisis in which "deregulation" became liberty for bankers and a disaster for consumers. Lincoln understood such issues in terms of stories, such as "the shepherd who drives the wolf from the sheep's throat, for which the sheep thanks the shepherd as a liberator, while the wolf denounces him for the same act as the destroyer of liberty, especially as the sheep was a Black one. Plainly the sheep and the wolf are not agreed upon a definition of the word liberty." "The claim that white Liberty requires Black servitude is a definition of liberty, in Lincoln's telling phrase, from 'the wolf's dictionary', and that dictionary must be repudiated," Kaplan wrote. Think of the impact today had former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan read and understood as much as deeply as Lincoln. From his earliest days Lincoln used stories to illustrate his views. This explains the origins of the quality of his writing, both in terms of style and content. It's much more than just "another book about Lincoln", this is primarily a book about the growth of a great writer. It's similar to 'Lives of the Artists' by Calvin Tomkins; the bottom line is the dedication to a single theme that produces greatness. As a child he was brought up on 'Dilworth's Speller'; in his early adult years he read Byron, then Weems, Burns and Goethe. None were passing fancies; each was a dedication to a particular author before he moved on to a more serious topic. His "reading" for the law took 10 years. This book helps explain why men such as Lincoln are very rare. Interestingly, instead of relying on the will of God, friends such as John Todd Stuart said Lincoln was "an avowed and open Infidel -- Sometimes bordered on atheism ... always denied that Jesus was the son of God as understood and maintained by the Christian world." Instead of an instant acceptance of Jesus as his saviour, Lincoln's reading was on the great authors to understand the ways of mankind. He didn't reject the Bible, but he didn't "court" evangelicals and other true believers. Instead of instant salvation, he rejected fanatics. Lincoln was always eager to read, to learn and to write better. He never thought himself as blessed with