Feb
16
Two Centuries of Lincoln
February 16, 2009 | Leave a Comment
In celebration of the 200th anniversary of Lincoln’s birth, here is sampling of some of the many new books on Lincoln that are available right now (from The Book Room of the Chicago Sun Times) -
In Lincoln’s Hand: His Original Manuscripts, edited by Harold Holzer and Joshua Wolf Shenk (Bantam, 196 pages, $35): Check out facsimilies of Lincoln’s handwritten letters, speeches and childhood notebooks in this companion volume to the Library of Congress 2009 Bicentennial Exhibition.
Lincoln Shot: A President’s Life Remembered, researched, written, illustrated, and designed by The National News staff (Feiwel and Friends, 40 pages, $24.95): The oversize pages of this book evoke a newspaper from the mid-1800s, to illustrate a memorial edition one year after Lincoln’s assassination. All aspects of newspaper design, including typefaces and advertisements, have been exacted to evoke the era.
Lincoln’s Men: The President and His Private Secretaries, by Daniel Mark Epstein (Collins, 244 pages, $26.99): Epstein, an award-winning Lincoln biographer, offers the first narrative portrait of the three men — John Nicolay, John Hay and William Stoddard — who knew the 16th president better than anyone outside his immediate family.
A. Lincoln: A Biography, by Ronald C. White Jr. (Random House, 679 pages, $35): After researching the newly complete Lincoln Legal Papers, as well as recently discovered letters and photographs, the author decided to focus on Lincoln as a man of integrity, whose moral evolution holds the key to understanding his life.
Mrs. Lincoln: A Life, by Catherine Clinton (Harper, 336 pages, $26.99): The first biography of Mary Todd Lincoln in more than 20 years puts a human face on one of the most notorious and possibly misunderstood first ladies in American history.
Lincoln on Race & Slavery, edited by Henry Louis Gates Jr. (Princeton, 328 pages, $24.95): The contradictory nature of Abraham Lincoln’s views on race are debated here, through his own words. Readers can sift through his writings from the late 1830s to the 1860s, and draw their own conclusions.
1864: Lincoln at the Gates of History, by Charles Bracelen Flood (Simon & Schuster, 434 pages, $30): Historian and novelist Flood asserts that Lincoln was more activist than passive president, a shrewd politician and commander in chief who firmly seized control of the nation’s destiny at its most critical moments.
Gettysburg: The Graphic Novel, by C.M. Butzer (Collins, 80 pages, $9.99, ages 9-14): Lincoln’s most famous speech is detailed in comic-book style here, alongside depictions of related historical events before and after the speech.
Abraham Lincoln’s Extraordinary Era: The Man and His Times, by K.M. Kostyal (National Geographic, 215 pages, $35): This is the official book of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, offering up stories, anecdotes and never-before-seen images and artifacts from the museum’s vault.
(For a little extra reading: If you’ve been as sick with colds this season as we have, click here for some promising news on the science front.)