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    Lincoln: The Biography of a Writer
    Lincoln: The Biography of a Writer
    Lincoln: The Biography of a Writer
    Audiobook14 hours

    Lincoln: The Biography of a Writer

    Written by Fred Kaplan

    Narrated by Dan John Miller

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    “A fine, invaluable book. . . . Certain to become essential to our understanding of the 16th president. . . . Kaplan meticulously analyzes how Lincoln’s steadily maturing prose style enabled him to come to grips with slavery and, as his own views evolved, to express his deepening opposition to it.” — Jonathan Yardley, The Washington Post Book World

    For Abraham Lincoln, whether he was composing love letters, speeches, or legal arguments, words mattered. In Lincoln, acclaimed biographer Fred Kaplan explores the life of America's sixteenth president through his use of language both as a vehicle to express complex ideas and feelings and as an instrument of persuasion and empowerment.

    This unique and engrossing account of Lincoln's life and career highlights the shortcomings of the modern presidency, reminding us, through Lincoln's legacy and appreciation for language, that the careful and honest use of words is a necessity for successful democracy.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    Release dateNov 1, 2008
    ISBN9781423371038
    Author

    Fred Kaplan

    Fred Kaplan is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of English at Queens College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He is the author of Lincoln: The Biography of a Writer, which was named a Best Book of the Year by the New York Times and Washington Post, among other publications. His biography of Thomas Carlyle was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Pulitzer Prize. He lives in Maine.

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    Reviews for Lincoln

    4/5

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    • 4/5
      WHEN LINKUN WINS EVERYTHING ADN DID A THING OR TWO
    • 4/5
      This book has a lot of information. Almost to the point, I would say, of having way too much information. The author seems to repeat himself several times and the quotes that he cites seem to do the same. The chapters are extremely long as well. There are only 8 chapters in this book.However, all in all, it was a good read, I learned a lot about our 16th president, and I'm glad that I have read it.I would definitely recommend this book to anyone with interest in the subject.
    • 5/5
      From the start, he needed to overcome internal and external opposition by willful acts of self-definition, the ambitious farm boy autodidact becoming a splitter of words and ideas rather than fence rails.I'm having trouble writing this review because I have so much to say. I tried channeling the 16th President by asking myself WWAW (What Would Abe Write)? That didn't help much, so I'll just boil it down to one sentence: This book is fantastic.OK, maybe a few more sentences. As the title declares, Kaplan examines Lincoln's life through the prism of the writings he left behind. Those writings include not only published essays and speeches but also letters and fragments of letters he wrote to friends. Kaplan begins in Lincoln's childhood, looking at the books that we know young Abe had access to at home, especially once his stepmother joined the household. Some of them are familiar and unsurprising — Shakespeare, the Bible — and others raised my eyebrows. Lord Byron was a favorite source of inspiration for Lincoln, as was ... Scottish poet Robert Burns?! Apparently Lincoln often quoted entire poems or long passages of Burns' poems from memory, even the saucy bits.It was fascinating to learn that Lincoln wrote on all sorts of topics, not just political events and issues of the day. Following a trip in 1844 to his childhood home in Indiana, he wrote what appears to have been intended as a four-canto poem in the tradition of Thomas Gray, whose "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" was a favorite of Lincoln. Kaplan also cites influences from Wordsworth, Burns and Chaucer in the works, only three of which have survived. The excerpts that Kaplan quotes are melancholic and humorous in turn, reflecting on memories that gave him both pain and pleasure.Lincoln also used writing as a way to explore his thinking on subjects of the day. He wrote and re-wrote, constantly refining his thoughts. He used writing as a way to help him clarify his own beliefs and political opinions. And he seldom spoke extemporaneously — at a minimum he worked from a set of notes for each speech he gave, in order to ensure that he could lay out his thoughts and positions in a coherent way. As Kaplan comments on a speech given to a temperance society, "The argument continues in Lincoln's characteristic style — a prose so lucid to read it is like looking a hundred feet through clear water."Kaplan expends most of his energy and analysis to the years before Lincoln became president; in an eight-chapter book the presidency is entirely confined to the final chapter. That's one reason I can't view this book as the end-all and be-all of exploring Lincoln's life or his genius for language. The other reason is that while partial quotations of Lincoln's writing to illustrate specific points are plentiful, Kaplan does not include any speech or essay in its entirety to allow us to fully absorb Lincoln's genius. Perhaps there are limitations on the amount of text that can legally be quoted? At any rate, it was a loss I felt keenly.I probably don't need to say that I highly recommend this book. While there's a fair amount of detail about Lincoln's life beyond his writing, some readers may find value in also reading a more comprehensive biography, especially one that focuses on his presidency. As for me, I now feel a great deal of affinity for the man who declared:Writing — the art of communicating thoughts to the mind, through the eye — is the great invention of the world. Great in the astonishing range of analysis and combination which necessarily underlies the most crude and general conception of it — great, very great in enabling us to converse with the dead, the absent, and the unborn, at all distances of time and of space; and great, not only in its direct benefits, but greatest help, to all other inventions. ... Its utility may be conceived by the reflection that to it we owe everything which distinguishes us from savages. Take it from us, and the Bible, all history, all science, all government, all commerce, and nearly all social intercourse go with it.
    • 5/5
      It seems I am rapidly becoming a fan of literary biography. With this and the Dostoyevsky volume, I've become almost addicted. I need more.

      This shows the development of Lincoln, his literary tastes, his oratory, and his writing style over the years, and showing the authors that influenced him. Wonderful stuff.
    • 4/5
      A different approach Abraham Lincoln, focusing on his life and legacy through the lens of his writing. Kaplan contends that Lincoln may be of few Presidents to write his own speeches and probably the last one. In addition to his oratory Kaplan analyzes Lincoln's political writings, poetry, and even his raunchy jokes and puns. As a self-taught man, writing played an important role in Lincoln's education as well. This book provides a unique take on the life of the great leader.