lincoln biography of a writer

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Lincoln: The Biography of a Writer Paperback – Feb. 2 2010

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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 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.

Illuminating and engrossing, Lincoln brilliantly chronicles Abraham Lincoln's genius with language.

• Print length 416 pages
• Language English
• Publication date Feb. 2 2010
• Dimensions 2.79 x 13.46 x 20.07 cm
• ISBN-10 0060773367
• ISBN-13 978-0060773366
• See all details

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HarperCollins was founded by brothers James and John Harper in New York City in 1817 as J. and J. Harper, later Harper & Brothers. In 1987, as Harper & Row, it was acquired by News Corporation. The worldwide book group was formed following News Corporation's 1990 acquisition of the British publisher William Collins & Sons. Founded in 1819, William Collins & Sons published a range of Bibles, atlases, dictionaries, and reissued classics, expanding over the years to include legendary authors such as H. G. Wells, Agatha Christie, J. R. R. Tolkien, and C. S. Lewis.

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“A fascinating new book. . . . Although Fred Kaplan never mentions Mr. Obama by name, it’s hard to read this volume without thinking of the current president . . . and this book’s focus on the role that language and writing played in one president’s life promises to shed light on the role they may play in another’s. . . . Mr. Kaplan does a persuasive, highly perceptive job of explicating the influences that various authors had on Lincoln’s thinking.” — Michiko Kakutani, New York Times

“A fine, invaluable book. . . . Certain to become essential to our understanding of the 16th president. . . . It is always instructive to study Lincoln, but now is a particularly good time to consider his devotion to words. . . . No one has explored the subject so deeply or found so much meaning in it. . . . 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

“Compelling. . . . This revealing view of our 16th president focuses on his literary skills, on his deep appreciation for the classics, and on his lifelong search for the most precise and eloquent way to communicate his convictions and his ideas.” — Francine Prose, O , the Oprah magazine

“Absorbing.” — Leon Wieseltier, The New Republic

“ Lincoln offers penetrating insights on Lincoln’s ability to explain complex ideas in language accessible to a broad range of readers and listeners. . . . Kaplan is especially effective in tracing the influence on Lincoln’s literary style of his lifelong course of self-education by reading English-language classics.” — New York Review of Books

“An elegant portrait of Lincoln’s literary sensibility.” — Ted Widmer, New York Observer

“Lively. . . . Kaplan does a good job of tracing the young man’s reading habits, identifying favorite books and noting their influence on the mature politician. . . . Powerful and convincing. . . . Kaplan is a biographer on a mission.” — The Los Angeles Times

“Superb. . . . This intensely researched, thoughtfully written volume is more than a biography, it’s also a practical and inspiring guide for writers. . . . Quoting many of Lincoln’s texts, Kaplan demonstrates how their author organized his thoughts and blended them into logical, effective and often soaringly eloquent treatises.” — The Seattle Times

“Essential reading for any Lincoln student preparing to dip into the rich field of Lincoln’s writings. . . . Just when you think every aspect of Lincoln’s life and thought has been covered, someone like Kaplan sees him from yet a new perspective.” — Allen Barra, The Baltimore Sun

“If you ever wondered what Lincoln read, how he thought about words and ideas or what made him into one of our country’s most distinctive speechwriters, this is the book for you.” — The Chicago Tribune

From the Back Cover

About the author.

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.

Product details

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Harper Perennial; Reprint edition (Feb. 2 2010)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 416 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0060773367
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0060773366
• Item weight ‏ : ‎ 313 g
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 2.79 x 13.46 x 20.07 cm
• #582 in United States Biographies
• #1,186 in United States Literary History & Criticism
• #1,826 in 19th Century U.S. History

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Fred kaplan.

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Lincoln: The Biography of a Writer

Fred kaplan, . . harper, $27.95 (406pp) isbn 978-0-06-077334-2.

Reviewed on: 07/28/2008

Genre: Nonfiction

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Lincoln: The Biography of a Writer

Fred Kaplan talked about his book Lincoln: The Biography of a Writer (Harper; October 28, 2008). In his book Fred Kaplan explores the relati… read more

Fred Kaplan talked about his book Lincoln: The Biography of a Writer (Harper; October 28, 2008). In his book Fred Kaplan explores the relationship between language and the sixteenth president, as he examines Abraham Lincoln ’s writing life and how it molded his identity, relationships, and career and defined him as president. Mr. Kaplan recounts Lincoln’s voracious reading habits, indulging in the likes of Shakespeare, Byron, and the Old Testament, and dissects his public addresses and personal correspondences. Following his remarks Professor Kaplan responded to audience members' questions. This event was hosted by Books Etc. in Portland, Maine, on the bicentennial of President Lincoln ’s birth.

Fred Kaplan is an emeritus English professor at Queens College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Mr. Kaplan is the author of numerous biographies, including Gore Vidal , Henry James , and Thomas Carlyle , that was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Boo close

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The 15 Best Books on President Abraham Lincoln

Essential books on abraham lincoln.

There are countless books on Abraham Lincoln, and it comes with good reason, aside from being elected America’s sixteenth President (1861-1865), he issued the Emancipation Proclamation that declared forever free those slaves within the Confederacy and preserved the Union while serving as Commander-in-Chief amidst a brutal Civil War.

“Of our political revolution of ’76, we all are justly proud. It has given us a degree of political freedom, far exceeding that of any other nation of the earth,” Lincoln remarked. “In it the world has found a solution of the long mooted problem, as to the capability of man to govern himself. In it was the germ which has vegetated, and still is to grow and expand into the universal liberty of mankind.”

In order to get to the bottom of what inspired one of history’s most consequential figures to the heights of societal contribution, we’ve compiled a list of the 15 best books on Abraham Lincoln.

Lincoln by David Herbert Donald

Donald brilliantly depicts Lincoln’s gradual ascent from humble beginnings in rural Kentucky to the ever-expanding political circles in Illinois, and finally to the presidency of a country divided by civil war. Donald goes beyond biography, illuminating the gradual development of Lincoln’s character, chronicling his tremendous capacity for evolution and growth, thus illustrating what made it possible for a man so inexperienced and so unprepared for the presidency to become a great moral leader. In the most troubled of times, here was a man who led the country out of slavery and preserved a shattered Union – in short, one of the greatest presidents this country has ever seen.

Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin

On May 18, 1860, William H. Seward, Salmon P. Chase, Edward Bates, and Abraham Lincoln waited in their hometowns for the results from the Republican National Convention in Chicago. When Lincoln emerged as the victor, his rivals were dismayed and angry.

Throughout the turbulent 1850s, each had energetically sought the presidency as the conflict over slavery was leading inexorably to secession and civil war. That Lincoln succeeded, Goodwin demonstrates, was the result of a character that had been forged by experiences that raised him above his more privileged and accomplished rivals. He won because he possessed an extraordinary ability to put himself in the place of other men, to experience what they were feeling, to understand their motives and desires.

It was this capacity that enabled Lincoln as president to bring his disgruntled opponents together, create the most unusual cabinet in history, and marshal their talents to the task of preserving the Union and winning the war.

We view the long, horrifying struggle from the vantage of the White House as Lincoln copes with incompetent generals, hostile congressmen, and his raucous cabinet. He overcomes these obstacles by winning the respect of his former competitors, and in the case of Seward, finds a loyal and crucial friend to see him through.

This brilliant multiple biography is centered on Lincoln’s mastery of men and how it shaped the most significant presidency in the nation’s history.

Lincoln at Gettysburg by Gary Wills

The power of words has rarely been given a more compelling demonstration than in the Gettysburg Address. Lincoln was asked to memorialize the gruesome battle. Instead he gave the whole nation “a new birth of freedom” in the space of a mere 272 words. His entire life and previous training and his deep political experience went into this, his revolutionary masterpiece.

By examining both the address and Lincoln in their historical moment and cultural frame, Wills breathes new life into words we thought we knew, and reveals much about a president so mythologized but often misunderstood. Wills shows how Lincoln came to change the world and to effect an intellectual revolution, how his words had to and did complete the work of the guns, and how Lincoln wove a spell that has not yet been broken.

Lincoln’s Sword by Douglas L. Wilson

Widely considered in his own time as a genial but provincial lightweight who was out of place in the presidency, Abraham Lincoln astonished his allies and confounded his adversaries by producing a series of speeches and public letters so provocative that they helped revolutionize public opinion on such critical issues as civil liberties, the use of black soldiers, and the emancipation of slaves. This is a brilliant and unprecedented examination of how Lincoln used the power of words to not only build his political career but to keep the country united during the Civil War.

The Fiery Trial by Eric Foner

Selected as a Notable Book of the Year by the  New York Times Book Review , this landmark work gives us a definitive account of Lincoln’s lifelong engagement with the nation’s critical issue: American slavery. A master historian, Eric Foner draws Lincoln and the broader history of the period into perfect balance. We see Lincoln, a pragmatic politician grounded in principle, deftly navigating the dynamic politics of antislavery, secession, and civil war. Lincoln’s greatness emerges from his capacity for moral and political growth.

Lincoln on the Verge by Ted Widmer

As a divided nation plunges into the deepest crisis in its history, Abraham Lincoln boards a train for Washington and his inauguration – an inauguration Southerners have vowed to prevent. Lincoln on the Verge  charts these pivotal thirteen days of travel, as Lincoln discovers his power, speaks directly to the public, and sees his country up close.

Drawing on new research, this riveting account reveals the president-elect as a work in progress, showing him on the verge of greatness, as he foils an assassination attempt, forges an unbreakable bond with the American people, and overcomes formidable obstacles in order to take his oath of office.

A. Lincoln: A Biography by Ronald C. White

Through meticulous research of the newly completed Lincoln Legal Papers, as well as of recently discovered letters and photographs, White provides a portrait of Lincoln’s personal, political, and moral evolution.

White shows us Lincoln as a man who would leave a trail of thoughts in his wake, jotting ideas on scraps of paper and filing them in his top hat or the bottom drawer of his desk; a country lawyer who asked questions in order to figure out his own thinking on an issue, as much as to argue the case; a hands-on commander in chief who, as soldiers and sailors watched in amazement, commandeered a boat and ordered an attack on Confederate shore batteries at the tip of the Virginia peninsula; a man who struggled with the immorality of slavery and as president acted publicly and privately to outlaw it forever; and finally, a president involved in a religious odyssey who wrote, for his own eyes only, a profound meditation on “the will of God” in the Civil War that would become the basis of his finest address.

Most enlightening, the man who comes into focus in this gem among books on Abraham Lincoln is a person of intellectual curiosity, comfortable with ambiguity, and unafraid to “think anew and act anew.”

Tried by War by James M. McPherson

As we celebrate the bicentennial of Lincoln’s birth, this study by preeminent, bestselling Civil War historian James M. McPherson provides a rare, fresh take on one of the most enigmatic figures in American history.  Tried by War offers a revelatory (and timely) portrait of leadership during the greatest crisis our nation has ever endured. Suspenseful and inspiring, this is the story of how Lincoln, with almost no previous military experience before entering the White House, assumed the powers associated with the role of Commander in Chief, and through his strategic insight and will to fight changed the course of the war and saved the Union.

Honor’s Voice by Douglas L. Wilson

Abraham Lincoln’s remarkable emergence from the rural Midwest and his rise to the presidency have been the stuff of romance and legend. But as Douglas L. Wilson shows us in Honor’s Voice, Lincoln’s transformation was not one long triumphal march, but a process that was more than once seriously derailed. There were times, in his journey from storekeeper and mill operator to lawyer and member of the Illinois state legislature, when Lincoln lost his nerve and self-confidence – on at least two occasions he became so despondent as to appear suicidal – and when his acute emotional vulnerabilities were exposed.

Focusing on the crucial years between 1831 and 1842, Wilson’s skillful analysis of the testimonies and writings of Lincoln’s contemporaries reveals the individual behind the legends. We see Lincoln as a boy: not the dutiful son studying by firelight, but the stubborn rebel determined to make something of himself. We see him as a young man: not the ascendant statesman, but the canny local politician who was renowned for his talents in wrestling and storytelling (as well as for his extensive store of off-color jokes).

Wilson also reconstructs Lincoln’s frequently anguished personal life: his religious skepticism, recurrent bouts of depression, and difficult relationships with women – from Ann Rutledge to Mary Owens to Mary Todd.

Abraham Lincoln by Lord Charnwood

No other narrative account of Abraham Lincoln’s life has inspired such widespread and lasting acclaim as Charnwood’s  Abraham Lincoln: A Biography . Written by a native of England and originally published in 1916, the biography is a rare blend of beautiful prose and profound historical insight. Charnwood’s study of Lincoln’s statesmanship introduced generations of Americans to the life and politics of Lincoln and the author’s observations are so comprehensive and well-supported that any serious study of Lincoln must respond to his conclusions.

Lincoln’s Melancholy by Joshua Wolf Shenk

Giving shape to the deep depression that pervaded Lincoln’s adult life, Joshua Wolf Shenk’s Lincoln’s Melancholy reveals how this illness influenced both the president’s character and his leadership. Lincoln forged a hard path toward mental health from the time he was a young man. Shenk draws from historical records, interviews with Lincoln scholars, and contemporary research on depression to understand the nature of his unhappiness. In the process, he discovers that the President’s coping strategies; among them, a rich sense of humor and a tendency toward quiet reflection; ultimately helped him to lead the nation through its greatest turmoil.

Lincoln at Cooper Union by Harold Holzer

This favorite among books on Abraham Lincoln explores his most influential and widely reported pre-presidential address – an extraordinary appeal by the western politician to the eastern elite that propelled him toward the Republican nomination for president. Delivered in New York in February 1860, the Cooper Union speech dispelled doubts about Lincoln’s suitability for the presidency and reassured conservatives of his moderation while reaffirming his opposition to slavery to Republican progressives.

Award-winning Lincoln scholar Harold Holzer places Lincoln and his speech in the context of the times – an era of racism, politicized journalism, and public oratory as entertainment – and shows how the candidate framed the speech as an opportunity to continue his famous “debates” with his archrival Democrat Stephen A. Douglas on the question of slavery.

Holzer describes the enormous risk Lincoln took by appearing in New York, where he exposed himself to the country’s most critical audience and took on Republican Senator William Henry Seward of New York, the front runner, in his own backyard. Then he recounts a brilliant and innovative public relations campaign, as Lincoln took the speech “on the road” in his successful quest for the presidency.

Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years by Carl Sandberg

Originally published in six volumes, Sandburg’s Abraham Lincoln was called “the greatest historical biography of our generation.” Sandburg distilled this work into one volume that became one of the definitive books on Abraham Lincoln.

We Are Lincoln Men by David Herbert Donald

Though Abraham Lincoln had hundreds of acquaintances and dozens of admirers, he had almost no intimate friends. Behind his mask of affability and endless stream of humorous anecdotes, he maintained an inviolate reserve that only a few were ever able to penetrate.

Professor Donald’s remarkable book offers a fresh way of looking at Abraham Lincoln, both as a man who needed friendship and as a leader who understood the importance of friendship in the management of men. Donald penetrates Lincoln’s mysterious reserve to offer a new picture of the president’s inner life and to explain his unsurpassed political skills.

The Lincolns: Portraits of a Marriage by Daniel Mark

Although the private lives of political couples have in our era become front-page news, the true story of this extraordinary and tragic first family has never been fully told.  The Lincolns  eclipses earlier accounts with riveting new information that makes husband and wife, president and first lady, come alive in all their proud accomplishments and earthy humanity.

Award-winning biographer and poet Daniel Mark Epstein gives a fresh close-up view of the couple’s life in Springfield, Illinois (of their twenty-two years of marriage, all but six were spent there), and dramatizes with stunning immediacy how the Lincolns’ ascent to the White House brought both dazzling power and the slow, secret unraveling of the couple’s unique bond.

If you enjoyed this guide to essential books on Abraham Lincoln, be sure to check out our list of The 10 Best Books on President George Washington !

Ten Best Abraham Lincoln Biographies

Overwhelmed by the sheer number of Lincoln biographies ? Don’t know where to start ?

Abraham Lincoln books far outnumber those about any other US president.  Here are ten of the best Lincoln biographies …

1. Lincoln by David Herbert Donald.

Many critics agree that if you are only going to read one Abraham Lincoln biography this is the one to read…

When and Where was Abraham Lincoln born?

Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809, in Larue County, Kentucky

How many books about Abraham Lincoln have been published?

Over 16,000 books about Lincoln have been published, as of May 2021, including over 125 books on his assassination. This number is larger than the number of books written about any other person in U.S. history.

To What Political Party did Lincoln belong?

Although Lincoln belonged to the Whig Party early in his career, he ran for President as a Republican, and he is best known for his identification with the Republican Party.

Abraham Lincoln Biographies NEXT BOOK >>>>>>

  UPDATED January 2024 – To clean up formatting issues.

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In a 24-hour, Internet-fueled news cycle, political campaign reporters often seem to be focused on what just happened, and only what just happened. But presidential candidates profess to take a longer view: They consciously link their critiques and promises to the influential figures and debates of the past.

In a new series, Morning Edition will take a fresh look at American political history, beginning with the figure who loomed over the 2008 and 2012 campaign — that tall, well-spoken senator from Illinois, often hailed for his significance in the history of American race relations. No, not President Obama. We're talking about Abraham Lincoln.

President Obama and presidential hopefuls Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum each have put forward their own narratives of the life of Lincoln, fine-tuned to their own political purposes. But their versions of Lincoln are just drops in a veritable ocean of books — almost 15,000, to be precise — that assay Lincoln's legacy.

Where should a reader begin? Perhaps the most well-known biography is Lincoln , by the late historian David Herbert Donald. Eric Foner, a professor of history at Columbia University and author of The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery , recommends Donald's book as the best one-volume account of Lincoln's life.

"[Donald] avoided the two pitfalls that people fall into. One is just hagiography — you know, [Lincoln] was born with a pen in his hand ready to sign the Emancipation Proclamation; and the other is the opposite, of course — [he was] just a racist or didn't really care about slavery at all. Donald sort of navigates between them," Foner says.

David Herbert Donald was an American historian who specialized in the Civil War and Reconstruction. David Schaefer/Courtesy of Simon & Schuster hide caption

David Herbert Donald was an American historian who specialized in the Civil War and Reconstruction.

Foner notes, however, that the book is not without its flaws — notably that Donald's portrayal of Lincoln may have been influenced by current events in the mid-'90s, particularly by President Clinton.

"[Donald] sort of sees Lincoln as a person without any deep convictions," Foner says. "I think he sort of saw Lincoln as a Clinton figure — buffeted by events, not clear what he stood for. I don't think that's a very persuasive picture of Lincoln."

Doris Kearns Goodwin, presidential historian and author of Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln , recommends a book that shows how Lincoln prevailed under pressure during the Civil War: Battle Cry of Freedom by James McPherson.

"He is such a narrative genius, McPherson ... what he's done is to mix together the battles, Lincoln's leadership, the home front, the finances, the Cabinet, all together, but it drives forward as a story, and you don't know until finally, perhaps, Atlanta, whether the North is really going to win this war," Goodwin says.

Lincoln's strategically brilliant decisions were gambles at the time, she says.

"We know the ending — we know that he was martyred, we know that the war was won. But the people living then certainly didn't know that, and I think that's what McPherson's pace allows us to see," Goodwin says.

Battle Cry Of Freedom

But Lincoln's political persona is but one dimension of the man. Andy Ferguson, senior editor of The Weekly Standard and author of Land of Lincoln , recommends an out of print book, In the Footsteps of the Lincolns . The book's author, Ida Tarbell, the iconic muckraking journalist of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, exposes Lincoln's roots in the frontier culture of the Midwest.

Ferguson says Tarbell was obsessed with Lincoln throughout her life. "After World War I, she went and sort of fulfilled a part of her obsession that she had always wanted to, which was to retrace Lincoln's movements with his family since he was a little boy, from Kentucky to Indiana and into Illinois. And as she did this, there were still people alive who knew the Lincolns. It's a part of time that we can't really get access to any other way," Ferguson says.

In the days when Lincoln was growing up, Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois were remote areas struggling to develop. "It was just a couple of steps up from the Bronze Age, really," Ferguson says.

But rather than embracing his hardscrabble background, Foner says, Lincoln distanced himself from frontier culture.

"He doesn't like hunting, he's not a violent person, he doesn't hate Indians, he doesn't drink . And he understands very early — and where this comes from, who knows — that the way to get ahead is through your mind, not through just hard physical labor, which is what his father does. [Lincoln] gets as far away from the frontier as he can, pretty early," Foner says.

As often as political candidates today employ Lincoln's name for their own purposes, there are certain aspects to Lincoln that modern-day candidates won't adopt. For instance, Foner says he would love to see a political candidate of any party forthrightly say, "I have changed my mind," because that's what Lincoln did over and over again during the Civil War.

James M. McPherson is a professor emeritus of history at Princeton University. Patricia McPherson hide caption

James M. McPherson is a professor emeritus of history at Princeton University.

"Lincoln was a flip-flopper, if you want to use the terminology of modern politics. We don't seem to allow our politicians to do that anymore," Foner says.

Ferguson says that even when politicians do change their minds, political speechwriters are tasked with making it seem like the politician's views remained consistent.

Goodwin adds that she would like to see politicians emulate Lincoln's sense of humor. She tells a story about a time when Lincoln was accused of being two-faced, and he replied, "If I had two faces, do you think I'd be wearing this face?"

"That ability to laugh at yourself, to look at yourself from the outside in, means a certain kind of confidence — means taking the world seriously, but not taking yourself so seriously at every moment. It is in such short supply in our campaigns," Goodwin says.

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Customers find the book an interesting study of Lincoln's life and a good read. They also appreciate the well-written chapters on his upbringing and political instincts. However, some find the content too hard to read.

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Here’s evidence that Abraham Lincoln was as good as his words

Lincoln: The Biography of a Writer by Fred Kaplan, Harper, 2008

In her landmark book Team of Rivals, presidential scholar Doris Kearns Goodwin at one point refers to Abraham Lincoln as our nation’s only “Poet-President”; and then, as if all her readers faithfully grasp her meaning, she duly moves on with her narrative. In this respect, Kearns is like most Lincoln biographers. They freely remark on the president’s eloquence but typically have little insightful to say about it.

Fred Kaplan, however, is different. A literary scholar but not a historian, Kaplan argues in Lincoln: The Biography of a Writer that Old Abe was a writer first and politician second. Kaplan poses, in fact, that Lincoln’s power as a politician, and as president, grew from his extraordinary way with words.

Kaplan is the first Lincoln biographer I know of to fully examine this American icon’s command of language. The result is a fresh perspective on a man whose life has been dissected endlessly during this bicentennial year. In taking this approach, Kaplan focuses on some of Lincoln’s lesser-known literary accomplishments. The two Kaplan concentrates on the most are Lincoln’s eulogy for Zachary Taylor in 1850 and his address at the Milwaukee agricultural fair in 1859. Kaplan notes that Lincoln’s eulogy for Taylor is “one of his least-appreciated but most formally interesting literary achievements.” As for the address at the Milwaukee fair, Kaplan pays tribute to the argument Lincoln makes for the collaboration of knowledge, invention and science toward increasing agricultural yields. As Kaplan writes, Lincoln had “found a level of literary expressiveness that he had never before fully achieved.”

While eulogizing Taylor, Lincoln described the legend­ary general’s relief of Fort Brown during the Mexican War and, as he spoke, deftly shifted the point of view between the fort’s defenders and their rescuers. That shift, Kaplan writes, is what made the eulogy “formally interesting.” Indeed, he suggests almost that Lincoln anticipated the end-of-century “literary impressionism” of such giants as Henry James, Joseph Conrad and Ford Madox Ford.

As for the “literary expressiveness” of Lincoln’s Milwaukee speech, Kaplan marvels at the future president’s ability to fashion his celebration of agricultural plenitude into a Whitmanesque prose poem, shaped by alliteration, assonance, triadic rhythms that naturally divide into lines, and a circular structure that begins and ends with blades of grass and other “specimens—each a world of study within itself.” It is, Kaplan concludes, “Lincoln’s best poem.” These exegeses are persuasive, sometimes brilliant, and they underscore Kaplan’s insistence that Lincoln wrote essays, not political speeches. Yet they also expose what seems to me a problem with his method. He observes of the Taylor eulogy that, in portraying Taylor (dead after scarcely four months in office) as embodying leadership rooted in “personal qualities rather than…presidential achievements,” Lincoln found a mirror image of the characteristics he valued in himself.

Lincoln, Kaplan points out, did what good poets do: evoke an external image to explore his innermost self. Or, as the Irish writer Sean O’Faolain once said, literature communicates by indirection.

But no politician com­muni­cates by indirection; and Lincoln was a politician. It makes sense to argue, as Kaplan implies, that Lincoln’s greatest writings were forms of meditation—as surely the Gettysburg Address and the Second Inaugural (given only cursory attention here) both were. It makes less sense to suggest that Lincoln was talking across his audience to himself, something literary meditations do. It is also curious that Kaplan omits the powerful public letters Lincoln wrote to Erastus Corning and James Conkling.

Kaplan has done a service to Lincoln scholars and general readers alike by reconstructing Lincoln’s self-education, and showing how the books he read and reread may have shaped his mind. Thankfully he has gotten inside Lincoln’s mind and given us some understanding of how it worked.

Editor’s note: Bart Friedman died shortly after submitting this review. An accomplished professor of English and Irish literature, he had a passion for the Civil War that undoubtedly stemmed from his research of his great-great-grand­father Abraham, who rode with John Buford and the 9th New York Cavalry. Bart cherished a family photograph showing his ancestor at the dedication of the 9th New York memorial at Gettysburg.

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