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Lincoln: The Biography of a Writer

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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 aptly phrased it -- and used language as a vehicle to express complicated ideas and feelings and as an instrument of persuasion and empowerment.

This was true whether Lincoln was composing speeches like the Milwaukee one that examined capital and labor; legal arguments (Lincoln was a prominent railroad attorney with a busy practice first in Springfield, the state capital and later in Chicago, the Prairie State's booming metropolis); or even love letters.

So, you say, aren't all presidents gifted with the ability to make words work for them. Actually not, says Kaplan. Ronald Reagan may have been the Great Communicator, but the Illinois native and former California governor was blessed with talented speech writers. The same goes for Franklin D. Roosevelt and most other presidents. You have to go back to John Quincy Adams, the 6th President (1825-1829) to find someone as gifted with the pen as Lincoln, Kaplan writes.

Kaplan, the author of biographies of Twain, Gore Vidal, Dickens and others, says that the literary output of Lincoln, collected in a standard eight-volume edition published in 1953 (see the wonderful annotated bibliography for details on this and other relevant works) is inseparable from his life story.

Lincoln from the start was a bookworm or, to use the phrase Dorothy Parker employed, a "constant reader." Although not religious in the traditional sense -- a topic Kaplan also explores -- Lincoln was intimately familiar with the Bible, both the Old and New Testaments. He loved the poetry of Robert Burns and in the last year of his life, in January 1865, was invited to give a tribute to Burns at the Washington, D.C. dinner held on January 25, Burns' birthday.

Otherwise engaged -- the war was still raging -- Lincoln sent a toast to the Burns Club of Washington: "I can say nothing worthy of his generous heart, and transcendent genius. Thinking of what he has said, I can not say anything which seems worth saying."

By modestly saying that he couldn't add to the tributes to Burns, Lincoln was actually giving the Scottish poet his highest praise. Now that's great writing!

He devoured Byron, Shakespeare and read constantly when he was on the legal circuit in central Illinois or during any spare moment. Fellow bookworms -- and I'm one -- can instantly identify with Lincoln.

Lincoln put his reading to good use, Kaplan writes. His views on love, liberty, and human nature were shaped by his reading and knowledge of literature.

We can only hope that Barack Obama -- like Lincoln a transplant to Illinois -- can express his ideas and ideals in words he has crafted, as Lincoln did. Since Lincoln, no president has written his own words and reached out to his audience as effectively as the man who had only a few months of formal education, but who was supremely skilled with the English language.

Words count, Kaplan reminds us, as if we need reminding in the wake of past presidencies -- of both political parties -- when words led the nation astray. "Lincoln: The Biography of a Writer" 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.

Kaplan: "Lincoln is distinguished from every other president, with the exception of Jefferson, in that we can be certain that he wrote every word to which his name is attached," and he "was also the last president whose character and standards in the use of language avoided the distortions and other dishonest uses of language that have done so much to undermine the credibility of national leaders."

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 complete wisdom which closed his mind to any and all new ideas.

Breathes there such a man today ?

Professor Kaplan does an excellent job of reconstructing the likely influences upon Lincoln as a developing writer and thinker.

Lincoln was a very guarded and private man, and so much of the evidence mined by Kaplan is necessarily circumstantial. In particular, he draws many inferences about Lincoln's private beliefs from authors he likely carefully read as a youth, such as Burns, Byron and Shakespeare. Professor Kaplan's expertise in literature and history makes him well suited to this task. And many of the inferences he draws do seem very plausible.

Still, I give the book only 4 stars rather than 5, because it seems that Professor Kaplan gets carried away at times with his speculations about Lincoln's thought life, projecting greater certainty than the circumstantial evidence would warrant, and downplaying contrary evidence.

For example, Professor Kaplan seems anxious to establish that Lincoln did not believe in the afterlife. He returns to that point repeatedly throughout the book. Yet he quotes from a speech that Lincoln gave in honor of Washington, which stated his belief that the deceased Washington was only sleeping, and that "the last trump shall awaken our Washington." (Page 78) Kaplan does not comment on the significance of these words -- he quotes the speech for another purpose. Yet Lincoln was very careful with the language of his public statements, seeking honesty and precision. And he chose his words on religion very carefully. Why then would he have given a speech stating his belief that Washington's soul was only sleeping, and that he would be resurrected at the end of time?

(I suspect that Lincoln was uncertain about the immortality of the soul in his early years. But we know from Lincoln's public statements that he believed in both God and prayer, and that his belief in a personal God became stronger in his White House years. Lincoln also had a high view of humanity. Thus, it seems likely that he came to believe that humanity, with its ability to grasp the infinite, was made for immortality.)

Overall, though, Kaplan's book provides many fascinating insights into the probable development of Lincoln as a thinker and a writer. It is very enjoyable to read. So, with the caveat noted above, I recommend the book to the many fans of our greatest president!

I found this book by Professor Kaplan to be interesting at times, but, as a whole, unsatisfactory. Information provided on the young Lincoln's early reading and writing is good. However, the author finds it necessary to go into some detail about aspects of Mr. Lincoln's life that have little to do with his writing (for example, Mary Lincoln's temperament and a later episode involving an Indian uprising in Minnesota), while devoting relatively limited attention to the several great speeches of Abraham Lincoln's presidency.

Absent is any discussion of President Lincoln's writing in terms of his military orders or other such important communications to his generals in the field.

I also disagree with Professor Kaplan's economic and political views on why the South fought as described on pages 328-329. In my opinion, this was a war commenced by Southern plantation-owners to preserve and expand slavery. Other offered reasons pale in comparison.

Professor Kaplan drifts easily into an academic style, such as this sentence on page 317: "Words mattered so much, if you will, whether the occasion of expression was public or personal, that his autobiographical sketch inevitably became an exemplification of the existential self, its style and focus part of a self-definition that even a self-serving situation could not entirely undermine."

Kaplan is fascinating, and teaches the reader a great deal about Lincoln's literary and intellectual depth. Having been raised in Central Illinois on a diet of Lincolniana, and having been a casual student of Lincoln for over 50 years, I was disappointed in 3 areas:

1. Kaplan uses phrases like "Lincoln had to have read" or "must have known" to attribute knowledge and feelings that Kaplan would LIKE Lincoln to have had, but for which he cites no specific quotes or sources. Kaplan is engaging in historical analysis, not fiction or speculation, and such attributions are inappropriate.

2. Kaplan ignores Lincoln's "Lost Speech" of May 29, 1856 (although he notes Lincoln's reference to Henry Clay's "lost speech" in Lincoln's eulogy of Clay). Why is this relevant? Kaplan points out that Lincoln rarely spoke extemporaneously. The 1856 Lost Speech, given at the convention founding the Republican Party in Illinois, was apparently radical and inflammatory, and would likely have been seen as an unveiled threat by many in the South. It is highly likely that Lincoln spoke from a prepared manuscript (the speech was long and reportedly well organized), yet no manuscript has ever been found, and contemporary reports claimed that "reporters dropped their pens" in awe, i.e., that no one recorded the speech. It is more likely that Lincoln and his fellow infant Republicans realized that widespread dissemination of the speech would have had a withering effect on the prospects for their new party. Kaplan, had he analyzed this event, might have been able to give us more insight into Lincoln's complexity and shrewdness.

3. Kaplan teaches Lincoln history, and clearly is a master of the speeches and other works of Lincoln. The average reader (such as me) has not the benefit of recalling Lincoln from memory. Especially concerning the Gettysburg Address and the Second Inaugural, Kaplan's discussion would have benefited by giving us the actual texts -- neither speech is long -- so that we could better appreciate Lincoln's sharp logic, political savvy, and linguistic excellence. After more than 143 years, the Gettysburg Address remains one of the most moving pieces of English-language prose ever written, and can never be reprinted too often.

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.

An exploration of the effects of being articulate, well-spoken and obsessed with learning is especially relevant after watching Obama use those three traits to take the presidency. It's the author's point that Lincoln's log cabin story has obscured how impressive a writer and speaker he really was. More importantly, we forget that with the exception of Theodore Roosevelt we've never really had a president before with equal deftness in reading, writing and speaking. Normally they are good at one and abysmal at the others. There's a part in the book where he takes one of Lincoln's speeches and lays it out into a poem. It's just one example but an incredible way to make the book's central point: that Lincoln's understanding of the English language and the power of persuasion were so impressive they we're not even aware that he was using them.

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!

Lincoln loved words. Fred Kaplan's fascinating book shows how that love came to be and how it served him well throughout his life. What amazed me most is how Lincoln became so educated from such humble beginnings. He had few books to read growing up but he loved every one and read them multiple times. He became a young man at a time when writing skills were a commodity. He turned his talent into a career as a lawyer, largely by writing legal documents for a fee. I also did not know about Lincoln's love for poetry. It was fascinating to read some of his poems. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys Lincoln but has never looked at him from the writer's perspective. This is also a great book if you love political speech. Lincoln was a master, and this book shows how that mastery came to be.

This is the second book on Lincoln as a writer I have read this year and I have to say that this was the better of the two. Fred Kaplan spends a large part of the book exploring Lincoln's childhood and growth into adulthood to really help the reader understand the influence of education and language on Lincoln's life and career. After this, you have an excellent understanding of what language meant to Lincoln and also how what he read as he matured heavily influenced his writing and thinking as President. All in all a great balance of biography and writing analysis.