Russo, William
Description
Abraham Lincoln has reached the pantheon of a handful of American mythic figures. Like Davy Crockett, Audie Murphy, John Kennedy, and a handful of oth
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ers, Lincoln has grown to be a giant in the national culture of the United States. Upon his death, Abe Lincoln transformed almost overnight from a beleaguered American president, struggling to keep a country from permanent division, to a nationUs paragon for sainthood. In this collection of classic histories, speeches, and stories, mostly from the 19th century, Lukeion has selected famous and overlooked examinations about the life and effect of Abraham Lincoln on his country, his friends, and posterity. The first of these is ABRAHAM LINCOLN by the famed poet James Russell Lowell (1819-1891). A contemporary of Lincoln, the poet came from the opposite end of America. Graduating from Harvard in 1838, he later rose to the exalted position of editor of the ATLANTIC MONTHLY when the Cambridge writers held sway over the literature of the nation. Yet, he recognized the impact, power, and importance, of Lincoln. His essays became influential on the intellectual life of the country, and his work on Lincoln proved a seminal biography. Our second work is by Helen Nicolay, daughter of Lincoln's close aide and friend, John George Nicolay. Like her father, she was inspired by the slain president--and chose to examine a part of LincolnUs life that might have great impact on the youth of the country: she chose to write A BOY'S LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. Though her work is hardly objective, a charge also leveled against the ten volume work by her father, Helen Nicolay's study comes from a unique perspective and provides a degree of insight from those who knew the Great Emancipator. Of Lincoln's own words, the collection provides three examples: his first Inaugural Address as well as the Gettysburg Address, the speech that changed America's view of itself. With his careful, sensitive prose, Lincoln's words immediately fell
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