Sunday, December 28, 2008

Lincoln: "The Biography of a Writer" by Fred Kaplan

Some new things, for me, this author presented about Lincoln;

  • Lincoln's use of God, the Bible, and Christianity
  • According to this author's writing, Lincoln was not a Christian believer
  • Lincoln's purposeful planning; short and long-term
  • Lincoln spent a great deal of time on the legal circuit in order to be away from his wife. Lincoln met a lot of people during this time and develop a recognition that would not have probably happened otherwise. He was also able to speak before more groups and test his thoughts.
  • Lincoln wrote out his thoughts and planned almost everything he said publically

The book had more about "non-writing" based upon its title, but it does cause me to think more about how much Lincoln wrote and maybe read more about that aspect of his life. Mr. Kaplan is a Lincoln scholar and has written much about the subject of Lincoln. I would have rather read a smaller and more intense book just about Lincoln's writing style and subject matters than to have had to sort through all the history also.

Mr. Kaplan probably has a tilt of some sort about other, and more recent Presidents, that I'll look into. I say this because in his comparison's of Lincoln to other Presidents he left a gaping hole about Ronald Reagan. I'll check my source and confirm, or not, and make a comment back here.

I've read 3 or 4 other books about Lincoln and this, by far, but none of the others had much, if any, about Lincoln's thoughts and beliefs about God. Mr. Kaplan stepped out and was willing to discuss, at least a bit, openly.

So, did Mr. Kaplan succeed in what he set out to accomplish by writing this book?

In my opinion....No; not according to the title.

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