Book Review: The Lincoln Anthology
The Lincoln Anthology: Great Writers on His Life and Legacy from 1860 to Now
This diverse anthology was edited by Harold Holzer, and contains writings on Abraham Lincoln from 95 different authors.
The first thing I noticed about this book was what a great mix of authors are included. It isn’t a collection of essays by historians. Some of names that jumped out include Walt Whitman, Victor Hugo, Irving Stone, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Ralph Waldo Emerson. Some of the authors included really surprised me, including Karl Marx, Allen Ginsberg, and Bram Stoker.
The anthology is pieced together from letters, notes, poems, speeches, and fiction. And I think that is the point - to have wider view what people thought about Lincoln and how he influenced the world. Perhaps the greatest benefit I found was a greater understanding of how Lincoln’s image changed over time. I had never read much writing on Lincoln outside of books written in the last twenty years. The early writings are a living portrait, while the later ones show Lincoln’s growing legend.
I tend to be impressed with the works put out by The Library of America. This is a great book, in both package and contents.
The Library of America has some extras available on the their website (all PDFs):
- An interview with the editor.
- Excerpt - Walt Whitman on Abraham Lincoln
- Excerpt - Robert Russa Moton, Draft of Speech at the Lincoln Memorial (1922)
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This book is also included in the 2700-page 3-volume box set called The Lincoln Bicentennial Collection. The other two books in the set are Abraham Lincoln: Speeches and Writings 1832–1858 and Abraham Lincoln: Speeches and Writings 1859–1865.
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