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Father Lincoln, The Biography of a Writer, by Fred Kaplan This book isn't really about Abraham Lincoln. It's about Fred Kaplan The book reads like an overlong doctoral dissertation in which Kaplan uses a thin thread of history to string together his ruminations about writing and literature. Whether dealing with Lincoln's early schooling, years of self-study, or his Gettysburg Address, the author speculates about which of Lincoln's readings must have been on his mind at the moment. Whatever the historic event or family situation, Kaplan dwells on to what degree Lincoln's words were influenced by Aesop, Chaucer, Emerson, Gray, Goldsmith, Shakespeare, Wordsworth, et al. One example: "Stopping in mid-sentence, Lincoln gives his essay an eerie though unintended similarity to the many purposeful fragments in Romantic poetry, evoking the most controversial Romantic process poem, Coleridge's 'Kubla Khan,' a type that exemplifies the Romantic belief that process is all there is." Another example: "From early on, he had embraced language as the necessary condition for public and personal discourse. He had established himself both as a consumer of other people's language and as a creator of language, the usual symbiotic connection between the reader as writer and the writer as reader." The author makes excessive us of speculation and mind-reading: "He may have realized" . . . "It may have seemed to him" . . . "If Lincoln was whistling in the dark . . ." Although acknowledging that Lincoln read the Bible throughout his life and frequently quoted from it, and that the adult Lincoln "drew heavily on the Judeo-Christian language that had dominated his childhood," Kaplan repeatedly emphasizes his own belief that Lincoln was a Deist, not a Christian. Among the evidence he cites is Lincoln's frequent use of "Divine Providence" instead of "God." Kaplan contends that "[N]one of the Jesus-centered theology of his childhood world remained central to his adult life" but that he continued to use "the power of [its] poetic language." Throughout the book, the author finds occasion to imply that Lincoln used such religiously based language, because he knew it was effective with his audiences, not because of his own religious faith. Kaplan stops short of calling Lincoln a hypocrite, but it is hard not to infer that is what he means. Kaplan, himself, writes well. For one example, he summarizes Abe's troubled relationship with his wife, Mary: "She fell into the role of the shrew. He became a practitioner of patience, forbearance, and withdrawal." And, after writing about Lincoln's activity just before the assassination, his last sentence of the book: "Four days later his ability to exercise his gift for language and his mastery of words on this and all other subjects ended." This book adds no new insight into the personality of Abraham Lincoln for anyone who has read more than two books about him. A writer or reader, however, who enjoys literary interpretation for its own sake -- and what it reveals about the interpreter -- will find the volume interesting. Now comes Barack Obama . . .
Obama also loves words. I haven't read them, but I understand he wrote two autobiographical books years ago. Those books were well-written, I'm told. Well-written or not, since he had not yet attained any national prominence, writing them displays a degree of self-absorption which is a bit worrying. We won't know for at least a few months whether Obama can do much more than write well and give good speeches. In the meantime, not everyone feels compelled to praise his every use of words: From the United Kingdom comes this comment on Obama's inaugural speech. QUITE a day, but not much of speech unfortunately. Obama got where he is by speechifying, but this effort would not have won him many votes. It was his worst on a grand stage, though still better than most politicians could muster. The delivery, as ever, was first class, but the message was wasn't clear enough and the language not insufficiently inspiring. As soon as the applause had died down, an African American standing man near me on the Mall said to his friend: "I thought the speech was shit." Another woman said, correctly, that "we had heard it all before at other events". In a way Obama was a victim of his own success. Having given so many dynamic speeches he had set his own bar very high. What he tried to do at his inauguration was tell Americans that they had to sacrifice to make gains, while making them believe this was well within their capabilities. The emphasis on sacrifice was too weak however. To the disappointment of many black people in the crowd, he also made but one reference to the enormity of a black man occupying the White House for the first time. Obama has never laboured the issue of his race, but on this historic day the issue needed more. Jon Favreau, his co-writer, recently admitted that he had been pouring [poring] over previous inaugural speeches. That might have been a bad idea. Obama seemed weighed down by the past, and failed to seize the moment.Obama devotees have been desperately attempting to extract truly memorable passages from that speech, but they can't seem to agree which passages those might be.
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Daughter
Kaplan, Fred. Lincoln: The Biography of a Writer. New York: Harper, 2008. $27.95
In November, my son and his new wife and I visited my Dad in Royal Oak. During that visit my father returned to me a book I’d given him for his birthday, Lincoln: The Biography of a Writer. “Here,” he said, “You’ll probably be more interested in this book than I was.” On our drive home, my son’s new wife asked me, “Does your father often return gifts that you’ve given him?” The short answer is, “No. He does not.” However, after having now read this particular book myself, I fully understand its limited appeal for my Dad. In truth, the book’s highly speculative approach will limit its appeal for many. Kaplan tries to surmise which books Lincoln read; which books he memorized; which books he used in his own writing. As an English professor, I usually find such speculation interesting, illuminating even. However, Kaplan indulges in an insistent certainty that undercuts his own research. Perhaps this temptation—to speculate which books formed a President-- proves irresistible. Writing in the 19 Jan 2009 edition of The New York Times, Michiko Kakutani, writes about Obama’s reading choices. The title of the article makes his approach clear: From Books, New President Found Voice. Kakutani invokes the Kaplan book: “Lincoln, like Obama, was a lifelong lover of books. Indelibly shaped by his reading.” If this temptation to speculate about Presidential reading choices proves too strong, one might hope that the attempt to assign certainty to one’s speculations might be avoided. Kaplan cannot seem to avoid the second temptation. For example, early in Kaplan’s book, he discusses Lincoln’s exposure to Lindley Murray’s The English Reader and William’s Scott’s Lessons in Elocution. “Around 1825 he began immersing himself” in these books, Kaplan suggests. The author then boldly asserts these books “transformed” Lincoln. Kaplan makes similar assertions throughout his book. His rhetorical pattern has him mentioning a text that Lincoln may or may not have read. Then, Kaplan discusses the supposedly clear impact on Lincoln’s development as a writer. In discussing Lincoln’s written response to seeing Niagara Falls for the first time, Kaplan suggests that Lincoln’s words have “an eerie though unintended similarity to the many purposeful fragments in Romantic poetry, evoking the most controversial process poem, Coleridge’s Kubla Khan. . .” One last example—in laying out the Douglas-Lincoln tensions, Kaplan tells us: “With his linguistic template derived from models like Henry V rallying his troops at Agincourt, Lincoln emulated the distinctive intensity of Shakespearean language.” Such Kaplanesque flights of fancy, while purportedly anchored in rhetorical analysis, are merely speculative, at best, and plain silly, at worst. There’s another tendency at work here that leads me to believe Kaplan simply does not like Lincoln very much. Early on, Kaplan informs his readers that Lincoln was “attracted to off-color jokes. . . he told stories and used language appropriate only for male ears.” And that Lincoln enjoyed “the widely expressed frontier humor about same-sex relationships.” We are told Lincoln “engaged in slander” and that he had a “sharp tongue.” Further, his family “noted his biting tongue, his attraction to irony and sarcasm.” Kaplan suggests that the letter Lincoln writes as his father lay dying reflects “a manipulative use of language and signs of an unforgiving heart.” Many biographers, of course, address the flaws of their subjects. I’ve read books that point out Mother Theresa’s flaws. That biographical practice notwithstanding, an author needs to frame those flaws within the larger portrait of a life. Instead, Kaplan behaves much like the proverbial trial lawyer who says, “Let the record show.” Kaplan wants Lincoln’s flaws duly noted. The best part of Kaplan’s book comes in his representation of Lincoln’s sheer love of reading. His stepmother said of him, “he read all the books he could lay his hands on.” His half-sister said that he “read everything he could.” John Hanks said of the boy Lincoln, “When he went out to work any where he would carry his books and would always read while resting.” Lincoln came to be known as “that very big kid who seemed exceptionally smart and had an unusual liking for reading.” Kaplan describes the aspiring young lawyer who “spent much time reading a volume of Shakespeare, which he carried with him.” Kaplan likes using the term autodidact to describe Lincoln. And the term does fit a man who is largely self-taught. The word itself though can’t quite capture the more colorful picture that Kaplan does manage to paint. Our 16th President, whose 200th Birthday we celebrate this year, devoured books. He loved to read—plays; poetry; law; history; essays. He loved to talk to others about what he read. He was skilled at committing stories to memory and entertaining others with those tales. He savored the power and impact of words, carrying passages around in his soul and spirit. Kaplan falls short of his stated goal—discussing Lincoln’s development as a writer. He falls short because of his overly speculative approach. However, he does convey Lincoln’s lifelong love affair with the written word. Along the way, he provides glimpses of Lincoln’s personal life, which are of no small interest. Lincoln: The Biography of a Writer might not be the best birthday gift my Dad’s ever received, but the volume does shed some light on Lincoln’s reading habits. People who read Kaplan’s book might better appreciate Lincoln’s statement: “My best friend is someone who will give me a book I have not read.”
Anne Marie Versagi Drew, English Professor, US Naval Academy, Annapolis MD |