Lincoln: The Biography of a Writer

(Paperback)

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"Fred Kaplan's Lincoln offers penetrating insights on Lincoln's ability to explain complex ideas in language accessible to a broad range of readers and listeners." - James M. McPherson, The New York Review of Books "A fine, invaluable book...Certain to become essential to our understanding of the 16th president...Kaplan meticulously analyzes how Lincoln's steadily maturing prose style enabled him to come to grips with slavery and, as his own views evolved, to express his deepening opposition to it." - Jonathan Yardley, The Washington Post Book World Fascinating...persuasive [and] highly perceptive." - Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times From acclaimed biographer Fred Kaplan comes an illuminating look at the life of Abraham Lincoln that chronicles his genius with language.

Reviews

"Absorbing." -- Leon Wieseltier, The New Republic "Lively... Kaplan does a good job of tracing the young man's reading habits, identifying favorite books and noting their influence on the mature politician... Powerful and convincing... Kaplan is a biographer on a mission." -- The Los Angeles Times

Author Bio

Fred Kaplan is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of English at Queens College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He is the author of Lincoln: The Biography of a Writer, which was named a Best Book of the Year by the New York Times and Washington Post, among other publications. His biography of Thomas Carlyle was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Pulitzer Prize. He lives in Maine.