Lincoln, Fred Kaplan
Lincoln, Fred Kaplan
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Lincoln
The Biography of a Writer

Author: Fred Kaplan

Narrator: Dan John Miller

Unabridged: 21 hr 47 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download (DRM Protected)

Published: 11/01/2008


Synopsis

For Abraham Lincoln, whether he was composing love letters, speeches, or legal arguments, words mattered. In Lincoln, acclaimed biographer Fred Kaplan explores the life of America’s sixteenth president through his use of language as a vehicle both to express complex ideas and feelings and as an instrument of persuasion and empowerment. Like the other great canonical writers of American literature – a status he is gradually attaining – Lincoln had a literary career that is inseparable from his life story. An admirer and avid reader of Burns, Byron, Shakespeare, and the Old Testament, Lincoln was the most literary of our presidents. His views on love, liberty, and human nature were shaped by his reading and knowledge of literature. Since Lincoln, no president has written his own words and addressed his audience with equal and enduring effectiveness. Kaplan focuses on the elements that shaped Lincoln’s mental and imaginative world; how his writings molded his identity, relationships, and career; and how they simultaneously generated both the distinctive political figure he became and the public discourse of the nation. This unique account of Lincoln’s life and career highlights the shortcomings of the modern presidency, reminding us, through Lincoln’s legacy and appreciation for language, that the careful and honest use of words is a necessity for successful democracy. Illuminating and engrossing, Lincoln brilliantly chronicles Abraham Lincoln’s genius with language.

Author Bio

Fred Kaplan writes the "War Stories" column in Slate and has also written many articles on politics and culture in for the New York Times, the Washington Post, New York magazine, the Atlantic, Foreign Policy, and many other publications. A Pulitzer Prize winner and a former reporter for the Boston Globe, he is the author of 1959: The Year Everything Changed; Daydream Believers: How a Few Grand Ideas Wrecked American Power; and The Wizards of Armageddon. He graduated from Oberlin College and has a Ph.D. from M.I.T. Fred lives in Brooklyn with his wife.

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