Abraham Lincoln

• Abraham Lincoln's inauguration, 1861
• I've been intrigued with Lincoln lately, and have enjoyed looking back to the history of his time. Especially considering the point in history we're at today in the wake of another historical inauguration. First, an excellent article about his speeches: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/man-of-his-words.html). Secondly, his autobiographies: http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/speeches/autobiog.htm. Lastly, a book I got for Christmas. I love coffee-table books, and this one is about the same size as our coffee table. "Looking for Lincoln: The Making of an American Icon," by Philip B. Kunhardt III. Thank you, Rachel!
• Lincoln's upringing was rough, backwoods, and maybe...Redneck? The article I linked above illustrates Lincoln's innate talent for language, so I was shocked to find out his education was informal, delayed, often interrupted and incomplete. He said of himself, "He regrets his want of education, and does what he can to supply the want." In contrast to our modern politicians with their speechwriters and teleprompters, Lincoln's speeches were his of his own composition. He may have used other people's ideas, but the enduring speeches, the ones carved in stone, are of his own design. His talent with language was like a diamond that emerged roughly and became surprisingly brilliant.
• Lincoln wrote three autobiographies upon request. "After he was twenty-three and had separated from his father, he studied English grammar--imperfectly, of course, but so as to speak and write as well as he now does." Those are the his words, speaking of himself in the third person. One of the autobiographies is fragmented and contains just 47 words. The other two are a bit longer, and add up to less than 4,000 words--shorter than a basic essay; you can read all three works in about ten minutes. Lincoln's tone is factual, humble and understated. He doesn't victimize himself, even though his father was awful man, and the family was dirt poor. If Lincoln's story had happened during the current memoir-saturated book market, he could have easily produced a cheesy bestseller.

• A while ago, they published the before & after pictures of George W. Bush, illustrating how dramatically he's aged during these years of war. Lincoln faced the same stresses as our leaders do today. Besides the dark years of the war, his past and his family situation was not too cheerful. A loveless father raised him, and a self-centered woman married him; their firstborn son died too young. Lincoln's story wasn't balanced out by tons of love and personal support. In fact, considering the positive changes he made in the world, the entire story rings a discord, as if it wasn't really meant to be over when he was shot.
• I'm impressed that Lincoln ending one of his writings by dismissing the details of his personal story: "What I have done since then is pretty well known." Maybe he knew that his life was so important that the details didn't matter, and that hundreds of others would write and re-write (and even blog about) his story.