Month: November 2018

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Some Lesser Known Parts of Kowloon, Hong Kong

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On the Kowloon side of Hong Kong, where you can even get dim sum from a food truck.

Where you wear a suit to class after work.

Where construction scaffolding is made of bamboo.

And the art is massive.

A light dim sum lunch.

Drawing at the local park.

Schooling starts early.

Quick stop to protect the Universe.

Did you see that?

Tai Chi

Hong Kong is so busy that 10 pm on any street looks like New Year in Times Square.

David J. Kent is an avid science traveler and the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, in Barnes and Noble stores now. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World and two e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

Check out my Goodreads author page. While you’re at it, “Like” my Facebook author page for more updates!

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Illinois – Dan Fogelberg and Abraham Lincoln in Peoria

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Dan Fogelberg, Peoria, Illinois“Will it play in Peoria?” It did. They did. And I did. How a Chasing Abraham Lincoln tour turned into a pilgrimage to the singer Dan Fogelberg.

The turn of phrase has its roots in the vaudeville era, where traveling vaudeville acts knew if they played well in Peoria, which at the time reflected the diversity of the nation as a whole with respect to race, income, age, rural, urban, and educational background. Peoria became the first stop on national tours – if it played well there it likely would play well all over the country. This was true not only for vaudeville acts, but for test marketing consumer products and politics too.

Abraham Lincoln gave one of his most famous speeches in Peoria, and certainly one of his most powerful speeches on the wrongs of slavery. The speech has been studied by many Lincoln scholars and was the focus of an entire book by Lewis E. Lehrman, Lincoln at Peoria: The Turning Point. I visited Peoria on Part 2 of my Chasing Abraham Lincoln tour, where I saw several Lincoln statues and related sites.

While there I made sure to head for the memorial grove in Riverfront Park where three large stones remember Dan Fogelberg. Fogelberg, one of my favorite performers, was born and raised in Peoria. His mother was a classical pianist, his father the local high school band director. Dan wrote the song “Leader of the Band” to honor his father; I used it as a framework for a dedication to my own father. Besides singing the vocals (including multitracking background harmony), Dan played many instruments, notably guitar (acoustic, 12-string, electric), bass, piano, and mandolin. He was a talent beyond the norm. He had commercial success, but I think the songs I love the most are those that tell stories that develop over time not conducive to the radio crowd.

Lyrics from three of Dan’s songs are etched into the three memorial stones. A park bench has been added and features a quote from Dan about why he was a musician. Unfortunately, Dan died in late December 2007 from prostate cancer. I was lucky enough to see him three times in concert and listened to him this morning while exercising on the elliptical. He is still a part of my life (along with Lincoln, of course).

Among Dan’s many amazing songs is a tribute to his home state, “Illinois,” from his Souvenirs album released in 1974. While I’m not a native of Illinois, I thought of Dan’s song as I realized how many Lincoln sites and statues I missed on my Chasing Abraham Lincoln tours.

And it looks like you’re gonna
Have to see me again
…
Illinois, oh, Illinois.
Illinois, I’m your boy.

As I write this there is a blizzard raging in Fogelberg/Lincoln country, so Part 3 of my Chasing Abraham Lincoln tour will have to wait until spring. But be prepared Illinois; it looks like you’re gonna have to see me again…

David J. Kent is an avid science traveler and the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, in Barnes and Noble stores now. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World and two e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

Check out my Goodreads author page. While you’re at it, “Like” my Facebook author page for more updates!

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General and Chief at the Lincoln Forum

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Lincoln Forum logo by Wendy AllenThe annual Lincoln Forum in Gettysburg is in the books and we have a new General, get to keep the Chief, and took a few steps into the future. Oh, and we had some great speakers, a ton of Lincoln humor, and even a few spirits (the dead kind).

This was the 23rd annual Lincoln Forum and the last in with “The Chief” in command. The Chief is Frank Williams, whose moniker stems from his time as Chief Justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court. Frank, along with Harold Holzer, founded the Lincoln Forum about 24 years ago and have served as Chair and Vice Chair since its inception. That is, until now. Frank has stepped down as Chair while Harold has stepped into the General role. A new Vice Chair was voted in – Jonathan W. White, current President of the Abraham Lincoln Institute, prolific author, and Professor at Christopher Newport University in Virginia. We will all miss Frank (though he will remain active under his new Emeritus status), but we’re in superb hands under Harold’s continuing leadership and Jonathon’s new enthusiasm.

The weather toyed with the meeting agenda a bit, delaying some and cancelling others (alas, one speaker was in a car crash on his way east; he’s fine but his car isn’t so well). Luckily we have a great cast of Lincoln scholars able to step into the gap. One lesson learned – always have a presentation on a thumb drive ready to go in a pinch.

This year’s Forum included some celebrities of sorts. Not just the inimitable George Buss as President Abraham Lincoln (who most attendees agreed should run again, and soon), but stars of the Lincoln world. Edward Ayers led our opening night with his “Gettysburg and the Web of War.” George Saunders – yes, that George Saunders – not only talked about his best selling book, Lincoln in the Bardo, he led a performance of it with the help of five Forum volunteers. “The Bardo,” as we affectionately call it, is one of the more unique takes on the Lincoln story, both because it is fiction and because it brings in the voices of those lingering in the intermediate spaces between life and rebirth.

Not to be outdone, David W. Blight brought home the final keynote speech on the last night with his discussion of Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. Many of us know the highlights of Douglass’s life, from slave in Baltimore to free abolitionist to one of the greatest leaders of the African-American – and all American – community. Normally I focus on Lincoln himself, but Blight has inspired me to dig deeper into the life of Douglass as well. He was also nice enough to sign me copy of his book (plus quite a few copies for the other attendees as well).

We had many other speakers of course. From Andrew Delbanco (one of the highlights for sure) to Kate Masur (likewise) to Joseph Fornieri (doing a wonderful job as pinch hitter) to a panel on “Women in the Civil War” featuring Catherine Clinton, Candice Shy Hooper, and Edna Greene Medford. And we can’t forget the team of Abbott and Costello John Marszalek and Craig Symonds discussing the Ulysses S. Grant memoirs.

As the Forum officially ended, many attendees stayed to attend the annual Remembrance Day activities at the nearby Gettysburg Battlefield. George Buss as Abraham Lincoln read the Gettysburg Address and the crowd embraced the overwhelming mixed feelings of sorrow and rebirth that this hallowed ground reflects.

I can’t wait for next year’s Forum (check out www.thelincolnforum.org for details). Please join us.

[Photo Credit: Lincoln Forum logo leading this piece is designed by the incomparable Wendy Allen. Check out her other Lincoln designs at www.lincolnintoart.com]

David J. Kent is an avid science traveler and the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, in Barnes and Noble stores now. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World and two e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

Check out my Goodreads author page. While you’re at it, “Like” my Facebook author page for more updates!

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Abraham Lincoln and the Gettysburg Address

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Lincoln: The Man Who Saved AmericaUnion victories were coming more frequently in the late summer and fall of 1863, although not universally, as a loss at Chickamauga and the New York draft riots would attest. But now it was time for a more somber occasion.

Because so many soldiers had perished during the three-day battle at Gettysburg, a committee was set up to dedicate a cemetery to those who died there. Committee chairman David Wills invited the President to offer “a few appropriate remarks” to “formally set apart these grounds to their sacred use.”

On a chilly November 19, Lincoln addressed the crowd after the oration by keynote speaker Edward Everett. Lincoln sat on the speaker’s platform and listened to an opening prayer, music from the Marine Band, and Everett’s two-hour discourse on “The Battles of Gettysburg.” Following another short hymn sung by the Baltimore Glee Club, Lincoln rose to speak. He finished a mere two minutes later, so fleeting that many in the crowd largely missed his dedicatory remarks.

While Everett’s much longer keynote, resplendent with neo-classical references and nineteenth-century rhetorical style, was well received, generations of elementary school students have memorized Lincoln’s brief address. The irony of Lincoln observing “the world will little note nor long remember what we say here” is not lost on history.

Lincoln’s remarks were designed both to dedicate the cemetery and redefine the objectives of the ongoing Civil War. The “four score and seven years ago” sets the beginning of the United States not at the Constitution, but the 1776 signing of the Declaration of Independence, where “all men are created equal.” Those ideals were under attack, “testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.” After honoring the men who “struggled here,” Lincoln reminds everyone still living what our role must be:

It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

As he gave his address, Lincoln was already feeling the symptoms of variola, a mild form of smallpox, which kept him bedridden for weeks after his return to Washington. He eventually wrote out several copies of his address, including one sent to Everett to be joined with his own handwritten speech and sold at New York’s Sanitary Commission Fair as a fundraiser for wounded soldiers.

[The above is adapted from my book, Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, available in Barnes and Noble stores now.]

But wait, there’s more. This past year I made several “Chasing Abraham Lincoln” trips, including long road trips to Kentucky/Indiana and Illinois. Check out my Chasing Abraham Lincoln thread and scroll down for stories from the road.

 

 

David J. Kent is an avid science traveler and the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, in Barnes and Noble stores now. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World and two e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

Check out my Goodreads author page. While you’re at it, “Like” my Facebook author page for more updates!

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Abraham Lincoln Selfies

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Abraham Lincoln photoAbraham Lincoln was the first “selfie” nut. His first photograph was in 1846, taken only about seven years after the daguerreotype process was introduced worldwide. Talk about your early adopters. That first photograph was basically a class picture as the newly elected young Lincoln prepared to go to Washington for his one term as a U.S. Congressman.

One clarification that probably doesn’t need to be said but I’ll say it anyway. This wasn’t actually a “selfie” by our standards. Not only didn’t Lincoln take the photo of himself, but he was forced to stand, or in this case sit, perfectly still for up to several minutes while the silver coating on a copper plate was being exposed. Metal “head holders” and other props were often used to help the subject stay still long enough to avoid a blurry image. Later photos were taken with the more advanced, but also more fragile, glass plate method. And alas, no Instagram.

Abraham Lincoln photoLincoln went on to have at least 130 photographs taken during the remainder of his life, with the final solo photograph taken in early February of 1865. Two photographs were taken after this. One was a erratically focused crowd shot of him standing on the Capitol steps giving his second inaugural address on March 4, 1964. The other was an unauthorized photo of Lincoln laying in an open casket in New York City following his assassination.

Abraham Lincoln photoIn most of the photos Lincoln sits or stands alone. One has him sitting with his youngest son Tad standing beside him gazing down at the book open in Lincoln’s lap. Perhaps the most intriguing photos are the series taken by Alexander Gardner at Antietam during Lincoln’s post-battle visit to meet with General McClellan. In one, the lanky Lincoln and the diminutive McClellan stare down each other in a group photo with other generals.

Abraham Lincoln photoI write about Lincoln and his photographs for a few reasons. It was November 8, 1863 that Lincoln sat for a photo with his two secretaries, John Nicolay and John Hay, standing to either side. I have also recently read two books that look at the photographers most often associated with Lincoln and the Civil War: Matthew Brady and Alexander Gardner. The other of one of the books, Nicholas J.C. Pistor, will be a speaker at the upcoming Lincoln Forum in Gettysburg. The author of the second book, Richard S. Lowry, was a Forum speaker a few years ago. Both books are wonderful reads. I’m also including a section on Lincoln and photography in my “work-in-progress,” so I have a particular interest in this area.

David J. Kent is an avid science traveler and the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, in Barnes and Noble stores now. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World and two e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

Check out my Goodreads author page. While you’re at it, “Like” my Facebook author page for more updates!

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Science Traveling Through Time and Space

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Hong Kong Philippines Malaysia BruneiTraveling can take you back in time (as in, history)…or it can take you away in space (as in, geography; so far no actual space travel for me). I’m about to do both.

After close to two months without any substantive travel, I’m eager to get on the road again. And the air. And the sea. Upcoming trips will cover all of those.

First there is the annual Lincoln Forum in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, where I get to travel back in time. After a three day battle the previous July, Abraham Lincoln took a train to Gettysburg to deliver “a few appropriate remarks.” He was a bit of an afterthought for the event; the keynote speaker, noted orator Edward Everett, regaled the crowd with a two hour speech before Lincoln stood up to present his two minute address. Besides the usual cast of Lincoln scholars, the Forum will feature George Saunders, author of the unique and critically acclaimed bestseller, Lincoln in the Bardo. David Blight will also speak on his new book about African-American abolitionist Frederick Douglass.

Returning from Gettysburg only long enough to gas up the car, I’ll hit the road to visit the family in New England. I’ll cover some geographic distance, but this is only a prelude.

A few days after that I’ll be on a plane to Asia, where I’ll set to sea for two weeks. Starting in Honk Kong, the Star Legend (sister yacht to the Star Breeze we took around the Baltic Sea this summer) will zigzag among the islands of the Philippines, with stops in Hundred Islands, Manila, Boracay, Coron, and Palawan. Then on to Kota Kinabalu and Kuching, Malaysia on the island of Borneo, with a hop to the “Nation of Brunei, the Abode of Peace” (or simply, Brunei). The yacht finishes in Singapore, where we’ll stay a few days and probably take a side trip up to Kuala Lumpur.

So I’ll get to experience American history, international history, new and interesting cultures, and a whole lot of new geography. Oh, and hopefully monkeys since last year at this time I found out there are no monkeys in Australia.

More previews and recaps to come!

David J. Kent is an avid science traveler and the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, in Barnes and Noble stores now. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World and two e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

Check out my Goodreads author page. While you’re at it, “Like” my Facebook author page for more updates!