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Staring Down Monitor Lizards at Coron, Philippines

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The monitor lizard was six feet long from nose to tail, maybe even longer. We were in the Philippines, and we were all staring at it.

Monitor lizard, Coron, PhilippinesA close relative of the somewhat larger and more famous Komodo Dragon, all monitor lizards belong to the genus Varanus, a word derived from the Arabic meaning “dragon” or my favorite, “lizard beast.” And what a beast he was (but in a good way).

On our recent tour through several Philippine islands we made a stop at Coron, which consists of a couple of big islands and around 50 other islets. The day was spent snorkeling both in Kayangan Lake, a mixed fresh and salt water body of water, and a tropical reef filled with fishes and corals. For lunch we took the outrigger to another part of the island for a nice beach picnic.

Perhaps that is what attracted the monitor.

After eating we noticed some rasping sounds behind us and suddenly there was this lizard, its tongue flicking out repeatedly in search for food. Virtually all monitor lizards are primarily carnivorous, although there are three arboreal (tree climbing) species in the Philippines that are fruit eaters. This one was not arboreal but strutting along the rocky gravel and sand looking for food. It may have smelled the crabs and fish and other delicacies we had just barbecued up, or maybe it was looking for other reptiles or amphibians…or even birds and small mammals. I’m suddenly reminded that humans are mammals and wondering what monitor lizards consider “small.”

This particular one graced our presence for about 20 minutes or so. At one point a stray cat – feral cats are everywhere in the Philippines – engaged in its own stare down with the monitor from a relatively safe rocky perch. We could tell the monitor was thinking about it, but then suddenly, a semi-feral dog raced into the scene and leaped onto the back of the monitor, which quickly shed its unwanted rider and sped into the crevices of the nearby rocks. The cat also jumped a mile in the air from the sudden intrusion and took off into the forest. Whether the dog was rescuing the cat or simply felt ignored by all the people gazing at the monitor is unclear, but after about 10 minutes searching fruitlessly for the lizard among the rocks, it slowly made its way back to the beach.

And so ended our monitor moment. This was the first monitor lizard seen on the trip, but not the last. A day later another was wondering near our stop off for the underground river on the Philippine island of Palawan. Then we spotted another in the mangrove forest of Brunei (where we also saw a proboscis monkey, but more on the monkeys later). Monitor lizards are oviparous, meaning they lay eggs, as few as seven and as many as three dozen at a time. We didn’t see any nests, but there is plenty more to talk about so look for future posts on monitors and other Philippine flora and fauna.

 

Fire of Genius

Lincoln: The Fire of Genius: How Abraham Lincoln’s Commitment to Science and Technology Helped Modernize America is available at booksellers nationwide.

Limited signed copies are available via this website. The book also listed on Goodreads, the database where I keep track of my reading. Click on the “Want to Read” button to put it on your reading list. Please leave a review on Goodreads and Amazon if you like the book.

You also follow my author page on Facebook.

David J. Kent is President of the Lincoln Group of DC and the author of Lincoln: The Fire of Genius: How Abraham Lincoln’s Commitment to Science and Technology Helped Modernize America and Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America.

His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World and two specialty e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

 

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Thomas, Abraham Lincoln’s Father, Dies Today in 1851

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Abraham Lincoln seems to have had a falling out with his father later in life, rarely visiting once he had a family of his own. When Thomas passed away at the age of 73, Abraham was home tending to a sick wife and his rambunctious boys. Thomas died on January 17, 1851.

I recently visited Thomas Lincoln’s gravesite near Lerna, Illinois. Today there is a beautiful headstone marker noting Thomas Lincoln and his second wife, Lincoln’s stepmother, Sarah Bush Lincoln. It guards a small fenced area that also includes small individual markers at the foot of each of their graves.

Originally the Gordon Burial Ground, then the Shiloh Cemetery, and now called the Thomas Lincoln Cemetery, the gravesite sits next to the Shiloh Presbyterian Church on the way to the Lincoln Log Cabin State Historic Site. Abraham Lincoln visited his father’s grave shortly before heading to Washington to be inaugurated as our 16th president.

He would not have seen a grave marker. Likely no more than a rock marked the site at the time, a nephew said that Abraham placed a board with the initials T.L. during his visit. Whether that story is true or not, a permanent gravestone was not erected until 1880 after donations by local friends and Robert Todd Lincoln.

But that isn’t the end of the story, for the gravestone erected then is not the one passersby see today, unless they pay attention. The beautiful grey headstone most obvious to visitors was installed in 1924 by the Illinois Lions Club, with the two smaller footstones donated by the Kiwanis Club a year later. The more unassuming original marker sits in its own wrought iron fenced area about 50 yards from the modern marker. This small spire had been slowly chipped away by tourists seeking souvenirs, hence the need for a surrogate stone. A “Looking for Lincoln” sign sits in the small parking lot in back of the church, and only its readers are tipped off to the location of the original gravestone.

Thomas Lincoln grave, Lerna, IllinoisGeorge Balch, a local farmer and poet who knew Thomas and Sarah Lincoln, wrote a poem years later to bring public attention to the neglected condition of the grave. A portion graces the waymarker sign; the following presents the entire poem.

I
In a low, sweet vale, by a murmuring rill,
The pioneer’s ashes are sleeping.
Where the white marble slabs are so lonely and still,
In the silence their vigil are keeping.

II
On their sad, lonely faces are words of fame,
But none of them speak of his glory,
When the pioneer died, his age and his name,
No monument whispers the story.

III
No myrtle, nor ivy, nor hyacinth blows,
O’er the lonely grave where they laid him;
No cedar, nor holly, nor almond tree grows
Near the plebian’s grave to shade him.

IV
Bright evergreens wave over many a grave
O’er some bow the sad weeping willow,
But no willow trees nor evergreens wave
Where the pioneer sleeps on his pillow.

Some are inhumed with honors of state
And laid beneath temples to moulder;
The grave of the father of Lincoln the great,
Is known by a hillock and boulder.

VI
Let him take his lone sleep, and gently rest,
With naught to disturb or awake him,
When the angels shall come to gather the blest
To Abraham’s bosom, they’ll take him.

Abraham would never see his stepmother again as she was too old to make the trip to Washington and President Lincoln never traveled back to Illinois. He was assassinated in office on April 14-15, 1865, days after the end of the Civil War. Sarah Bush Lincoln outlived her stepson, passing away on April 12, 1869.

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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Dinner with the Captain

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Windstar Star Legend Captain's dinnerOne of the many thrills from my most recent Windstar cruise was dinner with the Captain. Given that the Captain’s table – a large oval in the center of the dining room – seemed to sit empty throughout the cruise, the event was very special indeed.

By this time Ru and I had been on the Star Legend, one of Windstar’s three powered yachts and sister to the Star Breeze we took in the summer, for most of the two week cruise through the Philippines, Malaysia, and Brunei. It had been a busy day. An “at sea” day, I spent several hours in the bow Yacht Club writing about 2400 words of my new “historical science fiction” novel, which I had started earlier on the trip since I couldn’t lug all the research materials for my non-fiction Lincoln book. I also caught up on some long behind reading, which helped me reach my reading challenge goal for the year.

At lunchtime the ship offered Asian-style poke bowls on deck. Later we attended a cocktail party for yacht club members, who are people that have taken more than one Windstar cruise. This was our third cruise, and second one in 5 months, so we enjoyed complimentary wine and gourmet canapes while chatting with the other guests and crew. As we entered, the captain held the door for us. We would see him again shortly.

Captain Remi Eriksen met us outside the dining room and escorted us to the center table. Besides Ru and I, we were joined by a quartet from Melbourne, Australia and a couple from Ontario, Canada. We had been in Melbourne a year before so much of the discussion leaned in that direction for a while, then into Canada and general travel. And of course, Captain Eriksen regaled us with stories from the ship. A native of Norway but now living in Spain, Eriksen had only been captain of the Star Legend for two and half months. Prior to our boarding in Honk Kong, the Star Legend had encountered a typhoon off the coast of Vietnam. After we got off in Singapore there was a tsunami along the coast of Indonesia, where the Star Legend was headed. He certainly earned his captain’s bars.

Normally we would have a single glass of wine with dinner each night, but the waiters repeatedly swooped in to refill our glasses before they were empty. One of the benefits of dining with the captain, I thought, as I walked gingerly from the room.

It was a delightful evening and I gained an even greater appreciation for the great work the crew and staff of the ship do to keep the 200 passengers happy. So thank you Captain Eriksen and Windstar for a wonderful trip.

After we landed in Singapore, Ru and I realized that this was our third Windstar cruise, and all three had been on different ships. Our first was on the flagship, Wind Surf, a five-mast sailing ship for which the nightly “Sail Away” is especially heartwarming as the sails are raised to the sounds of Vangelis playing on the upper deck. We also realized that the three ships had gone to three different parts of the world – Caribbean (Wind Surf), Baltic Sea in northern Europe/Russia (Star Breeze), and Hong Kong/Philippines/Malaysia/Brunei/Singapore in the South China Sea (Star Legend). Windstar has a total of six ships, the three remaining include one more sister yacht to the Star Legend/Breeze, plus a pair of slightly smaller sailing ships. We’ve informally decided to plan our travel so we can cruise on all six of the Windstar fleet, and to six different parts of the world. Hey, you have to set goals.

We haven’t booked our next Windstar cruise yet but we have a few places in mind. Until then, bon voyage!

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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Nikola Tesla Has Died, January 7,1943

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Nikola Tesla portraitDuring his illustrious scientific career, Nikola Tesla developed many inventions that changed the world, including his unique design for a rotating magnetic field motor that enabled the use of alternating current on a commercial basis, wireless communication across vast distances, and even early “shadowgraphs,” precursors to X-rays. He also made forays into areas that, while he did not succeed in commercializing, set the stage for future developments, including wireless remote control of boats and other devices (robotics). Tesla did make some grandiose claims that did not come to fruition, the biggest of which included the wireless transmission of power through the Earth, plus a directed energy weapon. He also claimed to have communicated with intelligent beings from the planet Venus or Mars.

Tesla died peacefully during the night of January 7, 1943 in Room 3327 of the New Yorker Hotel in New York City, where he had lived in poverty the last ten years of his life. “The superman died as he had lived—alone,” his first biographer John O’Neill wrote shortly after Tesla’s passing. The local coroner declared his death to be from “natural causes incident to senility.”

At nearly eighty-seven years old this would normally be the end of the story, but this was 1943 and the United States was in the midst of World War II. Everyone was suspicious of everyone and fears of spies infiltrating the populace were routine. O’Neill perhaps planted the initial seed for conspiracies to grow when he wrote “operatives from the Federal Bureau of Investigation came and opened the safe in his room and took the papers it contained, to examine them for a reported important secret invention of possible use in the war.”

The stage was set for a series of mystery plays that continue to the present day.

[Adapted from my book, Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity. Chapter 8 looks at conspiracy theories following his death.]

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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The Year in Science Traveling – 2018

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Water Buffalo, Boracay, PhilippinesI was traveling. That’s my excuse for being a bit tardy on this wrap of the year in science traveling, 2018. And what a year of traveling it was, with 8 new countries visited, plus a lot of domestic travel. Click on the links for stories about some of the stops.

It was a bit of a slow start, with only one significant trip in the first 2-1/2 months. The end of January took me to Sanibel Island and Fort Myers, Florida to visit the Thomas Edison/Henry Ford Winter Estates, the Mote Marine Lab (in Sarasota), and explore nature on Sanibel. February and March kept me mostly local with tons of Lincoln-related events, including a weekend trip to Newport News for the annual Battle of Hampton Roads event (including touring the facility with none other than Abraham Lincoln).

In April it really got busy travel-wise, a condition that didn’t let up for the rest of the year. Early in the month I was scheduled to give a presentation in West Virginia, after which I was starting my Chasing Abraham Lincoln, Part 1 tour. At the last minute I had to scrap the whole trip and instead drive up to Massachusetts where my father had gone into the hospital. After my return, virtually every day was filled with some sort of event, plus a short trip to Fredericksburg for the annual CPRC meeting.

I finally was able to take my Chasing Abraham Lincoln, Part 1 trip in early May. This had originally been planned for March, then due to a huge snowstorm in my target area put off to April, which as mentioned above was again rescheduled at the last moment. The road trip took me down to Tennessee and Lincoln Memorial University, where I spent the day in the Abraham Lincoln Library and Museum. For the next 8 days I wound my up through Lincoln’s birthplace in Kentucky, his boyhood home in Indiana (with a day spent researching in the Allen County Public Library Lincoln Collection), then up to Michigan to see the actual chair Lincoln was sitting in when he was assassinated.

Windstar CruisesThe end of June put me on a Windstar Cruise into the Baltic Sea. Windstar specializes in small yacht cruises so we got to know the other 200 passengers well during the 11-day cruise. Starting in Copenhagen, we stopped in Bornholm, Poland, Lithuania, Estonia, Russia, Finland, the Aland Islands, and finally into Stockholm. Windstar offers such great cruises that this was the first of two we took in 2018.

Part 2 of my Chasing Abraham Lincoln tour took place in mid-July. Over 9 days I zigzagged my way around Illinois to see dozens of Lincoln statues, all 7 of the Lincoln-Douglas debate sites, and other key locations related to research for my next Lincoln book. I even got to see Lincoln and Douglas debate in person.

August took me back up to Massachusetts to visit my family. I made three trips up in 2018, and each time my father was in the hospital or rehab so I never saw him at home. On this one I also drove up to Maine to visit my brother who had become President/CEO of the Schoodic Institute, a non-profit associated with Acadia National Park. On my return I picked up my son for a week’s stay in the DC area.

Crater LakeThree days later we flew out to Oregon to begin a 10-day road trip in early September starting in Crater Lake, up the Oregon coast, through the Columbia River Gorge, into eastern Washington state, through Idaho and into Montana to spend a couple of days in Glacier National Park.

Okay, breathe. The rest of September and October was time to catch up at home and prepare for the next trips. No, we weren’t done by a long shot.

From mid-November until Christmas we didn’t stop. I drove up to Gettysburg for the annual Lincoln Forum conference. A day later I was driving to Massachusetts for the Thanksgiving holiday. Then few days after that we were again on a plane, this time flying to Hong Kong to board our second Windstar Cruise for the year. For 14 days we toured five different parts of the Philippines (Hundred Islands, Manila, Boracay, Coron, Palawan), two parts of Malaysia on the island of Borneo (Kota Kinabalu and Kuching), and the tiny country of Brunei (officially, “Nation of Brunei, The Abode of Peace”). After finishing the cruise in Singapore we spent a four days exploring the city that spawned the book and movie, Crazy Rich Asians.

I flew home from Singapore less than a week before Christmas while Ru flew on to Beijing to spend a few days with her family. When she returned on Christmas eve she was accompanied by her mother, who will spend the next three months visiting.

Clearly 2018 was a busy year. I estimate that I took between 10,000 and 15,000 photos in one year, and going through them is always a slow process. Regular readers of this page will have seen many of the trip posts I’ve done during the year and I’ll continue to write posts to catch up. How quickly that happens will depend on how much time my upcoming travel and writing allows.

So what about 2019? Trips are already booked for Costa Rica and Cuba and I am planning a Part 3 of Chasing Abraham Lincoln, proven necessary after I realized how much I missed on the previous two trips. I’ve had tentative plans to rent an apartment in Paris in the spring to do research for a forthcoming book, but so far haven’t done much to prepare for it. I’ll plan at least one family trip to New England with the likelihood it will end up being two or three trips. I’ll definitely be at the Lincoln Forum in Gettysburg. Where else I go is still rather fuzzy. Domestic options include a Southwest road trip, Chicago, Charleston, and various other Lincoln-related sites. International travel options currently on the radar include Iceland, Banff, Galapagos, and Antarctica/South America.

And somewhere in there I need to keep writing. I was able to write during sea days on both Windstar Cruises, but usually I’m so busy on travel that I can’t get much done on the road (other than writing about the current trip itself, which some day will be fodder for Bill Bryson-ish travel memoirs).

As Mark Twain wrote in Innocents Abroad:

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.”

Happy Science Traveling!

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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The Year in a Writer’s Life – 2018

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David J Kent, WriterThe year 2018 in a writer’s life was good. Well, kind of up and down, really. Okay, let’s just call it a year of transition. And that is actually a good thing.

This year was the first in which I published exactly zero new books since I started my writing career. My Tesla book came out in 2013; two e-books on Tesla and Tesla/Lincoln were released in 2014 and 2015, respectively; 2016 saw Edison; and 2017 was the year of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America. No new books doesn’t mean inactivity. New printings for Tesla and Lincoln were put into Barnes and Noble stores in 2018, and the rights for foreign editions padded my semiannual royalty checks.

I had planned for 2018 to be the year I started writing more for magazines and other freelance outlets, but my busy travel schedule and other distractions kept me from making much effort in that regard. I also didn’t follow through on my goal to enter writing competitions. For the same reasons, fewer blog posts here on Science Traveler and Hot White Snow passed through my typing fingers, and The Dake Page has been grossly neglected. I’ll spend more time on them in 2019.

But the really good news is that my work was wonderfully recognized on several fronts. In addition to the 8th printing of Tesla and 2nd printing of Lincoln, my Lincoln book received quite a few accolades. In 2018 it received its second nomination for book awards, was overwhelmingly selected as the very first book for the new Railsplitter podcast book club (3 podcasts and on-air interview), was chosen as a resource for the Illinois LEAD: Spirit of Lincoln Youth Academy Program, and received a published review in Civil War Times magazine. The book even got mentioned in a Chicago Tribune article on Lincoln scholarship.

The Railsplitter podcast wasn’t my only interview. I had the privilege of being interviewed on Facebook Live by Coffee Party founder and influential filmmaker Annabel Park. The interview, co-hosted with fellow scientist Bob Scheuplein, garnered over 11,000 views. Annabel recently suggested another interview on the topic of leadership, which will likely happen early in the new year. Also coming up in January will be an on-air interview about Nikola Tesla with the Voice of America. I also did a Reddit “Ask Me Anything” program this past January that was highly successful, plus was featured on C-SPAN for a presentation I gave at the Lincoln Group of DC.

While no new books came out in 2018, I do have several books in the works. I made progress on my new Lincoln book and hope to get it to a publisher this year. I also began the process for a book that I will edit, with chapters by various Lincoln scholars. I’m about halfway through a draft of a travel memoir. If that wasn’t enough to keep me busy, in December I wrote the first draft of a short story I’ll enter into a writing competition in January, as well as started writing a historical science fiction novel, my first real long-form fiction attempt.

So 2018 was a very good year even though I didn’t have any new books come out. The ones I’m working on now will be different from my earlier books, which were heavy on graphics and targeted a general reading public. My next Lincoln book(s) is more deeply scholarly on a specific subject, and the other books take inspiration from Bill Bryson and Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

My goals for 2019 include following through on more magazine and competition writing. I’m off to a good start as I’ve already submitted a short piece that should be published in Civil War Times soon and the first contest submission date I’m shooting for is mid-January. I’ll focus on getting the Lincoln book out the door, with the others being squeezed into “free” time for future release. Meanwhile, I’ll continue traveling (I already have trips booked to Costa Rica and Cuba) and make more of an effort to write travel-related magazine articles. I’ll also continue to be highly active in the Lincoln Group of DC. More on those topics in later posts.

Several unexpected deaths of colleagues, relatives, and friends this year reinforced the idea that our lives are fleeting and we must make every effort to enjoy the time we have on this earth. So from me to you, set your goals high, live life, and love all.

Happy New Year! May 2019 exceed your greatest imagination!

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 Book Acquisitions for 2018

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Lincoln book towerMy Abraham Lincoln book collection continues to grow, quickly filling the new library space I created last year. I acquired 69 new Lincoln books in 2018. This compares to 59 in 2017, 43 in 2016, and 59 and 60 books obtained in 2015 and 2014, respectively. My big year was the 98 books in 2013.

The oldest book acquired was published in 1893, while the newest book was officially published in 2019 (released in December 2018). Of the 69 books, 10 were new books published in 2018 (plus the one 2019 official date). I was able to find books from a variety of places. In addition to the usual Amazon/Barnes and Noble, books came to me from various library books sales, used book stores (including Bob’s Bookstore in Charleston, IL), and at stops during my two big Chasing Abraham Lincoln road trips. I also picked up books at the annual Lincoln Forum in Gettysburg, PA, plus won a couple of books in the Lincoln Group of DC and Civil War Round Table of DC raffles.

The list of books follows my signature block. Among them are some unique examples of Lincoln scholarship: Lincoln and the Irish by Niall O’Dowd; They Knew Lincoln by John Washington (originally published in 1942 and reprinted in 2018 with an introduction by Kate Masur); a set of five small booklets with new Introductions by preeminent Lincoln scholars; and Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Leadership in Turbulent Times. Look for my published review of Goodwin’s book in the next issue of Civil War Times magazine.

Several of the books are signed and inscribed to me by their authors. Both Anna Gibson Holloway and Jonathan W. White inscribed my copy of their book, Our Little Monitor, during the annual Battle of Hampton Roads conference this year. I’m doubly honored because Anna says it was the very first book she has ever signed for a fan. During the Lincoln Forum I was happy to have conversations with and get my copies of their books inscribed by David Blight (Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom), Kate Masur (They Knew Lincoln), and Harold Holzer (Monument Man: The Life & Art of Daniel Chester French). French, of course, is the man who created the iconic statue of Lincoln that graces the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.

I’m sure I’ll continue to collect dozens of new (and new to me) Lincoln books in 2019. My new library shelves seem to be filling up rather quickly, so I may have to start planning where I’m going to put the overflow. Maybe I need to buy a bigger house.

I’m hard at work on my new Abraham Lincoln book, plus beginning the process of editing a compendium volume for the Lincoln Group of DC. If that wasn’t enough, on my most recent travel to Asia I started writing a historical science fiction novel featuring Lincoln and his science adviser, Joseph Henry. My previous Lincoln book, Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, is into a second printing and available at Barnes and Noble stores nationwide.

Also, if you’re not already a member of the Lincoln Group of DC, please consider joining. In addition to the monthly dinner meetings with Lincoln scholar presentations, we have a monthly Lincoln book study group, periodic special events, tours, and more. And with a new year approaching, we’re planning to introduce even more to our members, including new activities for students and non-scholars. Take a look at our Lincoln Group of DC website and contact me or any of the other officers for more information.

Finally, a reminder that I’ve begun something I call the Abraham Lincoln Bibliography Project in which I plan to catalog the known books about Abraham Lincoln. I’ll include only actual books, not other documents and not pamphlets. As the website develops I’ll add a searchable database, book reviews, lists of books by topic (e.g., assassination, general biography, law career), and summary papers for those topics. The idea is to create a useful resource for both Lincoln researchers and the general public. Check out the blog and stay tuned.

See the 2017 list showing author/title/publication date below my signature blurb below.

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!

Here is the 2018 list! [Author, Title, Date of Publication]

Abraham Lincoln: A Living Legacy: A Guide to Three Abraham Lincoln National Park Sites 2008
The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln: A Tribute of the Nations 2009
Lincoln: Legacy of the Great Emancipator (Intro by Edna Greene Medford) 2009
Lincoln and His Critics (Intro by Eric Foner) 2009
Lincoln as Self-Made Man (Intro by Catherine Clinton) 2009
Lincoln as American Redeemer (Intro by Harold Holzer) 2009
Lincoln as Literary Genius (Intro by Ted Widmer) 2009
Abrams, Dan and Fisher, David Lincoln’s Last Trial: The Murder Case That Propelled Him to the Presidency 2018
Alter, Donald R. The Lincoln Legend and Other Programs 1956
Arnold, Isaac N. The Life of Abraham Lincoln 1893
Baker, C.T. Sand Creek Landing Greets the Lincolns: An Historical Sketch of Pioneer Days in This Community and County 1931
Blight, David W. Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom 2018
Burlingame, Michael Lincoln and the Civil War 2011
Burstein, Andrew Lincoln Dreamt He Died: The Midnight Visions of Remarkable Americans From Colonial Times to Freud 2013
Carwardine, Richard Lincoln’s Sense of Humor 2017
Carwardine, Richard and Sexton, Jay (Eds) The Global Lincoln 2011
Chapman, Ervin Latest Light on Abraham Lincoln and War-time Memories 1917
DeRose, Chris The Presidents’ War: Six American Presidents and the Civil War That Divided Them 2014
Donald, David Herbert (ed) Inside Lincoln’s Cabinet: The Civil War Diaries of Salmon P. Chase 1954
Fornieri, Joseph R. The Language of Liberty: The Political Speeches and Writings of Abraham Lincoln 2003
Fraysse, Olivier (translated by Sylvia Neely) Lincoln, Land, and Labor, 1809-60 1994
Freehling, William W. Becoming Lincoln 2018
Furtwangler, Albert Assassin on Stage: Brutus, Hamlet, and the Death of Lincoln 1991
Goodwin, Doris Kearns Leadership in Turbulent Times 2018
Gross, Ruth Belov True Stories About Abraham Lincoln 1973
Guelzo, Allen C. Abraham Lincoln as a Man of Ideas 2009
Guttridge, Leonard F. and Neff, Ray A. Dark Union: The Secret Web of Profiteers, Politicians, and Booth Conspirators That Led to Lincoln’s Death 2003
Hogan, Michael Abraham Lincoln and Mexico: A History of Courage, Intrigue, and Unlikely Friendships 2016
Holloway, Anna Gibson and White, Jonathan W. Our Little Monitor: Theh Greatest Invention of the Civil War 2018
Holmes, Fred L. Abraham Lincoln Traveled This Way: The Log Book of a Pilgrim to the Lincoln Country 1930
Holzer, Harold Monument Man: The Life & Art of Daniel Chester French 2019
Jepsen, Thomas C. My Sisters Telegraphic: Women in the Telegraph Office, 1846-1950 2000
Johnson, David Alan The Last Weeks of Abraham Lincoln: A Day-By-Day Account of His Personal, Political, and Military Challenges 2018
Kauffman, Michael W. American Brutus: John Wilkes Booth and the Lincoln Conspiracies 2004
Kauffman, Michael W. In the Footsteps of an Assassin: An Illustrated History and Guided Tour of the Lincoln Assassination and Escape Route of John Wilkes Booth 2012
King, C.J. Four Marys and a Jessie: The Story of the Lincoln Women 2005
Larson, Kate Clifford The Assassin’s Accomplice: Mary Surratt and the Plot to Kill Abraham Lincoln 2008
Lehrman, Lewis E. Lincoln & Churchill: Statesmen at War 2018
Maihafer, Harry J. War of Words: Abraham Lincoln & The Civil War Press 2001
McGinnis, Ralph Y. and Smith, Calvin N. (Eds) Abraham Lincoln and the Western Territories 1994
McPherson, James M. (Ed) “We Cannot Escape History”: Lincoln and the Last Best Hope of Earth 1995
Morris, Roy Jr. The Long Pursuit: Abraham Lincoln’s Thirty-Year Struggle With Stephen Douglas For The Heart and Soul of America 2008
Nathan, Adele Gutman The First Transatlantic Cable 1959
Neely, Mark E. Jr. The Boundaries of American Political Culture in the Civil War Era 2005
Neely, Mark E. Jr. Lincoln and the Democrats: The Politics of Opposition in the Civil War 2017
Nicolay, Helen The Boys’ Life of Abraham Lincoln 1933
Niebuhr, Gustav Lincoln’s Bishop: A President A Priest, and the Fate of 300 Dakota Sioux Warriors 2014
North, Sterling Abe Lincoln: Log Cabin to White House 1956
O’Dowd, Niall Lincoln and the Irish: The Untold Story of How the Irish Helped Abraham Lincoln Save the Union 2018
Ostendorf, Lloyd Abraham Lincoln: The Boy, The Man 1962
Pitch, Anthony S. They Have Killed Papa Dead! The Road to Ford’s Theatre, Abraham Lincoln’s Murder, and the Rage for Vengeance 2018
Pratt, Harry E. Concerning Mr. Lincoln: In Which Abraham Lincoln is Pictured as he Appeared to Letter Writers of his Time 1944
Puleo, Stephen The Caning: The Assault That Drove America to Civil War 2012
Randall, J.G. Lincoln and the South 1946
Ross, Ishbel The President’s Wife: Mary Todd Lincoln 1973
Segal, Charles M. (Editor, Compiler and Annotator) Conversations with Lincoln 1961
Simon, John Y., Holzer, Harold, and Vogel, Dawn (Eds) Lincoln Revisited 2007
Speed, Joshua Fry Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln, And Notes on a Visit to California 2014
Starr, John W., Jr. Lincoln and the Railroads 1927
Stephenson, Nathaniel Wright Lincoln 1922
Striner, Richard Lincoln’s Way: How Six Great Presidents Created American Power 2012
Tackach, James Lincoln and the Natural Environment 2019
Tucker, Wilson The Lincoln Hunters 1958
Turner, Justin G. and Turner, Linda Levitt Mary Todd Lincoln: Her Life and Letters 1987
Villard, Harold G. and Oswald Garrison Lincoln on the Eve of ’61: A Journalist’s Story by Henry Villard 1941
Washington, John E. with introduction by Kate Masur They Knew Lincoln 2018
Weaver, John D. Tad Lincoln: Mischief-Maker in the White House 1963
White, Ronald C. Jr. A. Lincoln: A Biography 2009
Abraham Lincoln 1958

 

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An Abraham Lincoln Christmas

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A few days before Christmas 1864, Abraham Lincoln received a Christmas present from General William T. Sherman – capture of the city of Savannah, Georgia. Lincoln was pleased, but continued to work through Christmas day on the business of running the government during war time. As I had written previously:

President Abraham Lincoln sent no Christmas cards and set up no Christmas tree. Of course, Christmas itself didn’t become a national holiday until President Ulysses S. Grant signed a congressional bill into law in 1870.

As a young state legislator in 1834, Lincoln voted against making Christmas a state holiday. Throughout his life, Christmas was a normal day at the office. That wasn’t unusual. Up until the mid 1800s, Christmas was celebrated with church services, not parties and presents, which were seen as unchristian.

Perhaps ironically given today’s current affairs, on Christmas day 1863 Lincoln wrote to Bayard Taylor, who had just returned from his post as secretary of legation in St. Petersburg, Russia. Lincoln suggested:

I think a good lecture or two on “Serfs, Serfdom, and Emancipation in Russia” would be both interesting and valuable. Could not you get up such a thing? Yours truly A. LINCOLN.

A few days earlier, Lincoln offered a more Lincolnesque example of goodwill and charity when he wrote a letter only recently revealed. In it he provides for Mr. and Mrs. Craig, cousins to Mrs. Lincoln, to return to their plantation in Arkansas after the area had been reclaimed by Union forces, solely to live out their final days in the home that had been in their family for years, and without the slaves they previously owned. Mr. Craig died shortly after their return; Mrs. Craig two years later. This gesture of compassion by Lincoln during a time of war “affords a glimpse of what Reconstruction would have been like had Lincoln lived.”

Even though Christmas was a work day for Lincoln, that hasn’t stopped history from adding him to the Christmas theme. Thomas Nast became famous during the Civil War as a prolific illustrator and cartoonist for Harper’s Weekly magazine. It was Nast who first introduced Santa Claus (aka, Father Christmas) as a recruiting tool for the Union army. Other illustrators showed Lincoln enjoying toys and stockings with his children, and pulling them on a sled. Modern commercialization has him featured on the traditional “ugly Christmas sweater,” dressed up in Santa hats, and as Christmas ornaments. In 1999, the White House featured Abraham Lincoln on their official holiday ornament.

If Lincoln were alive today, he most assuredly would have offered his Hanukkah greetings and given a Christmas message of hope and faith.

In his absence I wish to do the same. Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas, Happy Kwanzaa, and all my best wishes for a Happy and Productive New Year!

Safe travels, wherever life takes you.

Lincoln in New England book cover

Coming in March 2026: Lincoln in New England: In Search of His Forgotten Tours

Also see – Lincoln: The Fire of Genius: How Abraham Lincoln’s Commitment to Science and Technology Helped Modernize America.

Join me on Goodreads, the database where I keep track of my reading. Please leave a review on Goodreads and Amazon if you like the book.

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David J. Kent is Immediate Past President of the Lincoln Group of DC and the author of Lincoln: The Fire of Genius: How Abraham Lincoln’s Commitment to Science and Technology Helped Modernize America and Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America.

His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World and two specialty e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

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Crazy Rich Singapore

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One of 2018’s surprise hits was a movie called “Crazy Rich Asians,” based on the book by Kevin Kwan. Much of the action takes place in Singapore. Now I can see why.

Here are a few highlights of my recent trip. More to come once I sort through over 3000 photos.

More soon.

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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A few mosques in Malaysia and Brunei

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Brunei is a strict Muslim country and filled with mosques. I also saw mosques in Malaysia. Here’s some quick views.

More coming soon!

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!